Leaving Vietnam · 20-200 kg
Personal effects shipping from Vietnam
Leaving Vietnam? Ship 20-200 kg of used belongings to your home country or your next posting. Gateway Express picks up personal effects shipments of 20-200 kg in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Hoi An and ships them via DHL, FedEx or UPS, door to door, on a tracked air waybill.
Who this is for: expats leaving Vietnam
This page is for people who lived in Vietnam and are now moving out of Vietnam: teachers whose contract ended, engineers and managers rotating to another posting, long-stay digital nomads closing an apartment, and families going home at the end of a school year. The typical shipment is 20-200 kg of used clothes, books, kitchen items, sports equipment, tools and electronics, packed into cartons and sent as unaccompanied baggage on a courier air waybill.
Before you weigh anything, decide what is actually worth moving. Furniture, motorbikes and appliances bought locally are usually cheaper to sell in Vietnam than to ship, while clothes that fit, professional tools, hard drives, documents and anything with sentimental value are worth the freight. A useful test: if replacing the item at home costs less than moving it, sell it before you go.
Under about 20 kg, or a tourist?
A single parcel of souvenirs or a few forgotten items is a simpler job with different paperwork. Start at our tourist shipping hub.
Furniture, or more than about 500 kg?
That is a container job. Consider an international moving company for crating and formal clearance at both ends — Gateway Express handles cartons, not household removals.
Courier vs moving company: your options for moving abroad shipping
There are four realistic ways to get personal belongings out of Vietnam, and the right one depends on weight, volume and how soon you need the boxes. The comparison below is qualitative: international luggage shipping rates move with the carriers' weekly fuel surcharge and with the destination zone, so we quote each shipment rather than publish a table that would be out of date next week.
| Option | Best for | Typical weight | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Courier express (DHL, FedEx, UPS) | Clothes, books, laptops and paperwork you need soon after you land | 20-200 kg, split into cartons of about 20-30 kg | Fastest door-to-door option and fully tracked, but billed on volumetric weight, so bulky light cartons cost more than they weigh. |
| Courier economy | Used belongings you will not need in the first weeks after moving | 20-200 kg on one air waybill | Slower than express and with fewer daily departures, still tracked end to end on the same carrier networks. |
| Airline excess baggage | A few extra kilos you can carry on your own direct flight | Up to the per-piece limit your airline sells | Arrives when you do, but is charged again on every flight and leaves you handling overweight cases at the airport. |
| Sea freight or an international moving company | Furniture, appliances or a whole household | Roughly 500 kg and above | Weeks door to door and formal customs clearance at both ends. Gateway Express does not move furniture or book containers. |
To settle excess baggage vs shipping for your own flight, run the numbers in the excess baggage calculator, and check what your cartons will actually be billed at with the volumetric weight calculator before you pack them.
How to declare used personal effects
Customs treats a box of your own worn clothes very differently from a box of new goods, but only if the paperwork says so. Describe the contents on the invoice as used personal effects, give a realistic second-hand value for each carton rather than the original purchase price, and list the contents carton by carton. The shipper name should match the passport of the person moving, and the receiver should normally be that same person at the new address. Under-declaring to save duty is what triggers inspection and delay.
Relief for household goods is a procedure you apply for, not an automatic exemption, and each country runs its own. We can tell you which procedure exists; only the destination customs authority can tell you what you will pay.
Thailand (verified August 2026)
Thailand removed the 1,500 THB de minimis on 1 January 2026, so courier imports carry duty plus 7% VAT from the first baht. The used household-effects exemption requires a one-year work permit or a Smart Visa, arrival of the goods between one month before and six months after the owner's own entry, one unit per type of electrical appliance, and formal clearance with passport, work permit, packing list and air waybill. Details are on our shipping to Thailand guide.
United Kingdom
The relief is called Transfer of Residence and is claimed on form ToR1. Apply and get your reference before the shipment arrives, and confirm the current conditions and deadlines with HMRC.
Australia
Goods sent separately from you are declared as Unaccompanied Personal Effects on form B534. Biosecurity screening applies to anything with soil, plant material or food traces, so clean camping and sports gear before packing. Confirm requirements with the Australian Border Force.
United States
Belongings sent home by a returning resident are handled as returning-resident personal effects. Confirm the declaration requirements for your own situation with US Customs and Border Protection before shipping.
Everywhere else
Most countries have an equivalent procedure under a different name, and several require you to have lived abroad for a minimum period or to file within a window around your arrival date. Check the destination guides and confirm the current rules with the customs authority of the country you are moving to.
