Hi can anyone Help my husband and I have lived in the US for the past 2 years and now find that we have to leave as my job is ending we are British Citizens and moved here to work with my company - we are moving to Spain to be with friends and we are scheduled to move on the 4th of March - we have organised movers but they are now asking us to obtain a letter from the British Consulate in Chicago to confirm that we have lived in the US for the past 2 years How do you get through to them every number I try I cannot reach a human being to ask for the letter we need this to avoid spanish taxs etc Please can anyone point me in the right direction.

Hi

I moved to Barcelona last year from New York after having lived there for 2 years. All my stuff got cleared through UK customs no questions asked. If it’s the movers asking it should not be any of their business since you are the one clearing customs. If they need proof of residency, supply photocopies of you’re US residence visa or tax records. Even utility bills should suffice to build the case. We used the site pricebreakshipping.com to order our movers.

Cheers

Hi there,

We are going through this process but from Australia.  I read the customs note as being a letter from the Spanish Consulate sayiong we had been living here for over a year!  Not that it made any difference, still didn’t get a reply!

Hi Thank you for that.  We are struggling to get hold of the British Consulate to supply a letter confirming our residency in the US so I have asked if there is any other paperwork we can supply to the Spanish Customs our hurdle seems to be that we are not going into the UK with our house so to speak that is getting shipped straight to Spain.  We have been told that we will be charged alot of customs and taxes from spain if we do not get this letter could you confirm that for me?

cazzer,  My info is based on a Spanish Customs print out supplied by my moving company and dated Feb 2006.  (In the small print is a disclaimer saying they cannot be held responsible for anything in the print out!).  I considered moving household effects to UK and then to Spain because as EU citizens the Customs process was “easier”.  No lists to be translated etc.  However the costs were dearer.  My mover has recently sent household goods to Spain and France without any great dramas.  As regards the customs and taxes if you have a reasonable quantity of household goods they are duty free if they are “proportional to the social status of the importer”.  “They must be in the owners possession during 6 months at least and they must not be sold.”  Works of Art, antiques eyc may cause problems. 
As for your query, I don’t know if the lack of the certificate will increase taxes.  If you get there before me. let me know!

Hi thanks for that we were going to move to Uk first then go from there to Spain but were advised the less movement the better so we opted under guidance that it would be better to go direct to spain with our household items I am still struggling to get a reply from the British Consulate to get a letter but from what I have read in post to me surly the Visa that I have and our Tax returns and utilities should be enough to proove our residency here for the last two years I will keep you posted

I think the “Luck” we had was that our container went through the UK. On the other hand it took for ever due to backed up processing in the UK. It took close to 4 months due to them scanning every container. But once it was trough customs it came by trailer in 3 days and did not have to do any additional customs clearing.

If you have the choice and are shipping by sea send it through the UK. It’s less hassles since the UK customs don’t give a damn about spanish customs.

You are correct in theory.  The document legally required is a declaration from your embassy that you have terminated your residency in the US.  This allows you to directly import your goods into Spain without going through the UK.

In practice, we are US citizens and had no such document.  When our shipment arrived (a full 20’ container), at first the customs in Cadiz asked us to get a custom’s import form from the head office in Malaga.  But after much back and forth, they settled for a duty payment of ?570 and that saved us lots of hassle and paperwork.  However, there is no guarantee they will always resolve the situation in this way.

Your only sure recourse to paying no import duty is to get that paper from the British embassy in the US.  You had to originally register with the embassy when you arrived in order to get the termination of residence paper.

I and a UK citizen and moved from Baltimore to Madrid in 2005. My mover didn’t request any letter from me in the US however once my container was in Spain the agent of this end had to get it cleared through customs, we were entitled to move the items here free of tax since they were our personal belongings. The problem arises mainly because spanish citizens do register with their local embassy when the move abroad (alta) and hence when they leave they unregister (baja) and the spanish customs want to see a baja but we UK citizens don’t actually have any such processes in place (as far as i know) and hence this whole concept of getting this ‘baja’ letter causes us problems. I had to get a letter from the British Consulate here in Madrid and then pass it onto the agent. My US drivers licence, bank statement and utility bills for the previous 2 years with address in Baltimore were not accepted by Spanish customs so I went with these items to the consulate, swore on the bible and they wrote me a letter (which i paid 70 euro for), in the letter the consulate general explained to customs that from evidence presented it appeared that i had in fact been residing in the US for the last 2 years and by that fact had hence not been resident in Spain for the last 2 years. The first letter that i also paid 70 euro for was “alta” - me registering with the British consulate in Spain - this letter was not good enough since it didn’t prove that i had not been living in Spain already so don’t waste your money on the ‘alta’.  It’s crazy but it is all about proving that you have NOT lived in Spain and trying to fraudulently import items free of tax… It was all very critical for me since in addition to moving my household goods my container also had my car in it, my whole container was impounded for about a week while i got various bits of papers from here there and everywhere until customs finally decided to give me my stuff… hope this helps somewhat…
Ranpal

Thanks RG.  Your explanation why this certficate is need is revealing.  I will now try the British Consul here in Perth and what happens.  Should this certficate be in English or translated?

Hi wallace,

It was not a certificate, it was a letter and yes it was in spanish but it was my consulate (British) that wrote it for me and not at origin but at destination - unless you are Spanish i don’t really see why the Spanish consulate should lift a finger for you to be honest. The best thing might be to get your consulate (are your British?) to write one and then get a legal translation into Spanish but the mover should really be able to help you more with all this, haven’t they ever moved anyone to Spain before?

Hi RG,  Thanks for prompt reply.  We are British (Scottish but that might confuse them).  Forgot what the other questions was.  Will need to go back into forunm to find out.  Sorry, just celebrating sale of house in Aus!  Back in amo.

Hi again, RG.  Mover has just shifted someone to Majorca from Perth, WA via Valencia with “no problems” except delays sending from Valencia to the island.  Naturally, he is not concerned as it is an SEP.  (Someone Else’s Problem).  Although, he is the one that said IT WAS THE SPANISH CONSUL I should contact!!!!!!!  Will keep on at the Brit Consul.

Hello
I am an American living in Myanmar.  I have household goods that I want to ship when i move there in June (I am hoping to Barcelona).  Do Spanish customs care about things from Myanmar?  There is an insipid trade embargo of things going to the US.  My goods are things i have picked up along the way teaching English in 3 nations.  Do I need an Spanish address first?  What embassy things do I need to do?