UK → FRANCE Removals to France from the UK

Most people booking removals to France want three things settled before they pay a deposit. Which form proves their customs relief, when the van will actually arrive, and where it will stand outside a Paris flat. Here is each of them in turn, with the source we read it from.

Since the UK left the EU, a move from Britain to France is a transfer of residence from a third country. France admits your household goods free of duty and VAT on that basis, but only when three conditions hold. First, your home was outside the EU for the 12 months before the move. Second, each item was yours, and in use, for six months or longer. Third, the goods arrive within 12 months of your move, in one shipment or several.

You claim it on the Cerfa declaration, with a detailed and valued inventory that you date and sign in two copies, and proof of your residence on both sides. The declaration can also be completed online on the French customs portal. Where the UK side cannot give you a paper proving your change of residence, the French consulate can issue a certificate instead. A local authority may ask for a tax-clearance statement too. If your belongings travel in more than one load, the inventory handed over with the first load must already list everything. Two limits matter for planning. Goods meant for a second home in France do not qualify, so a holiday-house move follows a different declaration. Moreover, you undertake not to sell, lend or hire out relieved goods for a year after they enter France.

Two more questions follow from that list. Can the van carry the wine from a UK cellar? Alcohol and tobacco sit outside the relief, as do goods for a business and a stock of new, unused purchases, so they are declared and taxed on their own. Does a caravan count as household goods? It does not: transportable dwellings and commercial vehicles are excluded as well, so tell us about either at the quote stage and we say what travels and what does not.

Two smaller points reassure people. Whether you bought a piece with tax or tax-free makes no difference, provided it bore the duties of the country it came from. And the proof that you are settling can be a residence card or a posting order as much as a lease.

Our recorded drive, London to Paris, is 5.9 hours, and the Channel is no part of that figure. A ferry from Dover to Calais takes around 90 minutes. The tunnel shuttle takes a planned 35 minutes from platform to platform, 50 kilometres of tunnel inside a run of just over 58. Either way the driver is off the wheel. From Calais to Paris the autoroutes are tolled. A van over 3.5 tonnes pays the heavy class at the barrier, and that toll is inside our price rather than yours.

Consequently, we count the crossing as rest rather than driving, and the delivery range for every size on this route starts at day 1. A 20 or 30 m³ load of your own is quoted at 1–3 days. A shared 5 or 10 m³ load waits for the other moves it travels with, which is why its range runs to day 8. That is how part load removals work.

What customers moving to Paris ask most is how to line the van up with their own travel. One family had to book flights for the day after loading. Another could not name a fixed date, because their landlord’s handover kept slipping. The honest answer is the same for both. Choose the collection window that fits your keys, and we confirm the loading day inside it with at least 24 hours’ notice. If your dates move after booking, you can ask to reschedule from your move page. Given enough notice the change is free, and either way your price does not move. On the day itself the thread does the talking: the crew’s customs update, the delivery window and the done message arrive there, as the exchange below shows.

Paris reserves no parking space for a move. Instead, the city issues a temporary occupation permit for removals, requested online at least 15 days before the move. With it, the van may use any free bay in the nearby paid parking band, or stand outside the band where the permit says so. The permit holder declares the vehicle’s registration before it arrives. Since 2025 the metropolitan low-emission zone inside the A86 has also required a Crit’Air sticker. The zone bars light vans rated Crit’Air 3 or worse on weekdays from 8am to 8pm, and lorries over 3.5 tonnes seven days a week in the same hours. A learning period before fines runs to the end of 2026, however.

Our direct presence in Europe is strongest in Paris, and the partner crew there is the one that posts to your thread on delivery day. The driver’s help is at the van: they load and unload with you at the kerb. For a flat several floors up a Parisian stairwell, or a long carry from a bay down the street, ask for additional crew when you quote. We price it on your inventory, subject to availability on your date.

The permit’s small print is worth knowing before you book a Paris delivery, because it shapes the day. The city charges for a removal permit every day of the week, Sundays and public holidays included, by the half day or the day. The hours it allows are the ones printed on it, and its tariff is lower than the rotating paid parking it replaces. The permit arrives by e-mail through the Mon Paris account. It goes behind the windscreen whenever the van stands outside the paid band. Moreover, it is void unless the vehicle’s registration has been declared through the link in that e-mail, which can be done right up to arrival.

A change before it is issued, or a new date after, costs nothing if asked at least two working days ahead. A cancellation refunds nothing, short of force majeure. If you want bays held as they empty, that holding time is billed as part of the occupation. You do the holding, not the city.

Three things the French authorities ask of a new resident touch the move, and the British government’s own guidance for people living in France lists them. First, once you arrive you apply for a residence permit or validate your long-stay visa. The customs relief above wants proof that you are settling, so that paperwork and the van’s paperwork run together. Second, a UK driving licence issued after 1 January 2021 must be exchanged for a French one within 12 months of arriving. That matters if you plan to drive your own car to the new address after the van. Third, any vehicle you keep in a French low-emission zone needs the Crit’Air sticker.

The sticker is worth a paragraph, because it is the one piece of Paris paperwork people forget. It is compulsory in every low-emission zone, ordered only on the government’s own certificate site, and for a vehicle registered abroad the order is online only. It costs 3.85 euros with postage inside France, arrives by post, and lasts the life of the vehicle. Driving without it in a zone can cost a fixed fine of 68 euros, and up to 450 euros at the top of the scale. Our partner’s van carries its own; your car, if it follows you to Paris, needs one of its own.

France’s public holidays cluster where many moves do. Four fall in May: 1 May, 8 May, Ascension and Whit Monday, then 14 July and 15 August in the summer, and 11 November in the autumn. On our side, no collection runs during our festive closure, 16 December to 7 January, and you can book a window as far as 3 months out. So book a move timed for a French bank-holiday week early, while the dates around it are still open.

We quote a student’s move on this route as its own kind of move, with the simpler student paperwork: see student shipping between the UK and France. Moving back later? We run removals to the UK too.

What do removals to France cost, then? The price you book is the price you pay, whichever of the five sizes you choose. As an example, a 10 m³ shared load from London to Paris is £998, and a 30 m³ dedicated van £2,191, each with customs clearance inside the figure. A 25% deposit secures your window, and the balance is due on loading day. Should packing take you past your size’s weight cap, telling us early costs the locked difference to the next size and nothing more, as our fixed price removals page sets out.