Moving from Ireland to China (2026): Complete Guide

Relocating from Ireland to China means clearing two very different customs and administrative systems: Ireland’s export side, run by Revenue, and China’s import side, run by the General Administration of Customs (GACC) and the National Immigration Administration (NIA). There is no direct container shipping lane and no mutual recognition of driving licences or pet health rules, so both halves need separate preparation. This guide is written for an Irish resident — employee, family, or retiree — moving household goods, pets, and tax residency from Ireland to mainland China, with a short note on the reverse move at the end.

Key takeaways

• Ireland’s customs authority is Revenue. Export declarations for goods leaving the EU (including household goods sent to China) are filed electronically through the EU-wide Automated Export System (AES), which went live on 21 March 2023, replacing Ireland’s older AEP system for exports — Revenue: AES.
• An EORI number from Revenue (free, via ROS) is required by whoever lodges the export declaration. In practice your mover or freight forwarder normally files under its own EORI, so a private individual rarely needs to register one personally unless self-declaring — Revenue: EORI system.
• Leaving Ireland permanently changes your tax status: notify Revenue via myAccount/ROS, and you may qualify for split-year treatment in your year of departure — Revenue: leaving Ireland permanently.
• Irish tax residency is decided by the 183-day (single tax year) or 280-day (two consecutive years combined) presence tests — Revenue: resident for tax purposes.
• Carrying €10,000 or more in cash out of Ireland requires a declaration to Revenue at the airport or port before departure — Revenue: cash declarations.
• On arrival in China, personal baggage must be declared using the official inward passenger declaration; unaccompanied baggage must clear customs within six months of your entry date — GACC: clearance guide for unaccompanied baggage.
• Bringing more than RMB 20,000 or the equivalent of USD 5,000 in cash into or out of China triggers a mandatory currency declaration — GACC: clearance guide for international passengers.
• Pets need an ISO microchip fitted before rabies vaccination, a valid rabies vaccination record, and a DAFM-endorsed export health certificate from Ireland; because China is outside the EU, check China’s own entry rules directly, since GACC — not DAFM — sets the actual admission conditions — DAFM: dogs, cats and ferrets — export, GACC Announcement No. 5 (2019) on pet quarantine.

1. Your China immigration status decides your customs treatment

China does not treat all arriving foreigners the same way at customs, and your visa/residence status determines both which duty-free allowance you get and how your shipment is processed. Most relocating employees enter on a Z visa (the standard work visa), tied to a specific employer-issued work permit; within 30 days of arrival, you and accompanying family must apply for a residence permit at the local exit-entry office of the Public Security Bureau (PSB) — this replaces the single-entry Z visa with a multiple-entry permit and is what establishes you as a "resident" for customs purposes — NIA: entry-exit and stay of foreigners, NIA: applying for a foreigner’s residence permit.

This distinction matters directly at the border: GACC’s own rules give inbound resident passengers a duty-free personal luggage allowance of up to RMB 5,000, while non-resident passengers intending to leave items in China get only RMB 2,000 — GACC: clearance guide for international passengers. Arriving on a tourist or business visa with a full household shipment is the wrong sequence — secure the Z visa and work permit first, since the residence permit process (and the paperwork your moving company will ask for) is built around it.

2. The Ireland export side: Revenue, AES, and your tax exit

Revenue is Ireland’s customs and tax authority for both imports and exports. Any shipment leaving Ireland for a non-EU destination like China requires an electronic export declaration lodged through the Automated Export System (AES) — the current EU-wide platform that replaced Ireland’s legacy AEP system for exports, live since 21 March 2023 — Revenue: AES. Your mover or freight forwarder normally files this declaration on your behalf under its own EORI number — a free, EU-valid identifier issued by Revenue once registered on ROS — so as a private individual you typically only need to worry about EORI if you’re arranging the export yourself rather than through an agent — Revenue: EORI system.

Ireland has no single national "deregistration" office the way some EU countries do — there is no population register to formally check out of. Instead, Citizens Information’s guidance lists the individual steps: notify Revenue of your new address, cancel direct debits and standing orders, and deal separately with your GP/medical card, social welfare entitlements, and voter registration — Citizens Information: moving abroad from Ireland.

