Moving from the UK to Chile (2026): Complete Guide

Relocating from the United Kingdom to Chile means managing two separate customs and administrative systems: HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) and the wider UK exit process on the departure side, and Chile’s Servicio Nacional de Aduanas (customs) and Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (immigration) on the arrival side. This guide is written for a UK resident — employee, retiree, or investor — relocating to Chile with a household shipment, and covers what you must do before leaving Great Britain, how your goods clear Chilean customs, and what changes if you ever move back.

Key takeaways

• Whether your household goods enter Chile duty-free depends on your Chilean immigration status (temporary residence visa, work contract, or returning Chilean) — not on what you shipped (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Retorno de Chilenos y Residentes Extranjeros).
• Household goods up to US$6,750 FOB enter duty-free under the temporary-residence/work-contract franchise; above that, or outside the 120-day window, ordinary duties and VAT apply (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Preguntas Frecuentes Viajero y Turista).
• Exporting goods from Great Britain requires an EORI number and a customs export declaration, now made through HMRC’s Customs Declaration Service (CDS), regardless of destination country (gov.uk, Get an EORI number; gov.uk, Export goods from the UK).
• Tell HMRC you’re leaving via form P85 (or your Self Assessment return) so your PAYE record is closed and any refund processed (gov.uk, P85 guidance).
• Your UK tax residence status is decided by the Statutory Residence Test, not by simply leaving — it can split your final tax year into a UK part and an overseas part (HMRC, RDR3: Statutory Residence Test notes).
• Cash or bearer instruments over US$10,000 (or equivalent) must be declared entering or leaving Chile — undeclared amounts can be treated as smuggling (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Declaración de Dinero).
• Chile is a UK-listed low-risk country for pet imports, so dogs and cats travelling GB → Chile do not need the extra rabies blood test required from unlisted countries — but Chile’s own SAG entry rules still apply and are stricter (gov.uk, Listed and unlisted countries; SAG, Autorización sanitaria para perros y gatos).
• Chile generally prohibits the import of used vehicles; the exceptions are narrow (returning Chileans who lived abroad 18+ months, disability permits, and Iquique/Arica free-trade-zone users) and do not usually cover an ordinary UK work or temporary-residence visa — most UK movers sell their car at home rather than ship it (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Importación de vehículos).

1. Your Chilean immigration status decides your customs treatment

Chile does not have one universal "moving goods" allowance. What you can bring in duty-free depends entirely on the immigration category the Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (Chile’s national migration service) grants you before or on arrival:

• Temporary Residence Permit — for foreigners settling in Chile for a defined period (up to two years), including work-contract holders, retirees, investors, family reunification and several other grounds (Servicio Nacional de Migraciones, Residencia Temporal).
• Transitory Permanence Permit — for stays under 90 days without intention to settle; this does not unlock the household-goods duty exemption.
• Permanent Residence — granted to foreigners who already hold valid temporary residence and wish to stay indefinitely.

Foreigners entering with a temporary residence visa or a work contract of one year or more can import household goods duty-free up to US$6,750 FOB under the traveller’s franchise, and work tools duty-free (customs-duty-exempt) up to US$2,025 FOB, provided the goods are used, non-commercial, and were acquired before entry (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Preguntas Frecuentes Viajero y Turista). These are the current thresholds following Chile’s 2023 update to its customs-franchise values; check the official page before you ship, as they are adjusted periodically. If you arrive on a tourist permit and only regularise your visa later, you risk missing the window for the exemption — sort your Chilean visa before your shipment departs the UK.

2. The UK export side: HMRC, declarations, and closing your tax record

Customs authority. HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is the UK’s customs authority and administers all export declarations, EORI registration, and the tax formalities of leaving the UK.

Export declaration. To ship goods out of Great Britain you (or, in practice, your removals company or freight forwarder acting on your behalf) need an EORI number starting with "GB" — free to obtain, and mandatory for any export of goods from England, Wales or Scotland (gov.uk, Get an EORI number). Commercial-scale export shipments must clear customs before leaving the UK: the older CHIEF system and National Export System were fully decommissioned for exports in 2023–24, so declarations are now submitted through HMRC’s Customs Declaration Service (CDS) (gov.uk, Making a full export declaration; gov.uk, Export goods from the UK: step by step). There is no blanket minimum value or weight below which a declaration is unnecessary, which is why international removals firms handle this filing on your behalf rather than leaving it to individual movers.

Deregistration and leaving process. The UK does not operate a household population-register "deregistration" in the way some EU countries do. Instead, leaving is handled through tax and benefits channels: notify HMRC using form P85 ("Get your Income Tax right if you’re leaving the UK") if you’re leaving permanently or to work abroad full-time — this closes your PAYE record with your employer, triggers any in-year tax refund, and updates HMRC’s record of your residence status. If you file Self Assessment, you instead declare your departure on the residence pages of your final return rather than filing a separate P85 (gov.uk, P85 guidance).

