Moving from Sweden to Peru (2026): Complete Guide

Relocating from Sweden to Peru means managing two separate official processes on opposite sides of the Atlantic: exporting your household goods and closing out your affairs with the Swedish authorities, and clearing customs and immigration on arrival in Peru. This guide is written for a Sweden-based resident — Swedish citizen, foreign national living in Sweden, or returning Peruvian — planning a household move, and it covers both halves in the order you’ll actually deal with them: Sweden first, then Peru, plus a short note on moving back.

Key takeaways

• Sweden has no separate "emigration" customs process beyond a standard export declaration (Single Administrative Document) filed with Tullverket, the Swedish Customs Authority — you or your mover files it, there’s no separate "moving permit."
• You must report your move abroad to Skatteverket (the Swedish Tax Agency) no later than a week before departure; if you’ll be outside Sweden for at least a year you are deregistered from the population register (folkbokföring), via e-service or form SKV 7665 (Skatteverket – Flytta från Sverige).
• Deregistering does not automatically end unlimited Swedish tax liability — if you have "väsentlig anknytning" (essential ties: a home, family, or a company left in Sweden), Skatteverket presumes you remain fully taxable, and Swedish citizens/10+‑year residents must actively prove otherwise for 5 years after leaving.
• In Peru, your immigration status (calidad migratoria) decides your customs treatment: the duty-reduced "menaje de casa" household-goods regime is tied to establishing residence, not to a tourist stay — see Migraciones’ resident-visa categories.
• Household goods imported under the menaje de casa regime pay a single 12% duty on customs value instead of standard tariffs, but only if you’ve lived abroad at least 13 consecutive months and haven’t used the benefit in the prior 2 years, per SUNAT.
• Carrying cash or negotiable instruments: Sweden/EU requires declaration above €10,000 leaving the EU (Tullverket); Peru requires declaration above US$10,000 and caps informal entry/exit at US$30,000 (SUNAT).
• Pets need an official export health certificate and vaccination record recognised by the destination country — Sweden’s Jordbruksverket tells owners to confirm requirements directly with the destination country’s veterinary authority, and Peru’s SENASA sets the entry rules dogs and cats must meet.

1. Immigration status decides your customs treatment in Peru

Before anything is packed, decide what status you’ll enter Peru under, because it determines which customs regime applies to your belongings. Peru’s Superintendencia Nacional de Migraciones (Migraciones) issues "calidad migratoria" in two broad groups: temporary (tourism, business, student) and resident (worker, rentista, investor, family of resident, among others) — see the official visa categories and the resident-worker procedure.

This matters directly for customs: SUNAT’s duty-reduced household-goods import ("menaje de casa," see section 4) is a benefit for people who are relocating their residence to Peru and who can prove at least 13 consecutive months living abroad before arrival — it is not available to someone entering as a tourist (SUNAT). If you arrive without resident status, your goods are cleared under ordinary import rules and standard tariffs instead of the single 12% rate. Sort out your visa category with Migraciones (or a Peru-based immigration lawyer) before your shipment leaves Sweden, since the customs paperwork on arrival needs to align with the immigration status you’re entering under.

2. The Sweden side: export declaration, deregistration, and tax exit

Customs authority and export declaration. Sweden’s customs authority is Tullverket. Because Peru is outside the EU, moving your household goods out of Sweden requires an export declaration — the Single Administrative Document (SAD) — filed either by you at a border customs office or by your moving company/freight forwarder on your behalf (Tullverket). Self-filers use declaration type "EX," commodity code "9905 00 00" (emigrant’s personal property), and procedure code "1000," with an itemised inventory attached (vehicles, electronics and other major items listed individually; smaller items can be grouped). There is no minimum value or weight threshold that exempts a move from this declaration — it applies regardless of shipment size, though in practice your mover typically handles the filing as part of the service. Special items need separate clearance: firearms require Police Authority export permission and must be declared at a customs "red point," and cultural/heritage goods may need an export licence.

Deregistering with Skatteverket. Sweden’s tax agency, Skatteverket, also runs the national population register (folkbokföring). You must notify Skatteverket of your move abroad no later than one week before departure, via the e-service or paper form SKV 7665 (Skatteverket – Flytta från Sverige). If you’re expected to be outside Sweden for at least a year, Skatteverket deregisters you from folkbokföring — you keep your Swedish citizenship and personnummer, but lose your registered address. Failing to notify can constitute a folkbokföringsbrott (population-registration offence).

