Whether visiting Thailand for a short or long period or moving here permanently you may be more comfortable with your own “stuff”.  We found a good shipper and loaded all our earthly belongings into a 40’ shipping container.  Our belongings included all our furniture, clothes, books, pictures, some foods we can’t get in Thailand, kitchen utensils, and tools.  Almost everything was used and we had a comprehensive list of everything and the contents of every box.  We did the packing and our shipper picked the container up at our front door in Seattle and 6 weeks later delivered it to our front door in Chiang Mai.  

The shipping price was less than it would have cost us to buy new living room furniture here and everything went smoothly.  Since my wife is a returning Thai citizen and had been away for more than one year everything came in duty free.

Make sure you work with an experienced shipping firm and also get a good shipping agent in Bangkok who will walk your stuff through customs, pay any duties required, and truck it to you wherever you live in country.

Some people will be able to ship most of their household goods duty free.  Returning Thais and people holding Thai work permits have exemptions.   If you are on a work permit, you have 6 months after starting a job to import your stuff.  There is no duty free entitlement for retirement visa holders however. Very high duties are charged for motor vehicles for everyone.  Some may have to pay heavy customs duties on everything they ship, especially for anything electronic and new.  Interestingly enough it is fairly easy to being your pets into Thailand.  Do your homework before shipping here.

Check the sites below for some of the many, and often changing, customs regulations.

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   Thai Customs Department website

   General customs regulations when visiting Thailand

   Quick look at customs regulations for travelers

   Import restrictions and exemptions

   Importing household goods

   Bringing your pet here

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You can also go to www.thaivisa.com and do a search on “customs”, etc. and see what the latest discussions on this topic are talking about.