Moving from France to Taiwan (2026): Complete Guide

The France-to-Taiwan corridor is a long-haul, non-EU move that touches two very different administrations: France’s customs and tax authorities on the departure side, and Taiwan’s customs, immigration and animal-quarantine bodies on the arrival side. This guide covers both halves — clearing your household goods out of France under an EU export procedure, and importing them into Taiwan as a settling resident — plus a short note on the reverse trip. It is written for a resident of France (French or foreign national) who is physically relocating their home and belongings to Taiwan, not for commercial shippers or short-term visitors.

Key takeaways

• Taiwan grants duty-free entry of used household effects only to genuine settling residents, and your unaccompanied shipment must arrive within 6 months of your arrival date, declared on the inbound passenger form (Taipei Customs — Duty-Free Exemptions).
• Your Taiwan immigration status drives everything: you need a Resident Visa from Taiwan’s Bureau of Consular Affairs, then an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) applied for within 30 days of arrival (BOCA; National Immigration Agency).
• France’s customs authority is the Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects (DGDDI); a household move out of the EU is an export requiring a detailed, dated, signed inventory in duplicate (douane.gouv.fr).
• Certain categories (precious metals, cultural goods, weapons) trigger a formal export declaration, and a 10% tax applies to precious metals — and a 6% tax to jewellery, art and antiques over €5,000 — exported privately outside the EU (douane.gouv.fr).
• You must notify France’s tax service when you move your domicile fiscal abroad, and check whether the Exit Tax applies (impots.gouv.fr; Exit Tax).
• Bringing a dog or cat requires a Taiwan import permit applied for at least 30 days before shipment, microchip, rabies vaccination, and a rabies antibody titre ≥ 0.5 IU/ml (BAPHIQ).
• Cash limits into Taiwan: NTD 100,000, foreign currency over USD 10,000 must be declared, and RMB 20,000 (Ministry of Finance).

1. Your Taiwan status determines the customs treatment

Before you book a single crate, settle your immigration route, because Taiwan’s customs relief is tied to being a genuine incoming resident, not a tourist. Most relocators enter on a Resident Visa issued by the Bureau of Consular Affairs (BOCA) of Taiwan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs — typically for work, marriage/family, study or investment — following the resident-visa flow (BOCA). After arrival, resident-visa holders must apply for an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) through the National Immigration Agency, within 30 days from the day after entry (NIA).

Why this matters for your boxes: Taiwan Customs allows duty-free import of used personal effects only for passengers genuinely transferring residence, and the timing is measured from your dated entry stamp (Taipei Customs — Duty-Free Exemptions). If you ship as a visitor with no resident status, your goods are treated as ordinary dutiable cargo. Sort the visa first, then the freight.

2. The France export side — DGDDI, the inventory, and the tax exit

France’s customs authority is the Direction générale des douanes et droits indirects (DGDDI), reachable through Infos Douane Service (douane.gouv.fr). A move to Taiwan is a transfer of residence outside the European Union, so your belongings physically leave the EU customs territory.

Deregistration — what France actually requires. Unlike Nordic countries, France has no municipal population-deregistration step for citizens leaving. The meaningful "leaving" formalities are fiscal and consular: you notify the tax authority of your change of domicile fiscal, and French nationals may (optionally) update the consular register at their destination. Do not go looking for a mairie deregistration certificate — it does not exist for this purpose.

The inventory and declaration. For the household goods themselves, DGDDI requires supporting documents including proof of the residence transfer and "un inventaire des biens transférés en double exemplaire, détaillé, estimatif, daté, paginé et signé" — a detailed, valued, dated, paginated and signed inventory in duplicate (douane.gouv.fr — transfer of residence). For ordinary used furniture and effects no export tax is due, but specific categories — weapons and ammunition, gold and precious metals, dual-use goods and technology, protected wildlife species, cellar/alcohol stocks, and cultural goods — require a formal export declaration. Precious metals exported privately outside the EU carry a 10% tax, and jewellery, artwork and antiques above €5,000 carry a 6% flat export tax (douane.gouv.fr — moving outside the EU; France Diplomatie). Artwork and antiques above set values may also need a cultural-goods export licence — flag any such items to your mover early.

