Moving from France to Peru (2026): Complete Guide

Relocating from France to Peru means managing two separate administrative systems: French export/deregistration formalities on the way out, and Peruvian customs and immigration formalities on the way in. This guide is written for a French resident — French national or foreign resident of France — moving household goods, pets, and possibly a vehicle to Peru, whether for work, retirement, or family reasons. It also covers what changes if you later move back from Peru to France.

Key takeaways

• Your household goods can only enter Peru duty-favoured as "menaje de casa" if you hold resident status ("calidad migratoria residente") granted by Peru’s Superintendencia Nacional de Migraciones — tourist status does not qualify for the benefit (Migraciones).
• France’s customs authority is the Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects (DGDDI); moving your main residence outside the EU is legally treated as an export, but personal effects owned and used for more than 6 months, with 12+ months of residence abroad following the move, are exempt from a formal customs declaration (douane.gouv.fr).
• Peru’s SUNAT requires proof of at least 13 consecutive months abroad and processes household-goods imports through a Declaración Simplificada de Importación (DSI), taxed at a single flat 12% on customs (CIF) value (SUNAT).
• Your menaje de casa shipment must arrive as cargo within 1 month before and up to 6 months after your personal arrival in Peru (SUNAT).
• Before leaving, notify the French tax office (SIP) of your departure via your secure impots.gouv.fr account; your French-source income declarations then transfer to the Service des impôts des particuliers non-résidents (SIPNR) (impots.gouv.fr).
• Cash, negotiable instruments or gold worth €10,000 or more must be declared to French customs via the DALIA online service before crossing the border (douane.gouv.fr); Peru requires declaration above US$10,000 and caps cash carried in or out at US$30,000 (SUNAT).
• Used vehicles imported into Peru must be no more than 2 years old, left-hand drive, accident-free, and (for most categories) not diesel-powered (SUNAT) — in practice this rules out shipping most French cars.
• Dogs and cats need an official sanitary export certificate, up-to-date rabies vaccination, and a Permiso Sanitario de Importación requested from Peru’s SENASA before shipment (SENASA).

1. Why your Peruvian immigration status comes first

Everything on the Peruvian side hinges on your migratory status. Peru classifies foreigners into temporary categories (tourism, business) and resident categories (worker, rentista, investor, family, permanent), granted by the Superintendencia Nacional de Migraciones (gob.pe); processing typically takes 30–45 business days. Only once you hold a resident visa (and the "calidad migratoria residente" it confers) can you access SUNAT’s menaje de casa benefit — the flat 12% import regime for household goods described below. Arriving on tourist status and shipping a container "to be sorted out later" means your goods are treated as an ordinary commercial import, with standard tariffs and full customs valuation instead of the simplified traveller’s process. Decide and secure your visa category before your shipment leaves France.

2. The France export side

Customs authority. France’s Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects (DGDDI) is responsible for all export formalities. Moving your household outside the EU is legally an export, but the "transfert de résidence principale hors de l’Union européenne" regime lets you move personal effects without a formal customs declaration provided two conditions are met simultaneously: you have lived abroad (Peru, in this case) for more than 12 months, and you have owned and used the goods for more than 6 months before the move. You must keep proof of residence abroad and a dated, signed, itemised inventory in duplicate; goods admitted this way cannot be sold, lent or rented for 12 months after import into the destination country (douane.gouv.fr). Goods that fall outside this regime, or that a mover ships commercially, go through a standard export declaration filed electronically via France’s dematerialised customs platform, currently transitioning to DELTA I/E (import since March 2025, export since November 2025) (douane.gouv.fr).

Deregistering from France. There is no single "exit form" — several administrations need separate notice. Register (if you wish to remain in the French civil registry system while abroad) or simply notify your consulate via the registre des Français établis hors de France on service-public.fr/diplomatie.gouv.fr, which also lets you request cancellation ("radiation") later if you settle permanently abroad (diplomatie.gouv.fr). Separately, notify your health-insurance fund (CPAM) of your departure, since your French social-security cover generally ends when you’re no longer resident.

