International movers in Manila, to and from the Philippines
Shipping a household out of an archipelago starts before the port. Asia Relocation Philippines surveys the home, packs it with a list an inspector can read, clears it through the Bureau of Customs, and follows it to the door at the other end.
An export file is a paper exercise before it is a physical one. What holds a departure date is a packing list precise enough to survive an inspection, a clearance lodged before the vessel is booked, and a destination whose own rules have been read in advance rather than discovered at arrival.
The Philippines add a step that continental countries do not have. A household in Cebu or on a smaller island is already one sea crossing away from the port its container leaves from, so the domestic leg is part of the international plan and not an afterthought. Between June and November, the season is part of that plan too.
Asia Relocation Philippines is where the company began in 2011, and it is the market with the deepest bench: our own crews, our own warehouses in Metro Manila and Cebu, and a customs desk that deals with the Bureau of Customs and the immigration authorities daily rather than occasionally.
What leaves in the container, and what does not
The second column is not small print: most disputes in this trade are about something everyone assumed was in the price.
Carried by the service
- A pre-move survey at your address, and the volume in cubic metres everything else is built on.
- Export-grade packing and crating, with the carton-by-carton list that carries your declared values.
- The Philippine export file — documentation, Bureau of Customs clearance, and the immigration formalities a departing foreigner is asked for.
- Freight, sea or air, in a dedicated or shared container, booked against a sailing that fits your date.
- Delivery at destination by a partner working from our inventory: clearance, unpacking, and the debris taken away.
Every line is written into the quotation, with its limits.
A different service
- A move that stays in the country. Manila to Cebu crosses water but no border: that is a local move.
- The car. A vehicle you own has its own customs file: vehicle transport.
- The animals. Health rules and a flight booking, not a container: pet transport.
- An office. Workstations, servers and a switch-over weekend are office relocation.
- Cover, and a gap in the dates. Moving insurance is quoted separately, and storage in the Philippines holds the shipment when the dates do not meet.
All of these can run on the same file and the same dates. Say so in the inquiry.
How the shipment leaves the islands
Volume and date decide between these, and the survey settles both before anything is booked.
A container of your own
Sealed at your address in Metro Manila and opened at destination, with nobody else's goods inside. For a household that has been here several years it is usually the honest answer, and it is the option that survives a wet-season quayside best.
Shared container
A part-load pays for the space it occupies and waits for a consolidation out of Manila. The saving is real; the calendar belongs to the sailing rather than to you. It suits a first posting or a household that is leaving most things behind.
Air freight
For what cannot wait for a vessel: the documents, the professional kit, the box a family needs in week one. Often paired with a sea shipment so that a household is functional at the destination long before the container arrives.
Arriving in the Philippines
The same work in reverse: import clearance, then a warehouse in Manila or Cebu if the condominium is not ready. Delivery is scheduled against the building's rules and the day the keys exist, not against the day the vessel docks.
Corporate and institutional accounts
Companies, embassies and NGOs moving several people at once, under one agreement with named approvers and one billing trail.
From the first walk-through to the last carton
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The survey, and the access it finds
A service lift released by appointment, a subdivision gate with its own rules, a street no forty-foot trailer will enter. In Metro Manila the building decides the day more often than the inventory does.
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A scope you can read, then a figure
Packing, crating, mode, arrival handling, exclusions. It is the document to argue with, and the only place a surprise can be prevented rather than discovered.
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Packing, and the declared-value list
Values are recorded carton by carton as the crews work, not reconstructed afterwards from memory. Tropical transit sets the materials, and hardwood or fragile pieces are crated.
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Clearance through the Bureau of Customs
Lodged before the container is booked, with the immigration clearance a departing foreigner is asked for prepared alongside it — not discovered at the airport counter.
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The far end, and who answers for it
A briefed partner clears, delivers and unpacks, reporting to your coordinator here. If the home is not ready, the shipment sits in a warehouse rather than on a pavement.
Who ships out of the islands, and why
Arriving households, and a tower's lift schedule
A Makati or Alabang building releases its service lift by appointment, and the lease may not have started. Delivery day is negotiated with the property manager, not with the shipping line.
Expatriates shipping out to Europe, the US or Australia
The four destinations that account for most of what leaves here, and each writes its own rules about what may enter. The survey is when those get read, not the week of departure.
Filipino families and professionals leaving
Joining relatives abroad, taking a post overseas, or emigrating for good. The paperwork is the same as any departure, and this page is written for you as much as for an arriving expatriate.
Corporate, embassy and NGO files
Entitlement to check each shipment against, several people rotating at once, one billing trail. Most start in the Manila business districts, where the assignments are.
Two warehouse cities, and the water before the port
Crews and storage in Metro Manila and in Cebu, and export files lodged for households anywhere in the country.
An export from an archipelago has a leg most people do not price in. A household in Cebu, in Davao or on a smaller island reaches the port of export by sea before its container ever moves internationally, and that first crossing is where goods are usually handled by whoever happens to be available. We do it with our own people, sealed and inventoried, so the shipment reaching the quay is the one that was packed.
Warehouses in both Manila and Cebu are what make that practical: goods can be consolidated, held and loaded in either city instead of travelling to the capital because there is nowhere else to put them.
What we are asked before a container is booked
What does a foreigner need to ship household goods out of the Philippines?
Why is the packing list asked for in so much detail?
Do wooden furniture and houseplants need anything extra?
We live outside Metro Manila. Does that change the shipment?
We are Filipino, not expatriates. Can you handle our move abroad?
Does the typhoon season change the plan?
Can the car and the dog travel with the household goods?
How is the price of an international move decided?
Two pages next to this one
You are staying in the country
Across Metro Manila, or Manila to Cebu. Water, but no border and no customs file.
Moving inside the Philippines →The whole moving service
Seven services in the Philippines, and which of them your move actually needs.
Moving services in the Philippines →Tell us where it is going, and when you must be out
We survey the home, fix the volume, and come back with a written scope: mode, sailing, documents, and what happens at the far end.
Request your moving quote →