The export itself is lodged in French customs’ declaration system (the DELTA environment), under an EORI number, which is why individuals normally have a customs agent or removal company file the export on their behalf (douane.gouv.fr).

Tax-residency exit. When you transfer your domicile fiscal out of France, you must report your new address abroad to your last tax office and file your departure-year return accordingly; non-residents who keep French-source income are then managed by the Service des impôts des particuliers non-résidents (SIP-NR) (impots.gouv.fr — leaving France; what steps to take). Separately, check the Exit Tax: transferring your residence abroad can trigger taxation of latent capital gains on significant securities holdings, with deferral possible under conditions (impots.gouv.fr — Exit Tax).

3. Ports & transit — real French gateways, honest estimates

France’s principal deep-sea container gateways for a Taiwan sailing are Le Havre (HAROPA), Marseille-Fos on the Mediterranean, and Dunkerque in the north. Air freight typically routes through Paris-Charles de Gaulle (CDG). On the Taiwan end, sea cargo arrives at Port of Kaohsiung (the main container hub) or Port of Keelung near Taipei, and air freight at Taoyuan International Airport (TPE).

Transit times below are freight-industry estimates, not official figures, and vary with carrier, routing, transhipment and season:

• Sea (FCL/LCL), port-to-port: roughly 35–50 days from a French port to Kaohsiung; door-to-door 8–12+ weeks once packing, export clearance, sailing, Taiwan clearance and delivery are added.
• Air freight: transit of a few days, but door-to-door 1–3 weeks including clearance.

Plan your 6-month Taiwan import window (Section 4) backwards from these ranges: for sea freight you generally want the shipment leaving France within a few weeks of your own departure so it lands comfortably inside the window.

4. The Taiwan import side — the inbound declaration and duty-free rules

Taiwan Customs uses a Dual-Channel (Red/Green) system for arriving passengers; anything beyond your duty-free allowance goes through the Red Channel to declare (Taipei Customs — Must Know).

Unaccompanied baggage / removal goods. If your household shipment travels separately (as it always does by sea), you must declare it on the Declaration Form for Inbound Passengers when you land, marking that you have unaccompanied baggage to follow, and have Customs stamp it and your passport — this stamped entry date starts the clock (Taipei Customs — Duty-Free Exemptions). The shipment itself must arrive within 6 months of your entry, after which you (or an authorised agent) present your passport/entry permit and file the import declaration when the goods land.

What is duty-free. For a settling resident, used personal articles in reasonable quantities are exempt where the value is ≤ NTD 10,000 per set/piece, and goods for personal and household use are exempt up to a combined value of ≤ NTD 35,000 (Taipei Customs — Duty-Free Exemptions). Crucially, carry-on and unaccompanied baggage are totalled together for the exemption, and the overall passenger goods ceiling is USD 20,000. New items, items over the per-piece limit, and controlled goods can attract duty and tax. Tobacco and alcohol have separate small allowances (e.g. 1 litre of alcohol, 200 cigarettes for the standard traveller allowance) and are never part of a "household goods" exemption.

Keep your inventory in English, matching the French export list, plus passport bio/signature pages, the entry-stamp copy, and the bill of lading or air waybill — these are the documents Taiwan Customs expects for a personal-effects clearance.

5. Pets — official rules on both ends

Leaving France (DGDDI / EU rules). To take a dog, cat or ferret out of the EU, French customs require an ISO microchip, a valid rabies vaccination given after identification, and — for most destinations — a rabies antibody titration ≥ 0.5 IU/ml, taken at an approved lab; you should contact your veterinarian at least 3 months before departure (douane.gouv.fr — travelling with a pet; Your Europe — pets to non-EU countries). You travel on an EU pet passport plus the export/health certificate the destination requires.