Tax exit. Before leaving, use the secure messaging in your personal space on impots.gouv.fr to inform your Service des impôts des particuliers (SIP) of your change of residence. You remain fiscally domiciled in France from 1 January to your departure date; afterwards your status depends on your personal situation. From departure, your file transfers to the Service des impôts des particuliers non-résidents (SIPNR) in Noisy-le-Grand, which then handles all non-resident French-source income and IFI (wealth tax) declarations (impots.gouv.fr). If you hold significant company shares or securities, check whether the French "exit tax" applies to your portfolio before departure (impots.gouv.fr).

3. Ports and transit — freight-industry estimates, not official figures

France’s main container gateways for intercontinental freight are the ports of Le Havre (France’s largest container port, on the Channel) and Marseille-Fos (on the Mediterranean, with better rotations toward some Latin American routes). On the Peruvian side, sea freight generally arrives at Callao, Peru’s principal port near Lima. These are the realistic routing options a mover would use; the following transit windows are freight-industry planning estimates only, not figures published by any customs or shipping authority, and actual transit varies by carrier, routing (direct vs. transshipment via a European or US hub), and season:

• Sea freight (LCL/FCL), Le Havre or Marseille-Fos → Callao: roughly 30–50 days door-to-port, plus Peruvian customs clearance time.
• Air freight, Paris → Lima: typically 3–10 days including handling, for smaller urgent shipments.

Always confirm current transit times directly with your carrier or moving company at time of booking.

4. The Peru import side

Once you’ve landed with resident status, the process runs through SUNAT (Superintendencia Nacional de Aduanas y de Administración Tributaria). You present yourself at the customs office ("Intendencia de Aduana") through which your goods will enter, with your passport and a request for the Declaración Simplificada de Importación (DSI) form, a free-format document provided by customs. Along with it you submit the international transport document, invoices or a sworn declaration of value, the warehouse’s dispatch receipt, an insurance policy if the goods are insured, and any authorisation required for restricted items (SUNAT). To qualify for the simplified process, you must prove at least 13 consecutive months abroad immediately before arrival (brief trips back to Peru of up to 30 days a year, consecutive or accumulated, don’t break this), and you cannot have used the benefit in the prior 2 years (SUNAT — Menaje de casa). Your goods must arrive as cargo within 1 month before to 6 months after your own arrival date. Once documentation is filed and any physical inspection completed, you pay a single flat 12% tax on the customs (CIF) value — the sum of FOB value plus international freight and insurance — and the shipment is released, a process SUNAT states typically takes about one day once the file is complete (SUNAT).

5. Pets

Exporting from France. For dogs, cats and ferrets leaving the EU, the person organising the trip is responsible for meeting the destination country’s specific requirements and providing the correct health-certificate model, which can vary by country. France’s official DGAL guidance directs travellers to Expadon 2, the FranceAgriMer/Ministry of Agriculture platform that replaced the older Exp@don service at end of 2025, to find the exact certificate template Peru requires and check for any restrictions (douane.gouv.fr — DGAL note).

Importing into Peru. SENASA (Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria) requires an original sanitary export certificate issued by the official authority in France, showing current vaccination — for dogs: canine parvovirus, distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis and rabies; for cats: feline panleukopenia and rabies. Rabies vaccination is mandatory from 3 months of age, and internal/external deworming must be done within 30 days before travel. You must also request a Permiso Sanitario de Importación from SENASA in Lima before the animal is shipped, and the pet is inspected on arrival in Peru against payment of inspection and certification fees (SENASA).

6. Vehicles, money, and things people forget

Vehicles. Peru’s rules make shipping a French car impractical for most people: used vehicles must be no more than 2 years old (counted from 1 January of the year following manufacture to the shipping date), must be left-hand drive, must show no history of rollover, frontal, lateral or major rear accidents, and — outside categories M3/N3 (large buses/trucks) — diesel-engined used vehicles cannot be imported at all (SUNAT). Since most French passenger cars are right-hand-drive-neutral but commonly diesel and older than two years, buying locally in Peru is usually simpler than shipping.