Tax-residency exit. Whether you actually stop being UK tax-resident is governed by HMRC’s Statutory Residence Test (SRT), not by the act of moving itself. The SRT works through an automatic overseas test, an automatic UK residence test, and — if neither applies — a "sufficient ties" test weighing your remaining UK connections against days spent in the UK. Split-year treatment can divide your final tax year into a UK part and an overseas part if you qualify, meaning you’re only fully taxed as a non-resident from your actual departure point rather than retroactively for the whole year (HMRC, RDR3: Statutory Residence Test notes; gov.uk, Tax if you leave the UK to live abroad). Get professional advice if you retain UK income, property, or directorships after the move.

3. Ports & transit — real routes, freight-industry estimates only

Household shipments leaving Great Britain for Chile typically move through one of the UK’s major deep-sea container ports — Felixstowe, Southampton, or London Gateway — consolidated onto services routing via the Panama Canal or transshipped through a European or North American hub, since there is no direct UK–Chile liner service. On arrival, the vast majority of Chile-bound sea freight is discharged at Puerto San Antonio or Puerto de Valparaíso, the two ports that together handle the largest share of Chile’s seaborne container trade (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, general port/customs information).

The following transit times are freight-industry estimates, not official published figures, and vary by carrier, season, and consolidation schedule:

• Sea freight (FCL/LCL), UK port to San Antonio/Valparaíso: roughly 6–9 weeks door-to-port, plus Chilean customs clearance.
• Air freight, UK to Santiago (SCL): roughly 3–7 days transit, plus clearance — used mainly for smaller, time-critical shipments given the cost premium over sea freight.

Always build in buffer time for Chilean customs clearance and, if applicable, the 120-day window described below.

4. The Chile import side: the DIN and the household-goods process

Formal imports into Chile are documented on a Declaración de Ingreso (DIN) — the import declaration lodged with the Servicio Nacional de Aduanas. For a household relocation, the practical process is:

1. Your visa or work-contract status (see Section 1) determines whether the shipment qualifies for the traveller’s/resident’s duty exemption, and up to what FOB value (US$6,750 for household goods, US$2,025 for work tools).
2. Household goods (menaje de casa) must generally arrive together with you or within 120 days before or after your own entry to Chile to qualify for simplified, duty-free treatment under the personal-effects franchise; regional customs administrators may grant one extension in qualified cases. Once outside that window, goods fall under the general import regime, meaning full duties, VAT, and a used-goods surcharge apply (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Preguntas Frecuentes Viajero y Turista).
3. Above simplified low-value thresholds, the DIN must be filed through a licensed Agente de Aduanas (Customs Agent) — an auxiliary of the customs service whose fees are freely negotiated; your international removals company will normally coordinate this on your behalf rather than you filing it yourself (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Retorno de Chilenos y Residentes Extranjeros).
4. Goods must be non-commercial, previously used, and owned/acquired before your entry — new-in-box goods and anything intended for resale fall outside the personal-effects franchise, and goods imported under the franchise generally cannot be sold or transferred for one year without paying the waived duties.

Keep your UK export paperwork (packing list, inventory, purchase-date evidence for higher-value items) — Chilean customs can request proof that goods are genuinely used personal effects and not disguised commercial imports.

5. Pets

Leaving the UK (export side). If you’re in England, Scotland or Wales, taking a dog, cat or ferret to a non-EU country such as Chile requires an Export Health Certificate (EHC), issued by an APHA-registered Official Veterinarian, plus an export application. Start the process well ahead of travel — some destinations require preparation months in advance (gov.uk, Taking your pet abroad).

Entering Chile (import side). Chile’s Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero (SAG) tightened its pet-entry rules from 27 July 2026: the Certificate of Zoosanitary Import must record the animal’s microchip or tattoo number for traceability, and a clinical exam confirming freedom from infectious/parasitic disease must be carried out within 10 days before the certificate is issued. This sits alongside the continuing requirements: permanent individual identification, rabies vaccination administered at least 1 month and at most 12 months before travel (or an antibody titre test if unvaccinated in that window), broad-spectrum internal/external parasite treatment within 30 days before travel, and confinement at the destination address for 10 days after arrival (SAG, Solicitud de Autorización Sanitaria para Ingresar a Chile con Perros y Gatos).

Reverse direction (Chile → UK). Chile sits on the UK’s "listed" (Part 2) low-risk country list, so pets travelling back do not need the extra rabies antibody blood test or 3-month wait that unlisted-country pets require — but they still need ISO microchipping, a valid rabies vaccination (waiting at least 21 full days after a first vaccination), the correct Great Britain pet travel document, and, for dogs, tapeworm (praziquantel) treatment administered by a vet in the 24–120 hours before arrival (gov.uk, Listed and unlisted countries; gov.uk, Bringing your pet dog, cat or ferret to Great Britain; gov.uk, Rabies vaccination and boosters).