Entering Taiwan (BAPHIQ). Taiwan is rabies-controlled and strict. The Bureau of Animal and Plant Health Inspection and Quarantine (BAPHIQ) requires the importer to apply for an import permit at least 30 days before shipment, a microchip, rabies vaccination meeting WOAH standards, and — because France is not rabies-free — a rabies neutralizing antibody test of at least 0.5 IU/ml from a designated laboratory, with the blood sampling done no less than 180 days and no more than 2 years before shipment (BAPHIQ). Arriving animals undergo quarantine/monitoring at a designated facility (currently a 3-month monitoring period under the amended rules); confirm the current quarantine duration and reservation directly with BAPHIQ before you book, as durations have changed over time and quarantine space must be reserved in advance.

6. Vehicles, money and things people forget

• Money: Into Taiwan you may carry up to NTD 100,000 in New Taiwan Dollars; foreign currency above USD 10,000 must be declared (no cap once declared); and RMB is limited to 20,000 (Ministry of Finance; Kaohsiung Customs FAQ). Undeclared NTD and RMB in excess of the limits are confiscated.
• Vehicles: Importing a French car into Taiwan is rarely worth it — it faces import duty, commodity tax and stringent local type-approval/emissions compliance. Treat it as a commercial import, not part of your household exemption, and get a written quote before shipping.
• Restricted/prohibited items: Meat products, certain plants, seeds and some foodstuffs face quarantine controls; controlled drugs, weapons and counterfeit goods are prohibited. Check Taipei Customs’ items-subject-to-other-regulations list before packing (Taipei Customs — Must Know).
• Timing traps: the entry-stamp date, the 6-month goods window, and your pet’s 180-day titre window rarely line up by accident — reverse-plan them together.

How Flyto handles your France to Taiwan move

Flyto runs strong in-house European operations — our own offices, warehouses, teams and vehicles across Northern, Central and Southern Europe — so your packing, collection in France and EU export are handled by people we employ and manage directly, complemented by a carefully chosen partner and subcontractor network for specialist legs. For the Taiwan side we work with trusted local partners who know Kaohsiung/Keelung clearance and BAPHIQ quarantine, so the handover across the corridor stays coordinated end to end. We coordinate the whole move; we do not claim to do every leg ourselves.

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to be in Taiwan before my furniture arrives?
Yes — Taiwan measures the duty-free window from your dated entry stamp, and your unaccompanied shipment must land within 6 months of it. Arrive first, declare the incoming baggage, then let the sea freight follow (Taipei Customs).

Can I ship brand-new appliances and furniture duty-free?
Generally no. The resident exemption is for used personal effects in reasonable quantity; new items and anything over the per-piece limits can attract duty and tax (Taipei Customs).

What is the single most important document on the France side?
The detailed, valued, dated, paginated and signed inventory in duplicate demanded by DGDDI — it drives both the French export and the Taiwan import (douane.gouv.fr).

When should I start the pet process?
Immediately — count backwards. Taiwan needs the rabies titre 180 days to 2 years before shipment and a permit 30+ days ahead, while France advises seeing your vet 3 months before departure (BAPHIQ; douane.gouv.fr).

Do I need to tell the French tax office I’m leaving?
Yes. Report your new address abroad to your last tax office and file your departure-year return; check whether the Exit Tax applies to your assets (impots.gouv.fr; Exit Tax).

What about moving back — Taiwan to France?
The mirror applies. To bring your household into France after living outside the EU, French customs grant a transfer-of-residence franchise if you’ve lived abroad long enough and owned/used the goods, with the same detailed inventory and proof of residence transfer; verify current conditions on douane.gouv.fr before shipping (douane.gouv.fr — transfer of residence).

Sources

• DGDDI — transfer of residence outside the EU
• DGDDI — moving outside the EU (marriage, expatriates)
• DGDDI — travelling with a dog, cat or ferret
• France Diplomatie — déménagement (departure formalities)
• impots.gouv.fr — I am leaving France / arriving in France
• impots.gouv.fr — steps when moving abroad
• impots.gouv.fr — Exit Tax
• Your Europe — taking pets to a non-EU country
• Taipei Customs — Must Know (dual channel, regulated items)
• Taipei Customs — Duty-Free Exemptions and Payment of Taxes
• Ministry of Finance, R.O.C. — declare excess cash
• Kaohsiung Customs — currency limits FAQ
• BOCA — Resident Visa application flow
• National Immigration Agency — residency guidelines
• BAPHIQ — quarantine rules for importing dogs and cats