Shipping belongins from the states

[Maya]

Hey all - I'm new to the forum, but have been here for a few years. I just got my permanent residency last week and now I want to ship my household stuff from the states....has anyone been through this process? Any recommendations? I'm still confused about whether permanent residents can bring in a car or not (without tax)...

 

[mini]

Permanent residents can not bring in a car without tax, only temporary residents can, as the point is if you don't pay the tax you will need to take the car out. (ie. the car is in the country only temporarily). If you have a permanent visa, that assumes you will stay & so will the car. Expect a nice bill of about 78% of the value imposed by the authorities and not on the value you declare. We just went through this & we decided not to bring the car.

 

[staygolden]

Dont want to scare you but I had a friend ship his things by boat through a company and they "lost" his things. Check references!
I dont know about cars.. why dont you just buy one here. Is it a status car? You'll pay more shipping it than its probably worth the trouble.. or sell it there and use the money to buy one here.. just because you have money doesnt mean you should throw it around needlessly. Its also funny how people with money are more concerned with how much tax they'll have to pay and less concerned with how much itll cost to ship something or buy something... they wouldnt want to contribute to the local economy or standard of living for people with less money. If youre rich enough to ship a car, youre rich enough to give a ton of tax to a country you decided is yours. Pay in to the country you live in or leave it.

 

[Stanexpat]

Permanent residents can not bring in a car without tax, only temporary residents can, as the point is if you don't pay the tax you will need to take the car out. (ie. the car is in the country only temporarily). If you have a permanent visa, that assumes you will stay & so will the car. Expect a nice bill of about 78% of the value imposed by the authorities and not on the value you declare. We just went through this & we decided not to bring the car.

Actually this is not correct, I brought in a car as a temporary resident and it's registered there now without paying duties assuming in the end you become a permanent resident. You can also bring in your personal effects as a temporary resident and avoid duties assuming you become a permanent resident.

I don't know if you can do it now after you have become a permanent resident(my guess is that you won't be able to). You would have to check this out.

As a practical matter I wouldn't recommend people bring in a car from the states or elsewhere. Unless it a very valuable car the shipping costs and all the hassles you will encounter make this not a very good option in my opinion. My guess is that the cost of shipping a car here from the states could be $5,000 or more. In my case we drove the car in from a nearby country. Believe me the hassles this involves can not be minimized.

You can bring in your personal effects as a temporary resident. The way it works is you post a bond equal to the amount of the duty, in my case $4,000. You then buy an insurance policy that garantees payment of the duty if you don't get permanent residency(never figured this out since they all ready have the money upfront). The insurance cost me $400 a year and since permanent residency takes two years the total was $800. Once we had the permanent residency we got back the $4000.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you have some very good furniture, etc., the cost of transporting here makes just buying new stuff in Argentina more practical for most people.

 

[Fishface]

they wouldnt want to contribute to the local economy or standard of living for people with less money.

through taxes ???? yeah right.

 

[mini]

Actually this is not correct, I brought in a car as a temporary resident and it's registered there now without paying duties assuming in the end you become a permanent resident. You can also bring in your personal effects as a temporary resident and avoid duties assuming you become a permanent resident.

I don't know if you can do it now after you have become a permanent resident(my guess is that you won't be able to). You would have to check this out.

As a practical matter I wouldn't recommend people bring in a car from the states or elsewhere. Unless it a very valuable car the shipping costs and all the hassles you will encounter make this not a very good option in my opinion. My guess is that the cost of shipping a car here from the states could be $5,000 or more. In my case we drove the car in from a nearby country. Believe me the hassles this involves can not be minimized.

You can bring in your personal effects as a temporary resident. The way it works is you post a bond equal to the amount of the duty, in my case $4,000. You then buy an insurance policy that garantees payment of the duty if you don't get permanent residency(never figured this out since they all ready have the money upfront). The insurance cost me $400 a year and since permanent residency takes two years the total was $800. Once we had the permanent residency we got back the $4000.

Personally, I wouldn't recommend doing this unless you have some very good furniture, etc., the cost of transporting here makes just buying new stuff in Argentina more practical for most people.

Well, then you have different information than I have received from everyone I contacted, which of course is not really that surprising! I was told from more than one source what I wrote above. I would be very sad if what you say is true, as I really really wanted to bring my car...

Also, if it's as you suggest, then I would recommend you bring your car probably has safety features not available in cars here, not to mention cars here are rather expensive & my car was already paid for.

 

[staygolden]

Ive seen several people have their things mysteriously go missing form cargo ships. be wary.

 

[mini]

Ive seen several people have their things mysteriously go missing form cargo ships. be wary.

Our container was sealed in front of me & the seal was only broken also in my presence here in Argentina.

Did the whole container go missing or just part of a shared container?

Insurance is a must however.