Documents and a four-week timeline for moving out of Vietnam
- Passport photo page of the person the belongings belong to
- Vietnamese visa, work permit or residence card page, if you hold one
- Commercial invoice describing the contents as used personal effects, with a realistic second-hand value per carton
- Packing list showing what is inside each numbered carton
- Full destination address with a local phone number and email for the receiver
- Air waybill, issued by Gateway Express when the shipment is booked
- Destination relief form where one exists, such as ToR1 for the United Kingdom or B534 for Australia
- 1
Four weeks before you leave
Decide what to sell, give away and ship. Message us on WhatsApp with a rough carton count, weight and destination and we come back with a quote and a pickup slot.
- 2
Three weeks before
Collect boxes and sort by category. Check anything doubtful against the prohibited items list, and start the destination relief application if the country has one.
- 3
Two weeks before
Confirm the pickup date, pack and number each carton, and write the packing list as you go. Photograph anything fragile or valuable before it is sealed.
- 4
Departure week
We collect, weigh and measure the cartons, sign the documents with you and dispatch via DHL, FedEx or UPS. You track the shipment online from the same day.
What you cannot ship as unaccompanied baggage
Air courier rules are stricter than airline checked-baggage rules, and one banned item can hold the whole consignment. The list below is refused or heavily restricted on shipments leaving Vietnam.
- Loose lithium batteries and power banks — never accepted in an air courier shipment, even in checked cartons
- Aerosols, pressurised cans, camping gas and lighter refills
- Flammable liquids, including perfume and nail products above carrier limits
- Prescription medicine, which many destinations refuse or require an import permit for
- Fresh food, meat, seeds and plants, which are restricted or banned by most agriculture authorities
- Ivory, tortoiseshell, protected wildlife products and antiques without an export licence
Check anything you are unsure about in the prohibited items checker, or send us a photo before pickup and we will confirm whether it can travel.
Peak seasons for international relocation shipping from Vietnam
Pickup slots fill in three predictable windows. June and July are the heaviest, when the international school year ends and teaching contracts finish together. December and January follow, as corporate contract years close and people combine the move with holiday travel. The weeks before Tet, the Vietnamese Lunar New Year, tighten both local pickup capacity and carrier space out of Vietnam. If you are moving in one of these windows, book the pickup two to three weeks ahead rather than in your final week.
How to ship personal belongings overseas in four steps
- 1
Message us on WhatsApp for a quote
Send the destination country, a rough carton count with weights and sizes, and the date you leave. We reply with a quote and the service options for that lane.
- 2
We pick up from your address
Collection from a home, office or serviced apartment in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, and in Hoi An on the daily run from the Da Nang branch — contact us before 11 AM for a same-day pickup. Hanoi is served by courier forwarding, which adds one to two days.
- 3
Packing, weighing and documents
We reinforce and weigh each carton, then prepare the invoice describing the contents as used personal effects, the packing list and the export declaration with you.
- 4
Dispatch via DHL, FedEx or UPS, then track
The shipment leaves on a tracked air waybill and you follow it to the door. Declared value is covered under our compensation policy, which provides compensation up to 100% of the declared value.
Follow a shipment any time on the tracking page, and read the terms on the compensation policy page.
Personal effects shipping FAQ
What is the best way to send 5-10 kg or 20-200 kg from Vietnam to Europe or the US?
For 5-10 kg, one courier parcel booked door to door is normally the simplest option, because it is collected from your address and tracked to the doorstep in the destination country. For 20-200 kg, pack into several cartons of about 20-30 kg each and send them on a single air waybill so the shipment clears customs as one consignment. Courier shipments are billed on the greater of actual weight and volumetric weight, so a bulky box of bedding can be charged more than a small dense box of books. Gateway Express collects personal effects in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Hoi An, so you do not have to carry cartons to a counter yourself.
Why is shipping out of Vietnam expensive, and is it cheaper from Ho Chi Minh City than Hoi An?
An international courier price is built from a base rate for the destination zone and the billable weight, plus a fuel surcharge that DHL, FedEx and UPS reset on a published schedule, plus extra charges such as remote-area delivery, oversize or non-stackable handling. The fuel surcharge moves every week, which is why a quote you were given months ago no longer matches today. Gateway Express quotes on the destination, the billable weight and the service level, not on which Vietnamese city the cartons start in, so you do not need to travel to Ho Chi Minh City to get a sensible rate. Our Da Nang branch runs a daily pickup into Hoi An; contact us before 11 AM for a same-day collection.
