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The Swiss half is easy. It is HMRC that decides your dates.
Going the other way is a completely different job, and almost none of the difference is on the road. Switzerland lets ordinary household goods leave without ceremony. The United Kingdom does not let them in without an approved application, and that application takes time you have to plan around.
On the way into Switzerland, the customs step happens at the frontier while the lorry is standing there. Coming back, it happens weeks earlier, at a desk, before anything is loaded. That single difference reorders the whole job.
The application is called ToR1 and it goes to HMRC. It has to be approved before your goods arrive in the United Kingdom, and approval produces a reference number that your mover quotes on the import declaration. Without that number the shipment cannot clear under the relief, and it waits somewhere at your cost until the position is sorted out.
So the sensible order is: apply, get approved, then book the vehicle. Doing it the other way round is the commonest and most expensive mistake made on this route.
Everything below about the process comes from HMRC guidance on transfer of residence to the UK and the ToR1 application itself, checked on 5 August 2026.
HMRC wants a list of what you are bringing, written before you start the form. It does not have to name every object. Grouping is accepted, so a hundred and fifty books can be a hundred and fifty books rather than a hundred and fifty lines.
Alongside it: proof of your address in Switzerland, proof of your address in the United Kingdom, and the photo page of your passport. Scans or clear photographs are fine.
Be specific rather than vague on the list. Round numbers and loose descriptions invite follow up questions, and every question adds days to a process that is already the thing holding up your move.
The relief exists for belongings you already own and have already used. Anything bought new in the run up to the move is outside it, and HMRC reads that literally: something still sealed in its original packaging is treated as a new purchase however long ago you ordered it.
Alcohol and tobacco are excluded. So is anything for commercial use rather than personal use.
And the relief is for a genuine transfer of your main home. A second home in the United Kingdom, a holiday property or a short stay does not qualify, whatever else is true about the goods.
If you are coming to the United Kingdom for a period of full time study, HMRC guidance says you do not need to complete the ToR1 form at all. The agent declares the goods to a specific customs procedure code instead, and you submit evidence of your period of study at entry.
That is a real simplification and it removes the multi week wait that shapes every other route home. It is also the sort of thing nobody tells you, so tell your mover you are a student at enquiry stage rather than after the application has been started.
The same exclusions still apply. Alcohol and tobacco are outside the relief for students as they are for everybody else.
Before you leave, deregister with your commune. It is a routine step and the confirmation you get is genuinely useful afterwards, because it is documentary evidence that you gave up Swiss residence on a particular date.
Switzerland does not restrict the export of ordinary household belongings, so there is no Swiss equivalent of the ToR1 waiting to catch you. The outbound side of a Swiss move is the straightforward half.
What does catch people is the tenancy. Swiss leases commonly run to fixed termination dates rather than ending when you choose, so a large share of the country moves within the same few days several times a year. Removal vehicles are scarce exactly then, in both directions.
If your notice period lands you on one of those dates, ask what the alternative weeks look like before you commit.
Arrivals into Switzerland are typically tied to a job start date somebody else set, which removes the flexibility a shared load needs. Departures are different. People leaving have usually given notice, know roughly when, and can accept a collection window in exchange for a lower price.
So if there is a direction where sharing genuinely pays on this route, it is this one. The condition is that your dates have some give in them, and the ToR1 approval is in hand so that a delay at the far end does not turn a saving into a storage bill.
A dedicated vehicle still makes sense for a full household on a fixed date, or where the property has to be handed back on a particular morning.
Three of these come up on almost every return move. Movers running this route field them constantly.
How a shared load is priced, and why the return leg suits it.
Who packs, and why the box list doubles as your inventory.
The seven things that move the number, in either direction.
Access at the Swiss end decides the collection day as much as the paperwork decides the delivery. Each of these covers what a crew meets on the ground.
Zurich · Geneva · Basel · Bern · Lausanne · Lugano · Zug · Winterthur · all Swiss towns
ToR1 is the application for transfer of residence relief, made to HMRC through GOV.UK. It lets you bring household goods into the United Kingdom without paying customs duty or import VAT when you are genuinely moving your home here. Approval must be obtained before you claim the relief, and your mover needs the reference number it produces.
As early as you can, and certainly before the lorry leaves Switzerland. HMRC processing times vary and reports of several weeks are common. Goods arriving in the United Kingdom without an approved reference number cannot clear under the relief, and they sit somewhere at your expense until the position is resolved.
A list of the goods you are bringing, proof of your address in Switzerland, proof of your address in the United Kingdom, and your passport photo page. The list can group similar items rather than name each one. Scans or clear photographs are accepted.
No. The relief covers belongings you have owned and used, not things bought new for the move. Items still in their original packaging are treated as new purchases. Alcohol and tobacco are excluded. The relief applies to a genuine transfer of your main home, so a second home or a holiday property does not qualify.
Yes, and it is simpler. HMRC guidance states that a student coming for a period of full time study does not need to complete the ToR1 form. The agent declares the goods to customs procedure code 40 00 C06 instead, with evidence of the study period submitted at entry. Tell your mover you are a student at enquiry stage.
Deregister with your commune before you leave. The confirmation is your evidence that you have given up Swiss residence, and it is the sort of document that supports a transfer of residence claim. Switzerland does not restrict the export of ordinary household goods, so the Swiss end of this move is the straightforward half.
The driving is. The same overland run applies, the same crossings, and the same choice between a shared vehicle and one to yourself. What changes completely is the paperwork, because you are now importing into the United Kingdom rather than into Switzerland, and the two processes have nothing in common beyond both needing to be done in advance.
Often, yes, and the return leg is frequently the better direction for it. Arrivals into Switzerland are usually tied to a job start date, while departures tend to have more flexibility, and a shared load is priced on your willingness to accept a collection window.
Your Swiss collection address, the UK delivery address, a room by room list and the window you can work with. Say whether your ToR1 is already approved, because it changes what can be booked. One vetted moving company from our network checks the route and the access, then comes back to you.
Send your move detailsOperated by DATACONTEXT (UK) LTD, company number 07425576, ICO registration ZB022743, registered at Norman House, Saint Saviours Estate, Abbey Street, London SE1 3DH. Running since 2010. We work with vetted moving companies in the AGM Group network.
Written by Darren Benjamin, founder of International Removals Companies, who has run the business since 2010. Last checked 5 August 2026.