The container arrives before you have a residence visa, or the removal company asks for a document
nobody mentioned, or a box is held because of something you did not know was restricted. Most of the
pain of an international move to the UAE happens in the last hundred metres, at customs.
Here is what actually applies when shipping belongings to the UAE — the duty rates,
the used-household-goods relief and the two lists that decide whether your shipment clears.
The rule most people miss: customs is emirate by emirate
There is a federal framework — the UAE applies the Unified Customs Tariff for GCC States and the
Common Customs Law of the GCC States — but at the counter, customs is administered by each emirate. Dubai
Customs, Abu Dhabi Customs and Sharjah Customs each publish their own prohibited and restricted lists,
and the government portal links out to all three.
The list you must obey is your port of entry’s list. If your shipment lands at Jebel
Ali, Dubai’s rules govern it, whatever your final address.
Duty rates
| Goods | Duty |
|---|---|
| Standard rate | 5% of the value of goods plus cost, freight and insurance |
| Alcohol | 50% |
| Cigarettes | 100% |
| Vehicles, new or used | 5% of the total assessed value |
Vehicles are inspected and assessed by customs inspectors before clearance, so the value used is theirs
rather than yours. Our guide to
registering a car and
renewing the mulkiya covers what happens once it is through.
The used-household-goods relief
This is the provision that makes a normal move affordable. Dubai Customs exempts “personal effects and
used household items brought into the country by the nationals residing abroad and foreigners coming for
the first time for residence.”
Four conditions attach, and each one catches somebody out.
| Condition | What it means in practice |
|---|---|
| The items must be used | New items do not qualify and attract duty. Do not ship a boxed, unopened appliance in a household consignment |
| Proof of status | Returning nationals show proof of residence abroad; foreigners show proof of work and residence here |
| Quantities “appropriate to furnishing a house” | Six identical televisions is not furnishing a house |
| A packing list detailing contents | Required, not optional |
The relief is administered on inspection: personal and used household items are exempted from customs
tax and duties after being checked by inspectors — but a 5% customs tax applies if inspectors
determine the goods are in commercial quantities. That judgement is theirs, which is why the
packing list matters more than people expect.
Documents required for personal effects are modest: a passport copy, a residency visa copy, and a
written list of the imported goods. For a vehicle shipped by a company, you will need the invoice,
packing list, bill of lading and passport copy; shipped personally, a passport copy and invoice.
The allowance that is not the allowance
You will see AED 3,000 quoted as a duty-free threshold for moving. It is not. That figure covers
gifts and personal luggage carried by a traveller, exempt if not commercial in nature,
alongside the tobacco and alcohol allowances of 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars or 500g of tobacco, and four
litres of alcohol or two cartons of beer.
Those are traveller reliefs. A household shipment runs on the used-goods relief above, which has no
monetary threshold at all. Conflating the two is the single most common error in relocation guidance.
What you cannot bring
Dubai Customs prohibits: all kinds of narcotic drugs; gambling tools, machinery and devices of all
kinds; nylon fishing nets; live swine; used, reconditioned and inlaid tyres; radiation and nuclear
fallout contaminated substances; items that contradict Islamic faith and public morals; and paan and
betel leaves.
Abu Dhabi Customs prohibits a similar list with some additions worth knowing: counterfeit currency;
publications, photographs, paintings, drawings, cards, books, magazines and stone sculptures that
contradict Islamic teachings or public morals; three-layer nylon fishing nets; goods from boycotted
countries; ozone-depleting substances; asbestos sheets and pipes; red-light laser pens;
hazardous waste; and naswar, the smokeless tobacco.
The publications clause is the one that affects ordinary shipments most often, and it is broad. Art,
books and decorative objects are all named categories.
What you can bring — with permission
Restricted goods are not banned. They need prior approval from a named authority before they clear.
| Category | Approval body, as listed by customs |
|---|---|
| Live animals, plants, fertilizers and insecticides | Ministry of Climate Change and Environment |
| Arms, ammunition, explosives, fireworks | Ministry of Defence / Ministry of Interior |
| Pharmaceutical products, medical and surgical instruments | Ministry of Health and Prevention |
| Print materials, publications, media products | Media regulator |
| New tyres, e-cigarettes and electronic hookah | Standardisation authority / Ministry of Industry and Advanced Technology |
| Transmitters and radio equipment | Telecommunications regulator |
| Alcoholic beverages | Police |
| Foodstuffs, personal care and cosmetic products | Municipality / food safety authority |
| Rough diamonds | UAE Kimberley Process Office |
Some of the authority names on these government tables are legacy ones — bodies have been merged or
renamed since the tables were written — so treat them as the category signpost rather than the current
letterhead.
Two items worth spelling out
Vapes are restricted, not prohibited. Both Dubai and Abu Dhabi Customs list
e-cigarettes under goods requiring prior approval. A great many relocation guides state flatly that vapes
are banned in the UAE. They are on the restricted table, not the prohibited one.
Medicines need prior approval from the Ministry of Health and Prevention. Both
customs authorities list pharmaceuticals independently as a restricted category. If you take a regular
prescription, this is the one to resolve before you fly rather than after your shipment lands — and it
applies to what is in your suitcase as much as what is in your container.
Pets
Bringing a cat or dog requires an import permit from the Ministry of Climate Change and
Environment, applied for through the Ministry’s own service portal. Live animals also appear as
a restricted category on both customs tables, with MOCCAE as the approving body.
You will find a great deal of detail online about permit fees, validity periods, animal limits per
person and breed restrictions. Almost all of it comes from pet-relocation companies rather than the
Ministry, so we are not repeating any of it. Apply through MOCCAE and take its requirements as they
stand.
Practical sequencing
The relief requires proof of work and residence, which means the paperwork chain matters. Get your
employment documentation and residency process moving before the container sails, not alongside it — our
guides to the UAE visa
types, to Emirates
ID and to
document attestation cover
what has to be in place. If you are shipping a car, arrange the
driving licence
conversion in parallel.
And decide where you are actually living before you ship, because the port matters and so does the
budget. Our guides to
the cost of
living in Abu Dhabi,
liveability across the
UAE and
the Northern Emirates set out
the choice.
The relief is generous, the lists are published, and the process is not adversarial. It simply
rewards people who read the conditions before packing rather than after.
Primary sources: the UAE Government portal on
clearing
customs and paying customs duty and on
moving
to the UAE; Dubai Customs on
clearance
of personal effects,
customs
duty exemptions and
prohibited
and restricted goods;
Abu
Dhabi Customs on restricted and banned commodities; the
Unified
Customs Tariff for GCC States; and MOCCAE’s
pet
import permit service. Rates and lists were read on 20 August 2026 and change.