DHL fuel surcharge ·FedEx fuel surcharge ·UPS fuel surcharge
Should I carry it in my luggage or ship it if I am still travelling for a few months?
Carry what you will actually use on the road and ship the rest, because airline excess baggage is charged again on every flight while a shipment is paid once. Excess baggage suits a single direct flight home with a few extra kilos; shipping suits cartons you do not want to drag through three more countries. Gateway Express ships when you book, and does not hold or store belongings until a later date, so send the boxes to an address that can receive them now, such as your home address or a family member. If you are unsure which is cheaper for your route, compare the two before you decide.
Excess baggage vs shipping calculator ·Excess baggage in Vietnam
Is sea freight or the post office cheaper for a heavy box, and will it get lost?
Sea freight starts to make sense once the volume is large, roughly 500 kg or a full household, because it needs formal customs clearance at both ends and takes weeks rather than days. For 20-200 kg of used belongings, air courier is usually the practical choice. National postal services cap the weight of each parcel and hand the item between operators, so the level of tracking detail changes along the way. Every Gateway Express shipment travels on a DHL, FedEx or UPS air waybill with end-to-end tracking, and declared value is handled under our compensation policy, which provides compensation up to 100% of the declared value.
Will I pay customs duty at home on used clothes, tailored suits or personal items?
That is decided by the customs authority of the destination country, not by the carrier and not by us. Declare the cartons as used personal effects and give a realistic second-hand value for each one rather than the original purchase price, and list what is inside each carton. Most countries have a specific relief procedure for a person moving their residence, and it is a procedure you apply for rather than an automatic exemption: the United Kingdom calls it Transfer of Residence and uses form ToR1, Australia calls it Unaccompanied Personal Effects and uses form B534, and the United States handles it as returning-resident personal effects. Confirm the requirements and any deadlines with the destination authority before the shipment departs.
I left items behind in Hoi An or Da Nang, can someone pick them up and ship them to me abroad?
Yes. Gateway Express collects from hotels, homestays, offices and landlords in Da Nang, and in Hoi An through the daily pickup run from the Da Nang branch; contact us before 11 AM for a same-day collection in Hoi An. To arrange it we need a copy of the passport page of the person the items belong to, the name and phone number of whoever is holding the items in Vietnam, a written list of what is in the boxes, and the full destination address with a local phone number. Payment and paperwork are handled remotely, so you do not need to be in Vietnam.
Can I ship a laptop, iPad or phone from Vietnam?
Yes, under conditions. A lithium battery installed inside the device it powers is accepted by DHL, FedEx and UPS under their dangerous-goods rules, with limits on how many devices go in one shipment and requirements for packaging and labelling. Loose spare batteries and power banks are not accepted in an air courier shipment at all. Devices should be powered off, protected against movement inside the carton, and declared individually on the invoice with a realistic used value. Send us photos of the devices before pickup and we will confirm what can go.
Do I need an international moving company, or is a courier enough?
For roughly 20-200 kg of clothes, books, kitchen items, sports equipment and electronics, a courier shipment is enough and is faster, because it moves as air cargo on a tracked air waybill and needs no container booking. Once you are moving furniture, appliances or an entire household, roughly 500 kg and above, consider an international moving company, which handles crating, container space and formal clearance at both ends. Gateway Express does not move furniture or book containers, so we will tell you plainly when your volume has outgrown courier shipping.
Which courier is best from Vietnam, DHL, FedEx or UPS, and can they pick up from my apartment?
No single carrier is fastest or cheapest to every country. Gateway Express ships via DHL, FedEx and UPS and selects the carrier for each shipment based on the destination, the billable weight, the service level you need and the surcharges in force that week. Pickup is available from an apartment, house, office or serviced apartment in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, and in Hoi An through the daily run from the Da Nang branch. Hanoi is served by courier forwarding, which adds one to two days to the schedule.
How do I send documents such as passport copies and contracts from Vietnam quickly?
Paperwork such as passport copies, signed contracts, transcripts and certificates ships as a document express shipment, which travels on the air waybill with a document description and does not need the commercial invoice that goods require. We collect documents from an address in Ho Chi Minh City and Da Nang, and in Hoi An on the daily run from the Da Nang branch; send us the pickup address and we will confirm the earliest collection slot. Ask us first before sending an original passport or identity card, because carrier acceptance for those differs by lane and destination.
Know your leaving date? Start with a quote
Send us the destination country, a rough list of your cartons and the week you fly out. Our team replies in English on WhatsApp with a quote, a pickup slot and the customs paperwork you will need for that destination.