UK → AUSTRIA Moving to Austria: how customs works, and the documents to expect

Austria gives a new arrival three days. Within three days of moving into a flat, a house or a room, you register the address with the registration authority for your new home. That is the municipal office in most towns, the Magistrat in the statutory cities, and in Vienna the district office. Each person completes a Meldezettel of their own, and your landlord or host signs it. Miss the three days and a fine is possible, so this is the first appointment to book, before the furniture is even on the lorry.

For the move itself, this appointment sits outside our paperwork. Your goods clear in France on the way, so the Meldezettel is not in the pack on this page, and we do not need it before the goods leave or after. It is still yours to do on time. The three days hold in a rented flat and in a relative’s spare room alike: the law’s two-month allowance for staying free of charge covers only people already registered elsewhere in Austria, which someone arriving from the UK is not.

Since the UK left the EU, a British passport-holder settling in Austria is a third-country national, and the paperwork runs in a fixed order. You make the first application for a residence title in person, abroad, at the Austrian embassy or consulate for where you live. The mission checks it and forwards it to the residence authority in Austria, which decides. If the answer is yes, you enter on a visa where one is needed and collect the title in person from that authority after arrival.

The common title for skilled workers, the Red-White-Red Card, runs for 24 months at first, and a partner or children apply for the Red-White-Red Card Plus. A stay of up to six months needs a visa only, not a title.

For the move, the order matters because the title sets the date you can settle. It is no customs paper, and it is not in the pack on this page. So we plan the collection window around the date the title is expected, not the date the flat is free.

Because the UK is outside the EU, your furniture crosses a customs border on this lane, and it crosses in France. French customs decides whether it comes in free of duty and import VAT as removal goods, under the EU’s own conditions. You held your normal residence abroad for at least twelve consecutive months. The goods are yours, and you used them at the old home for at least six months before giving it up. Only used goods qualify. They are declared within twelve months of your taking up residence in Austria, and you pass them to nobody for twelve months after clearance.

Our agent lodges the declaration with the rest of your pack. Our transfer of residence page walks through the two stages and what happens when an officer asks for one more paper. The decision is the customs office’s, never ours, which is why we build the evidence rather than promise the outcome.

The relief does not cover everything in the house. Goods used in a trade are outside it, with portable instruments and tools the one exception. Those items can still travel, but customs assesses them in the ordinary way, and it is better to know that at the inventory stage than at clearance. Alcohol, tobacco and vehicles are outside it too, and they do not travel with us at all.

The papers on this page are how you show the twelve months abroad and the new home: your council’s bills for the first, the rental agreement or your host’s papers for the second. Keep them after clearance too, because customs can ask for more. The list above is the usual one, we confirm your own after your quote, and our transfer of residence page shows where each paper enters the two stages.

Austria clears its roads of heavy lorries at the weekend. From three in the afternoon on Saturday until ten on Sunday night, lorries over 7.5 tonnes stay parked. So does any lorry towing a trailer over 3.5 tonnes. Public holidays follow the Sunday rule.

Our recorded route puts London to Vienna at 15 hours of driving. That is why nothing on this lane is quoted for the day after loading: every range starts at day 2. A 30 m³ vehicle of your own arrives within 2–4 days. The 15 m³ runs 2–7 days. A 5 m³ part-load reaches you within 2–9 days, the width coming from the other moves it shares a van with. Our guide, how long does a removal to Europe take, lists all the lanes together, so you can see where Vienna sits.

There is no 20 m³ on this lane. The matrix offers 5, 10, 15 and 30 m³, and the jump from the 15 m³ to the 30 m³ is where people need a straight answer. The 15 m³ carries up to 900 kg and came to £2,241 for London to Vienna when we last read the tool, on 13 October 2026. The 30 m³ carries up to 1,800 kg, lower than on the standard lanes, and came to £4,223. A 10 m³ load, the common one for a flat, was £1,870.

The collection window also changes with the size. A 5 m³ part-load gives a 4-day window, the 15 m³ a 2-day window, and the 30 m³ loads on a confirmed day. Whichever you choose, you are packed and ready from the window’s first day. We name the loading time at least a day ahead.

Booking locks the price: you pay a 25% deposit then, and the rest on the day the lorry loads. Goods-in-transit cover of up to £20,275 per event runs from loading to delivery. Any duty or VAT customs assesses, should the relief conditions fail, is customs’ charge and sits outside the price. So does the additional-crew add-on, because the quoted price is van-side.

The questions on this lane are the ones its neighbours bring, and they deserve plain answers. Does the lorry go straight to Vienna, or does it carry other people’s loads? A 30 m³ vehicle is yours alone and drives direct; the 5 and 10 m³ loads share a vehicle, which is why their range is wider. When will it arrive, and can I be told the day before? The range is set at booking and the exact time is confirmed to you the day before loading.

Everything here is said in one WhatsApp thread, from your first question to the delivery. A member of the team reads it at the desk, Mon to Sat, 8am to 10pm UK time. The thread below shows how a weight question on this lane actually runs.