6. Vehicles, money, and things people forget

Vehicles. Chile generally prohibits importing a used vehicle at all — this is the default rule, not a technicality. The exceptions are specific and narrow: Chilean citizens who have lived abroad continuously for 18 months or more and are returning permanently (one vehicle, duties and VAT payable) (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Importación de un vehículo por chilenos que retornan); people with a qualifying disability, under a separate franchise; and residents of the Iquique/Arica free-trade-zone system. An ordinary UK employee, retiree, or investor arriving on a temporary residence visa or work contract does not generally have a route to import their own used car. Where import is permitted under one of these franchises, Chile requires left-hand-drive steering for a vehicle to circulate, and right-hand-drive UK cars must go through a customs-authorised workshop (these are concentrated in the Arica/Iquique free-trade zone) to convert the steering, pedals and controls before the vehicle can be used (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Importación de vehículos; Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Talleres autorizados para cambios de volante). For most UK movers relocating on a standard visa, the practical answer is simple: sell the car in the UK and buy locally in Chile.

Money. Cash or bearer negotiable instruments over US$10,000 (or the equivalent, including in Chilean pesos) must be declared on entry to or exit from Chile; failing to declare, or misdeclaring, can lead to the funds being retained and criminal proceedings under Chile’s anti-money-laundering law (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Declaración de Dinero).

Things people forget: the 120-day household-goods window runs from your own entry date and can fall before or after it, so align your visa approval, flight, and freight booking around that date; new-in-box items lose the personal-effects duty exemption; and a UK removals inventory with approximate purchase dates makes Chilean customs clearance considerably faster.

How Flyto handles your UK to Chile move

Flyto runs its own offices, warehouses, vehicles and crews across Northern, Central and Southern Europe, so the UK collection, packing, and export leg of your move is handled in-house wherever our own network reaches. For the ocean crossing and the Chilean side, we work through a carefully vetted network of subcontracted carriers and trusted local partners in Chile who handle port arrival, DIN filing through a licensed Agente de Aduanas, and final delivery — coordinated end-to-end by your Flyto move manager.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Chilean visa before I ship my belongings?
Yes, effectively — your duty-free household-goods allowance depends on holding a Temporary Residence Permit or qualifying work contract, so it’s best to have your Chilean immigration status confirmed before your shipment departs the UK (Servicio Nacional de Migraciones, Residencia Temporal).

Do I have to submit a UK export customs declaration for personal household goods?
Commercial-scale export shipments require an EORI number and a customs export declaration through the Customs Declaration Service (CDS) regardless of value; your removals company or freight forwarder typically files this on your behalf as part of the move (gov.uk, Export goods from the UK).

Will I automatically stop being a UK taxpayer once I move?
No — your position is assessed under HMRC’s Statutory Residence Test, which can split your final tax year rather than treating the whole year as non-resident. File form P85 or declare your departure via Self Assessment to update your record (gov.uk, P85 guidance).

Can I bring my dog or cat with me?
Yes. You’ll need a UK Export Health Certificate for the outbound leg and to meet Chile’s SAG requirements (microchip, rabies vaccination timing, parasite treatment, and an official certificate) on arrival (gov.uk, Taking your pet abroad; SAG, pet entry authorisation).

Should I ship my car to Chile?
Almost never worth trying. Chile prohibits importing used vehicles by default, and the exceptions (returning Chileans, disability permits, free-trade-zone residents) generally don’t cover an ordinary UK work or residence visa — and even where import is allowed, right-hand-drive UK cars need workshop conversion to left-hand steering before they can be registered. Nearly all UK movers sell in the UK and buy locally instead (Servicio Nacional de Aduanas, Importación de vehículos).

What if I move back from Chile to the UK later?
Your pet’s return journey is easier in one respect — Chile is a UK-listed low-risk country, so no rabies blood test or 3-month wait is required, just microchipping, valid vaccination, the correct pet document, and tapeworm treatment for dogs (gov.uk, Bringing your pet to Great Britain). On the tax side, returning UK residents should review their position under the SRT again, as split-year treatment can also apply on the way back.

Sources

• gov.uk — Export goods from the UK: step by step
• gov.uk — Making a full export declaration
• gov.uk — Get an EORI number
• gov.uk — Get your Income Tax right if you’re leaving the UK (P85)
• gov.uk — Tax if you leave the UK to live abroad
• HMRC — RDR3: Statutory Residence Test (SRT) notes
• gov.uk — Taking your pet dog, cat or ferret abroad
• gov.uk — Bringing your pet dog, cat or ferret to Great Britain
• gov.uk — Rabies vaccination and boosters (bring pet to GB)
• gov.uk — Listed and unlisted countries (bring pet to GB)
• Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile — Preguntas Frecuentes Viajero y Turista
• Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile — Retorno de Chilenos y Residentes Extranjeros
• Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile — Declaración de Dinero
• Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile — Importación de vehículos
• Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile — Talleres autorizados para realizar cambios de volante
• Servicio Nacional de Aduanas de Chile — Importación de un vehículo por chilenos que retornan definitivamente
• Servicio Nacional de Migraciones (Chile) — Residencia Temporal
• SAG (Servicio Agrícola y Ganadero) — Autorización Sanitaria para Ingresar a Chile con Perros y Gatos