On tax: your Irish tax residency status is governed by two statutory tests from Revenue — you are resident if present in Ireland 183 days or more in a single tax year, or 280 days or more across two consecutive tax years — Revenue: resident for tax purposes. If you’re leaving permanently to take up employment abroad, you can claim split-year treatment for your year of departure, meaning post-departure foreign employment income isn’t taxed in Ireland, while you still get full tax credits for the year — Revenue: moving to/from Ireland during the tax year. Practically, update your address through myAccount or ROS, and check whether a PAYE Exclusion Order applies if you’ll still be paid by an Irish employer while working in China — Revenue: if you are leaving Ireland permanently. If you carry €10,000 or more in cash out through an Irish airport or port, you must complete a cash declaration to Revenue Customs before departure — Revenue: declaring cash of €10,000 or more.

3. Ports & transit: what’s realistic (industry estimates, not official figures)

Ireland’s main freight gateways are Dublin Port, which handles the majority of the country’s container traffic, and the Port of Cork, Ireland’s principal deep-water port on the south coast; air freight typically routes through Dublin Airport. There is no direct scheduled container service from Ireland to China — shipments are almost always transshipped through a European hub (commonly Rotterdam, Antwerp, or Felixstowe) onto a mainline Asia service.

Based on general freight-industry patterns (not an official government schedule), realistic transit windows are roughly 30–45 days door-to-port for sea freight, depending on the transshipment hub and destination Chinese port, and roughly 5–10 days for air freight including customs clearance on both ends. These are estimates only — always confirm current transit times and routing with your freight forwarder at the time of booking, since schedules shift with carrier capacity and global shipping conditions.

4. The China import side: baggage declaration and customs clearance

Every traveller entering China completes the official Customs Baggage Declaration Form for Inward Passengers, choosing the red (goods to declare) or green (nothing to declare) channel — GACC: clearance guide for international passengers. If part of your move arrives separately as unaccompanied baggage (the normal route for a full household shipment), you must declare it on arrival and, with customs’ authorisation, complete all clearance procedures within six months of your entry date — shipments arriving later than that window cannot be cleared and are sent back to origin — GACC: clearance guide for unaccompanied baggage. You (the owner) generally need to already be in China with a confirmed entry date before the shipment lands. As noted above, the duty-free personal-effects allowance is RMB 5,000 for resident passengers and RMB 2,000 for non-residents, applied to reasonable personal-use items acquired overseas — GACC: clearance guide for international passengers. Goods beyond personal effects, new-in-box electronics, or anything intended for resale fall outside this relief and are assessed for duty separately — build in time for your shipment to be inspected, since Chinese customs physically examine a proportion of unaccompanied-baggage shipments.

5. Pets: two separate official processes

Leaving Ireland: your vet fits an ISO microchip before administering the rabies vaccination (the order matters — a vaccination given before microchipping is not valid for travel purposes), then an official government veterinarian at your local Regional Veterinary Office (RVO) signs and stamps the export health certificate. Because China is outside the EU, DAFM’s guidance is to check China’s own entry requirements directly, since non-EU destination rules aren’t standardised the way EU pet-passport rules are — DAFM: dogs, cats and ferrets — unaccompanied or commercial movements, import or export.

Entering China: under GACC Announcement No. 5 of 2019, dogs and cats must carry an electronic (ISO) microchip and a valid quarantine and rabies-vaccination certificate issued by the official animal-health authority in the exporting country; only one dog or one cat per person is permitted per entry. Pets from certain countries can avoid quarantine after passing an on-arrival inspection if fully compliant; animals that don’t meet the exemption criteria — or arrive from other regions — face a 30-day quarantine period at a designated facility, plus, in some cases, an antibody titer test showing rabies immunity above 0.5 IU/ml from a GACC-approved laboratory — GACC Announcement No. 5 (2019) on the quarantine and supervision of pets entering China. Start this process months ahead: microchipping, vaccination, and any required antibody testing have their own lead times that can outlast your visa processing.

6. Vehicles, money, and what people forget

Vehicles: Ireland is right-hand drive; mainland China drives on the right, so an Irish car is impractical to use there even before considering import rules. Personal vehicle import into China is tied to your residence status and handled through the PSB alongside your residence permit application — most relocating employees find it far simpler to sell their car in Ireland and buy or lease locally after arrival rather than attempt to ship one — NIA: entry-exit and stay of foreigners.