Money. Leaving France with €10,000 or more in cash, negotiable instruments or gold requires an online declaration via DALIA, filed any time from 30 days before travel up to the moment you cross the border; failure to declare is a customs offence that can lead to seizure of the funds and a financial penalty (douane.gouv.fr). On arrival in Peru, amounts above US$10,000 must be declared to customs on a sworn declaration form (Declaración Jurada de Equipaje), and carrying more than US$30,000 in or out of the country in cash is not permitted — larger amounts must move through an authorised financial institution (SUNAT).

Things people forget. Keep your dated, itemised French inventory — Peruvian customs will want a matching packing list against the DSI. Don’t let your menaje de casa shipment sail before your 13-month absence clock has actually started, and don’t let it arrive outside the 1-month-before/6-month-after window, or you lose the benefit. Cancel or transfer your French health cover (CPAM) formalities before departure, since Peru will require separate local or private health insurance for residency.

How Flyto handles your France to Peru move

Flyto runs its own offices, warehouses, crews and vehicles across Northern, Central and Southern Europe, so the French collection, packing, storage and port handling out of Le Havre or Marseille-Fos is managed with our in-house teams rather than handed off blind. For the ocean leg and the Peruvian side, we work through a carefully vetted network of freight partners and subcontractors, plus trusted local partners on the ground in Peru who handle SUNAT clearance, menaje de casa documentation and last-mile delivery — so you get one point of contact in France with proven local expertise waiting at destination.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need Peruvian residency before I can ship my household goods duty-favoured?
Yes. The 12% flat-rate menaje de casa benefit is only available once you hold resident migratory status granted by Migraciones; without it, your shipment is treated as a standard commercial import (Migraciones).

How long can my belongings take to arrive in Peru relative to me?
SUNAT requires the cargo to arrive between 1 month before and 6 months after your personal arrival date in Peru (SUNAT).

Can I bring my car from France?
In practice, rarely. Peru only allows used-vehicle imports up to 2 years old, left-hand drive, accident-free, and largely excludes diesel engines — conditions most French cars don’t meet (SUNAT).

Do I have to tell French tax authorities I’m leaving?
Yes — notify your Service des impôts des particuliers via your secure impots.gouv.fr messaging before departure; your file then moves to the non-residents’ tax service (SIPNR) (impots.gouv.fr).

What about my dog or cat?
You need a French official sanitary export certificate with current rabies and core vaccinations, plus a Permiso Sanitario de Importación requested from SENASA in Lima before shipping (SENASA).

What if I later move back from Peru to France?
The same French "transfert de résidence" logic applies in reverse: if you’ve lived outside the EU (in Peru) and bring personal effects owned/used for more than 6 months back into France, you can generally do so without customs duty, subject to the conditions set out on the official service-public.fr guidance for people settling in France after living outside the EU (service-public.gouv.fr); you would separately deregister from any Peruvian resident status and re-register your tax residence in France.

Sources

• DGDDI — Transfert de résidence principale hors UE (expatriés)
• DGDDI — Déposer une déclaration en douane (import-export / DELTA I/E)
• DGDDI — Voyager avec 10 000 euros ou plus (DALIA)
• DGDDI/DGAL — Note d’information, importation non commerciale d’animaux de compagnie
• impots.gouv.fr — Je pars à l’étranger ou j’arrive en France
• impots.gouv.fr — Je quitte la France, suis-je concerné par l’Exit Tax ?
• France Diplomatie — S’inscrire au registre des Français établis hors de France
• SUNAT — Trámite para el ingreso del menaje de casa
• SUNAT — Menaje de Casa (requisitos y plazos)
• Plataforma gob.pe / SUNAT — Requisitos y documentos para importar vehículos usados
• SUNAT — Bienvenido al Perú: Ingreso y salida de dinero en efectivo
• Plataforma gob.pe / Migraciones — Solicitud de visa para residentes según calidad migratoria
• SENASA — ¿Viajas con tu mascota? Requisitos sanitarios para ingresar o salir de Perú
• Service-Public.fr — S’installer en France après avoir vécu dans un pays hors UE : quels droits de douane ?