Tax residency doesn’t end automatically. Deregistering from folkbokföring is an administrative step, not a tax event. Under Skatteverket’s rules on väsentlig anknytning (essential connection), you remain unlimited-taxable in Sweden after leaving if you retain ties such as a Swedish home not rented out on arm’s-length terms, a spouse/minor children remaining in Sweden, or a Swedish limited company you control (Skatteverket, rättslig vägledning). If you are a Swedish citizen or have lived in Sweden for 10+ years, the burden of proof is on you to show the connection is broken, and this presumption applies for 5 years after departure. See Skatteverket’s guidance for those who have left Sweden for what to file and when.

3. Ports and transit: getting the shipment from Sweden to Peru

Sweden’s largest container port is Gothenburg, handling roughly 57% of the country’s container trade and the country’s main hub for global shipping lines including Maersk, MSC, CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd (Port of Gothenburg). There’s no direct liner service from Gothenburg to South America’s Pacific coast — cargo bound for Peru is transshipped, typically via Bremerhaven or Antwerp, onto a South America–bound string. On arrival in Peru, virtually all household-goods sea freight lands at the Port of Callao, run under concessions overseen by the Autoridad Portuaria Nacional (APN), just outside Lima.

Estimated transit times (freight-industry planning figures, not published official schedules — always confirm with your specific carrier/forwarder): sea freight from Gothenburg to Callao via transshipment typically runs 6–9 weeks port-to-port, plus days on each end for haulage and customs clearance. Air freight is far faster, typically 1–2 weeks door-to-door via Amsterdam, Madrid or a US hub, but costs several multiples more per kilo and suits only high-priority or partial shipments.

4. The Peru side: menaje de casa and customs clearance

Peru’s tax and customs authority, SUNAT (Superintendencia Nacional de Aduanas y de Administración Tributaria), administers household-goods imports under the "menaje de casa" special regime. Key conditions, per SUNAT’s official guidance and import procedure page:

• You must prove at least 13 consecutive months of residence abroad immediately before arrival, and must not have used the menaje de casa benefit in the prior 2 years.
• Goods must arrive as cargo within a window of 1 month before to 6 months after your own arrival in Peru.
• The declaration is filed as a Declaración Simplificada de Importación (DSI), alongside your passport/ID, the international transport document (bill of lading/air waybill), the warehouse’s despatch slip ("volante de despacho"), an insurance policy if the goods are insured, and — for restricted goods — the relevant sector authorisation (SUNAT/Plataforma del Estado Peruano – Ingresar menaje de casa al país).
• Under this regime, goods pay a single 12% duty on the customs (CIF) value, instead of Peru’s normal itemised tariff schedule.

If you don’t qualify for menaje de casa (e.g., you enter on a non-resident basis), your shipment clears as an ordinary commercial-style import with standard tariffs and VAT (IGV), which is materially more expensive — another reason to lock down your immigration status before shipping (see section 1).

5. Moving pets

Leaving Sweden. Both Tullverket and the Swedish Board of Agriculture, Jordbruksverket, are involved: your dog or cat needs an official EU pet passport plus a veterinary health certificate, and because Peru is outside the EU’s harmonised pet-travel system, Jordbruksverket instructs owners to contact the destination country’s veterinary authority directly to confirm which certificate format and requirements apply, since there may or may not be a negotiated bilateral certificate for that route (Jordbruksverket; see also Tullverket on travelling with dogs/cats). Note also that fur/skin products from cats and dogs cannot be exported at all.

Entering Peru. Peru’s agricultural health authority, SENASA (Servicio Nacional de Sanidad Agraria), requires — for dogs and cats only — an original official export health certificate from your country of origin’s official authority, listing current vaccinations (dogs: canine parvovirus, distemper, hepatitis, leptospirosis, rabies; cats: feline panleukopenia, rabies — rabies mandatory from 3 months of age), plus internal and external deworming carried out within 30 days of travel, and a health statement (SENASA). A processing fee (S/98.60 at time of writing) is paid to SENASA, and pets are inspected on arrival in Peru before release.

6. Vehicles, money, and what people forget

Vehicles. Deregister any car you’re leaving behind with Sweden’s Transport Agency before export, as part of the Tullverket export process. If you’re shipping a car into Peru, SUNAT’s rules are strict: used vehicles must be no more than 2 years old counting from the model year, and used diesel-engine passenger/light vehicles are generally prohibited from import (heavy categories M3/N3 excepted) (SUNAT, requisitos vehículos usados). Clearance requires a Declaración Aduanera de Mercancías (DAM), commercial invoice, and transport document. Given the age cap, importing an older Swedish car is usually not viable — factor this into your planning early.

