International movers in Bangkok, in both directions
A move that crosses a border is two customs files, one inventory and a date that must hold at both ends. Asia Relocation Thailand surveys the home, packs it, clears it out of Thailand and follows it to the door at the other end.
An international move is not a bigger version of a local one. The truck is the easy part. What decides whether the date holds is paperwork written in two jurisdictions, a volume measured accurately enough to book the right space, and an inventory precise enough to survive an inspection at a port you will never see.
Thailand adds its own conditions. Export formalities run through Thai customs and are prepared before a carton is sealed, not while the container waits. Sailing schedules out of the country set the real departure date. And three years here usually produce furniture that needs crating rather than wrapping: teak and rattan do not travel like flat-pack.
Asia Relocation Thailand has been on the ground since 2011 and runs the origin end with its own crews. Survey, packing, documentation and export clearance are one company's responsibility; at the destination, a partner we have chosen works from our inventory and reports to the same coordinator in Bangkok.
What we carry out of Thailand, and what belongs elsewhere
The second column is not small print. Half the disputes in this trade are about something everyone assumed was in the price.
Carried by the service
- A pre-move survey at your address in Bangkok or upcountry, and the volume in cubic metres everything else is built on.
- Export-grade packing and crating for a sea or air leg, with a signed inventory that both customs files will use.
- Thai export formalities — documentation prepared and lodged before the container is booked, not after it is loaded.
- 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, delivery, unpacking, and the packing debris taken away.
Every line is written into the quotation, with its limits.
A different service
- A move that stays inside Thailand. Bangkok to Chiang Mai, or across town, is a local move — no border, no customs file.
- The car. Shipping a vehicle you own runs on its own paperwork: vehicle transport.
- The animals. Health rules and flight bookings belong to pet relocation, not to a container.
- An office. Servers, workstations and a switch-over weekend are office relocation.
- Cover, and a gap in the dates. Moving insurance is quoted separately, and storage in Thailand holds the shipment if the two dates do not meet.
All of these can sit on the same file and the same dates. Say so in the inquiry.
How the shipment actually travels
Four ways out of the country and one account structure. The volume and the date decide between them — not the brochure.
Sea freight, dedicated container
The standard for a full household leaving Thailand: your goods are the only ones inside, sealed at your address in Bangkok and opened at the destination. It is also what copes best with the rainy season, because the container is loaded under cover rather than transhipped in the open.
Sea freight, shared container
A partial household travels alongside other shipments and pays for the space it uses. The trade-off is worth knowing before you choose it: departure follows a consolidation schedule out of Thailand, so the saving is real and the calendar is less yours.
Air freight
For the volume that cannot wait for a vessel: a posting that starts in three weeks, the box a family cannot be without. Frequently combined with sea — the essentials fly out of Bangkok, the rest follows.
Inbound to Thailand
The same operation read backwards, and the half most companies handle worst. We clear the goods into Thailand, hold them in our Bangkok warehouse if the lease has not started, and deliver when the keys exist.
Corporate, embassy and NGO accounts
Several files under one agreement, with named approvers, entitlement to check each shipment against, and one billing trail. Most run through Bangkok, where the assignments and the missions are.
From the survey to the empty room at the other end
-
Survey and volume
We come to the address, or walk the rooms with you by video. We are not only measuring furniture: the lift, the stairwell and the width of the soi decide the crew and the day as much as the cubic metres do.
-
A written scope, then a price
What is packed, what is crated, which mode, which sailing, and what is excluded. Two households of the same size rarely produce the same quotation, and the difference is always in this document.
-
Packing and the inventory
Our own crews pack, label and list. Anything wooden or fragile facing a sea leg is crated rather than wrapped. The inventory produced that day is the document both customs authorities will read.
-
Thai export clearance and departure
Documentation goes in before the container is booked. This is where a move is delayed or not, and it is why we ask for your passport and visa status early rather than the week you leave.
-
Arrival, clearance and delivery
Our partner clears, delivers, unpacks and removes the debris, reporting to your coordinator here. If the destination home is not ready, the shipment waits in a warehouse instead of on a pavement.
Four departures, and they are not the same job
Households arriving in Thailand
The shipment has to meet a lease that may not have started and a condominium that will not release a lift on demand. Timing the delivery, not the sailing, is the work.
Expatriates going home or on to the next posting
Three years in Bangkok produce more volume than anyone expects, in a last month already full. The survey is when you decide what actually crosses the water.
Thai families and professionals leaving the country
For work, for study, or to join family abroad. The export file is identical to any other departure, and this page is written for you as much as for an arriving expatriate — in English here, in Thai with your coordinator.
Companies, embassies and NGOs
Several people moving at once, entitlement to respect, and a mobility team that needs one contact rather than one per employee. Most of these files start in Bangkok.
Bangkok is where the shipment is built
Surveys and crews across Thailand; the documentation, the warehouse and the export file in the capital.
An international move out of Thailand converges on Bangkok whatever address it starts from: that is where the export file is lodged and the container is stuffed. A household leaving Chiang Mai or Phuket is surveyed and packed at home by our crew, then travels down as one sealed consignment rather than loose cartons handed between subcontractors.
It is also why we ask about the destination early. What may leave, what must be listed and what will be inspected are decided by the country you are going to, not by Thailand.
What clients ask before the survey
What documents are needed to ship household goods out of Thailand?
Does my shipment travel in its own container or a shared one?
How long does an international move from Bangkok take?
Can the car and the dog travel with the household goods?
We are Thai, not expatriates. Can you handle our move abroad?
Who receives the shipment at the other end?
Do you handle moves for companies, embassies and NGOs?
How is the price of an international move decided?
Two neighbours of this page
You are not leaving Thailand
Across Bangkok, or up to Chiang Mai. No border, no customs file, and a different crew plan.
Local moving in Thailand →The whole moving service
Seven services in Thailand, from the survey to storage, and which of them your move needs.
Moving services in Thailand →Send us the two addresses and the date you must be out
We survey the home in Thailand, fix the volume, and come back with a written scope: mode, sailing, documents, and what happens at the far end.
Request your moving quote →