Moving furniture and luggage from Shanghai to Houston

Client Information: Mr. Zhou;
Shipping Route: Shanghai to Houston;
Service Date: July 3, 2019;
Case Summary: Mr. Zhou from Shanghai moved to Houston.

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, located in southeastern Texas. It is renowned for biology, medicine, oceanography, and space research, and is also a world-famous comprehensive industrial and commercial city with a deep economic foundation, ranking in the upper-middle tier of the global urban economic development landscape. With abundant job opportunities, high development potential, a pleasant environment, low housing prices, a suitable climate, convenient transportation, and advanced healthcare, and more importantly, a massive Chinatown, Houston is highly suitable for Chinese immigrants to settle in. After immigrating to the United States, Mr. Zhou from Shanghai chose to settle in Houston.

Mr. Zhou found Seapoe Relo through a friend's referral and signed a shipping contract after consultation. Following an on-site assessment by Seapoe staff, the items to be shipped—including coffee tables, tables and chairs, beds, wardrobes, curio shelves, books, photo frames, and more—totaled approximately 10 cubic meters in volume. The moving plan recommended LCL sea freight to Houston, USA. To ensure the safety of the items during transport, Seapoe staff carried out professional packing at the time of pickup, and Mr. Zhou could supervise the packing on site if he wished. All subsequent work after packing was handled by Seapoe; Mr. Zhou simply needed to wait at his new home in Houston for the furniture to be delivered.

Below are photos from the packing site.

Notes on Moving from Shanghai to Houston

1. U.S. customs regulations allow new immigrants to bring into the United States, duty-free, reasonable household items and personal property that they have owned and used in their country of origin for 12 months or more. New immigrants are advised to bring items of higher value, such as calligraphy and paintings, pianos, and solid wood furniture.

2. Documents required for moving to Houston: original passport, two copies of the immigrant visa, an item list (two copies in Chinese, one in English), a list of shipped item quantities, volumes, marks, and estimated weights, as well as the consignee's information (address, phone, fax).

3. Due to counter-terrorism requirements, the U.S. customs inspection rate is as high as 90%, typically conducted via X-ray scanning. If prohibited items are detected by scanning, customs will conduct a manual inspection, which will incur additional costs.

4. If valuable, fragile, or irregularly shaped items need to be shipped, it is recommended to use wooden crate packing to ensure safety.