Cash and financial instruments. Leaving Sweden/the EU with €10,000 or more in cash (including traveller’s cheques, cheques, and bearer securities) must be declared to Tullverket, online or at the border (Tullverket). Entering or leaving Peru, amounts over US$10,000 must be declared to SUNAT at the airport customs desk or a border service centre, and amounts over US$30,000 cannot be carried informally at all — they must move through the banking system; undeclared cash risks temporary seizure plus a 30% penalty (SUNAT).

Easy to forget: the Swedish deregistration deadline (a week before departure, not after); that folkbokföring exit and tax-residency exit are two separate processes with different rules; the 13-month prior-residence proof SUNAT requires for the reduced household-goods rate; and that Peru’s vehicle-age rule makes most personal cars ineligible for import.

Moving back: Peru to Sweden

If you later return, Sweden applies the mirror-image rule: personal belongings you’ve owned and used for at least 6 months can generally be imported duty- and VAT-free when you re-establish residence in Sweden after living outside the EU for at least 12 months, following Tullverket’s customs exemption rules for those moving to Sweden, with details in their FAQ on the customs exemption. On the Peru side, you’d need to check Peru’s export rules for any goods leaving with you and re-register with Skatteverket/folkbokföring on arrival back in Sweden.

How Flyto handles your Sweden to Peru move

Flyto runs its own offices, warehouses, crews and vehicles across Northern, Central and Southern Europe, so the entire Swedish leg of your move — packing, the Tullverket export declaration, and haulage to the port — is handled in-house rather than handed off. For the ocean crossing and the Peru side, we work through a carefully vetted network of subcontracted carriers and trusted local partners on the ground in Peru, who manage the SUNAT menaje de casa filing and last-mile delivery, so you get one coordinated move without having to manage two separate logistics chains yourself.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need a Swedish export declaration even for a small shipment? Yes — Tullverket’s export declaration requirement for moves to non-EU countries applies regardless of shipment size; there’s no minimum-value exemption (Tullverket).

If I deregister from folkbokföring, do I stop paying Swedish tax? Not automatically. Deregistration is separate from tax residency; you may remain fully taxable in Sweden for up to 5 years if you retain a home, family, or company ties there (Skatteverket).

Can I get the reduced 12% household-goods rate in Peru if I move on a tourist visa? No — the menaje de casa benefit is tied to establishing residence and proving 13 months abroad; tourist entrants don’t qualify (SUNAT).

Can I bring my 8-year-old Volvo to Peru? In most cases no — Peru caps used-vehicle imports at 2 years from the model year, and used diesel light vehicles are generally banned (SUNAT).

How much cash can I carry when I leave Sweden? Anything under €10,000 needs no declaration; €10,000 or more must be declared to Tullverket before or when you cross the border (Tullverket).

What paperwork does my dog need to enter Peru? An official export health certificate from Sweden listing current core vaccinations including rabies, plus proof of deworming within 30 days of travel, checked by SENASA on arrival (SENASA).

Sources

1. Tullverket – Moving from Sweden to a non-EU country
2. Tullverket – Customs/VAT exemption when moving to Sweden from a non-EU country
3. Tullverket – FAQ on customs exemption for personal belongings
4. Tullverket – Travelling with cash (kontanta medel)
5. Tullverket – Travelling with a dog or cat
6. Skatteverket – Moving abroad and folkbokföring (form SKV 7665)
7. Skatteverket – Väsentlig anknytning till Sverige (rättslig vägledning)
8. Skatteverket – Har du flyttat från Sverige?
9. SUNAT – El menaje de casa (Asistente Aduanero)
10. SUNAT – Trámite para el ingreso del menaje de casa
11. SUNAT – Requisitos y documentos para importar vehículos usados
12. SUNAT / Bienvenido al Perú – Ingreso y salida de dinero en efectivo
13. Migraciones (Plataforma del Estado Peruano) – Solicitud de visa para residentes según calidad migratoria
14. SENASA – Requisitos sanitarios para ingresar o salir de Perú con mascota
15. Jordbruksverket – Utförsel av hundar/katter till land utanför EU
16. Port of Gothenburg – Container services
17. Autoridad Portuaria Nacional (APN) – Callao
18. Skatteverket – Flytta från Sverige (population-register notification deadline)
19. SUNAT / Plataforma del Estado Peruano – Ingresar menaje de casa al país (document checklist)
20. Migraciones (Plataforma del Estado Peruano) – Solicitar calidad migratoria para trabajador residente