Importing household goods into TRNC

paul90


Joined: 07/11/2007
Posts: 350

Message Posted:
08/11/2007 19:00

Hi - we should complete on our house purchase in Karsiyaka in April 2008 and we are hoping to make a shipment of our furniture and other personal items from the UK at that time.

The house would be used only for our holidays for the first three years and thereafter as a permanent residence.

On this site, I have read that in order to collect our goods in TRNC I will need: "Your original passport, together with two sets of photocopies.

Copy of your house title or sales contract.

A resident’s certificate obtained from your local council."



I would be grateful if anyone could clarify the point regarding the resident's certificate, e.g. as a "holidaying" resident rather than full time resident how do I go about getting the certificate, where do I go, how easy is it, how long does it take, any costs involved etc.



All advice and experience of others who have done this would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance, Paul

ukturk



Joined: 01/09/2007
Posts: 1974

Message Posted:
09/11/2007 13:25

hi paul

welcome to the forum

for you to import your goods from the u.k to cyprus you firstly have to go to cyprus and apply for a resi visa to do this you have to provide your passport - a copy of you kocan (deeds) or if you have not got that your sales contract will do copies of your bank statements (u.k-cyprus) to show you can survive on your savings because working on a resi visa is not allowed you also need passport pics with all these once you have gone to the relavant office the officals will take all your gathered documents (including your passport) and process your resi visa which may take from 3 to 6 weeks depending on if busy

once you have your resi visa then you can clear your possesions thru customs to do this you can either go in person with your removel company to clear your stuff (you have to produce your resi visa-passport-deeds) plus money to pay all the taxes on your electrical items a rule of thumb if you dont wont to get stung by taxes only bring one of everything like 1 t.v - 1 dvd - 1 comp etc etc

the other way of doing it is giving your removel company power of attorney which you do in cyprus and give them all the relvant info to clear customs for you (a good way cos the removel company always deals with the customs so might get away with paying less)



the other question you asked about resi visa's

to apply for this it has to be made at the immigration office and fill in a application form and show your passport once this has done you go off to the muhtar office (local council) and you have to produce all the info that i said earlier to you, then you have to have a medical which is done in lefkosa this normally takes bout 3 weeks for the results and costs around 100-150 pound

once the results come back then with your results and your certificate you get from the muhtar office and all of the other relevant info you finally go to the immigration office to obtain your resi visa you pay 150pound for your first year then a small fee every year after plus you have to a medical every year, once you have served three years then you can apply for a permanent resi visa once you have this you dont have to mess around every year

this whole process even thou its a pain in the arse is quite simple to complete

if you feel you cant do this then their are people who do all the running around for you but you have to pay them for their services

hope this all helps you and dont be put off by my long winded explaintion

if you need any more info or help please dont hesitate in posting me

regards

ukturk

lippylush


Joined: 29/12/2006
Posts: 197

Message Posted:
09/11/2007 23:19

Paul

We have just returned from our House in Malatya having gone through the process you will do. We are not full time residents and arranged for Olytrans to ship our household effects for a 4 bed place across to the TRNC. The container arrived almost to the day that we did. They ensured all the customs paperwork was in order. We had to provide a letter from our local Muhtar in Malatya to vouch that we had a habitable Villa there.It cost us 20YTL each and was given to us immediatley. We also had to provide our passports, copy of contract and that was all. We went to the Olytrans office in Famagusta on the Tuesday where they took copies of passports and contract, keeping the letter of residence, it's called a 'IKAMETAH BELGESI'. The next day we met the Olytrans rep' in Nicosia went to Police HQ where our passports were checked and then onto the Customs place where copies were given to the officals there. Apart from that Olytrans did all the necessary running around and completing/filing paperwork for us. The outcome being Olytrans delivered our container to the Villa along with 2 customs officers who then unsealed our container and checked all the contents against our manefesto (full details of contents)..... and that was that oh yes in most cases you will pay some import duty but that is decided by the customs officers. If we can be of further help just email.

regards Sue and Dave

orangekazzie



Joined: 31/07/2007
Posts: 1091

Message Posted:
10/11/2007 20:39

Hi Paul



Our experience was similar to Sue and Dave. We aren't residents yet and only use our house for holidays. We got a letter from our Muhtar gave it to our importing agent who took us to the Police in Nicosia, from there to the Customs office. We only needed the letter, a cop of our contract and our passports. The Customs office checked the paperwork, stamped our passports to say we had imported goods on such and such a date. We then went back to our house and the following day our importers turned up with our goods. No problem at all.



Regards



Karen

Daisy


Joined: 22/09/2007
Posts: 56

Message Posted:
11/11/2007 12:15

Hı

We did exactly as 'orangekazzıe' says and ıt all went very smoothly. We used OLAYTRANS and they were FANTASTIC. We cannot praıse them hıghly enough. They were reasonable ın cost - dıd what they saıd when they saıd - kept us ınformed by phone. Excellent.

paul90


Joined: 07/11/2007
Posts: 350

Message Posted:
13/11/2007 16:38

Many thanks to UKturk for the advice and to Sue & Dave, Karen and Daisy for their experiences - very valuable and useful information.

I will now be getting the letter from the local Muhtar when I am over in December and I am making arrangements to use Olaytrans in April.

Hopefully everything will go as smoothly as it did with yourselves.

Thanks again.

regards, Paul

lippylush


Joined: 29/12/2006
Posts: 197

Message Posted:
14/11/2007 18:28

Just a slight warning. Olytrans were great but our container did suffer water damage....... not a problem under normal circumstances as we had Insurance. We are having some difficulties with Olytrans with regard to making an Insurance Claim they either don't seem to know the necessary processes or are not being very helpful in ensuring our claim is looked into. I know this is the TRNC but when we've paid quite a substantial amount for Insurance Cover the least we expect is some Insurance Claim Forms to be made avaiable to us with an explanation regrading how to make a claim. The inital response from them was no other previous customers had experienced water damage..... I guess there is always a first time and I'm sure there have been claims made before for whatever reason. Has anyone ever been in the same position as us and if so any advice would be appreciated.



Regards Sue