Money: the two cash-declaration rules bookend your move — €10,000+ leaving Ireland is declared to Revenue Customs, and RMB 20,000 (or USD 5,000-equivalent in foreign currency) entering China is declared to GACC (Revenue, GACC). Keep an Irish bank account open for pension, tax, and any residual Irish-source income, since Revenue continues to tax Irish-sourced income (e.g. rental income) even after you become non-resident.

Easy to forget: your PPS number stays yours for life and isn’t "closed" when you leave — there’s no exit process for it. Your EU public health entitlements in Ireland lapse once you’re no longer ordinarily resident, so arrange health cover in China before you land, since your residence permit application typically also requires proof of insurance. And under Irish tax rules, you can remain "ordinarily resident" for tax purposes for the three tax years after the year you stop being resident, if you were resident for three consecutive years beforehand — this affects how some non-Irish income is taxed, so it’s worth checking with Revenue or a tax adviser before assuming a clean break — Revenue: resident for tax purposes.

Reverse direction — China to Ireland: moving back the other way, your shipment becomes an EU import declared through Revenue’s import systems rather than AES, and you may qualify for Transfer of Residence relief (relief from Customs Duty and VAT on belongings you owned and used abroad) if you’re moving your normal home back to Ireland — check Revenue’s transfer-of-residence conditions before you ship — Revenue: moving to live in Ireland from outside the EU. On the China exit side, the same outward baggage declaration and currency-declaration rules apply in reverse — GACC: clearance guide for international passengers.

How Flyto handles your Ireland to China move

Flyto runs its own offices, warehouses, teams, and vehicles across Northern, Central, and Southern Europe, so the Irish collection, export documentation, and European consolidation of your move stay in-house wherever our network reaches. For the ocean and air legs to China and the final delivery there, we work through a carefully chosen network of partner and subcontractor carriers, alongside trusted local partners on the ground in China, who handle the GACC clearance and last-mile delivery in coordination with our team.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Chinese visa before my move can be shipped?
Yes — your customs treatment in China depends on your visa/residence status, so secure your Z visa and (after arrival) your residence permit before your unaccompanied baggage arrives — NIA: entry-exit and stay of foreigners.

Does Ireland have an "exit registration" like some other EU countries?
No. There’s no single population-register deregistration step — you update Revenue, your GP/medical card, and other bodies individually — Citizens Information: moving abroad from Ireland.

How long does unaccompanied baggage have to clear Chinese customs?
Up to six months from your date of entry, under the authorisation Customs grants when you declare it; shipments arriving later cannot be cleared and are returned to origin — GACC: clearance guide for unaccompanied baggage.

Can I bring my dog or cat without quarantine?
Only if you meet China’s full requirements (microchip, vaccination history, and documentation) and pass the on-arrival inspection; pets that don’t qualify for the exemption face a 30-day quarantine at a designated facility — GACC Announcement No. 5 (2019).

What if I’m carrying more than €10,000 when I leave Ireland?
You must complete a cash declaration to Revenue Customs at your point of departure — this applies regardless of your reason for carrying it — Revenue: declaring cash of €10,000 or more.

Can I ship my car to China?
In practice, rarely worthwhile: China drives on the right (Ireland is right-hand drive), and personal vehicle import is tightly tied to your residence status and PSB approval — most people sell in Ireland and buy locally instead.

Sources

• Revenue: Automated Export System (AES)
• Revenue: Economic Operators’ Registration and Identification System (EORI)
• Revenue: If you are leaving Ireland permanently
• Revenue: Moving to/from Ireland during the tax year
• Revenue: How to know if you are resident for tax purposes
• Revenue: Declaring cash of €10,000 or more
• Revenue: Moving to live in Ireland from outside the EU (Transfer of Residence relief)
• Citizens Information: Moving abroad from Ireland
• DAFM (gov.ie): Dogs, cats and ferrets — unaccompanied or commercial movements, import or export
• China Customs (GACC): Customs Clearance Guide for International Passengers
• China Customs (GACC): Clearance Guide for Unaccompanied Baggage of Incoming/Outgoing Passengers
• GACC Announcement [2019] No. 5 on the Quarantine and Supervision of Pets Entering China
• National Immigration Administration (NIA): Entry-Exit and Stay (Residence) of Foreigners
• National Immigration Administration (NIA): Application for a Foreigner’s Residence Permit