Moving to Brazil cost from US

Some people have luck in shipping their things, while others do not. My family moved once from Iceland to the USA by shipping a container, it arrived months later, broken into and virtually empty. We never saw a dime of insurance money.

At least compared to the USA, I believe most Brazilians live a rather minimalist lifestyle, not having nearly as much "stuff" as Americans seem to collect. In my very humble opinion, bring the things you cannot easily replace, like family items, then things not readily available in Brazil, I brought my own better quality tools for example, and the things that are the most expensive in Brazil, like your electronics. Once in Brazil, you can buy anything else.  You can look around on sites like Mercado Livre to get an idea of the cost of "stuff" in Brazil if you have not.

Good luck to you and in your endeavor!

12/14/22 @john8670.  In principle, you're certainly much better off bringing minimal items and buying everything here, unless, after you've disposed of everything that you can,

• you have bulky items (e.g. furniture) of such emotional or monetary value that it makes sense to you to go to the expense, bother, and delays of the moving and Customs process;
• you have items that can't be replaced in Brazil, and can't be replaced, or easily replaced, in your home country, or hand-carried back with you when you come or on subsequent visits.

If you can reduce the amount of stuff you want to bring to the size of an air shipment and dispense with an ocean shipment, that might be a good tradeoff.

I am not bringing anything that won't fit in a couple of suitcases. I will be starting my new life. No need to pay to bring the old one with me.

I think it depends on what you want and the size of the home in Brazil. It will take time and money to replace furniture in Brazil, especially is you have a large home in Brazil. If you are moving into a 2-3 bedroom apartment you might not need that much from the US. We ended up bringing 1/2 container of stuff, including many breakables, no problems.

I have a lifetime of accumulated stuff back home.  I have a very extensive woodworking hobby and I've got ten grand worth of tools that simply cannot be duplicated in Brazil, and a thousand board feet of lumber that cant be duplicated either.  I've got delicate antique displays with glass shelves and fronts and furniture I have made myself by hand.

I can fill a whole container but I want it dropped at my door in a remote corner of the Chapada.....

I've spoken with four or five moving companies that advertise on the Internet that they specialize in moves to Brazil.  At one point we kicked around a number like $15,000, US.

They all ghost me.  They dont want the job, not for all the tea in China.

12/14/22 I have a lifetime of accumulated stuff back home. I have a very extensive woodworking hobby and I've got ten grand worth of tools that simply cannot be duplicated in Brazil, and a thousand board feet of lumber that cant be duplicated either. I've got delicate antique displays with glass shelves and fronts and furniture I have made myself by hand.
I can fill a whole container but I want it dropped at my door in a remote corner of the Chapada.....
I've spoken with four or five moving companies that advertise on the Internet that they specialize in moves to Brazil. At one point we kicked around a number like $15,000, US.
They all ghost me. They dont want the job, not for all the tea in China.
-@Inubia

Your best bet, if you haven't tried them yet, are either an Allied or North American affiliate with Brazil experience.  They both belong to Sirva, which has a big presence here and did an outstanding warm handoff for me; if anyone can get it to you, including the overland at this end, they can.  Allied moved my container, including a large art collection, and only one bowl and one cup were broken. Talking directly to Sirva and trying to arrange it from this end might also work.

Unfortunately, no one will probably move the lumber for you:  Brazilian regulations on lumber not treated in very particular ways pretty much amount to a prohibition.   The rest, though, might be doable.

12/14/22 I think it depends on what you want and the size of the home in Brazil. It will take time and money to replace furniture in Brazil, especially is you have a large home in Brazil. If you are moving into a 2-3 bedroom apartment you might not need that much from the US. We ended up bringing 1/2 container of stuff, including many breakables, no problems.
-@dandowumn

Very true.

On the other hand, it can become a "pay me now or pay me later" proposition.  Inubia was quoted around $15,000.  I paid a little north of $20,000.  That kind of money will buy a lot of furniture in Brazil.  For people with just "replacement level" furniture in the US, leaving all of most of it behind and buying all new at this end can make a lot of sense.

@abthree

You had already posted that recommendation.  Allied was the first one I tried.

Thanks, anyway

@rraypo Thanks Ray!

@abthree Thanks ab!

Are people moving to Brazil from the US better off bringing minimal items and buying everything there or paying to have items shipped via container and having a moving company bring everything to new house?
It seems like there would be a lot of stress added with a lot of moving parts when it comes to using a shipping container and a moving company over in Brazil vs just buying everything new there upon arrival.
-@john8670

Though question......

Depending on the size of your load, it will be containerized. Which has to clear customs.  Still, your stuff is as good as the carrier it takes it from A to B.  While in the US, I| would hear all kinds of different stories on how good or how bad it was one's experience as for shipping things to Brazil, which depended on the choice of a freight hauler. Some flight by seat of pants operators came and went.  You will need to get the grapevine on good ones.  Best to crash into their enclaves and seek consensual advice on this.   

And also, don't expect expediency, at least on freight rates charged by your carrier/hauler.  That is going to sit through clearance, for, in a worst case scenario, a year, if not any longer.

As far as taxing your belongings, if you are making a permanent move, then you are customs exempt, which won't make the time it takes to your door any shorter.  There are official  printouts out there explaining thoroughly how to get it done.  I would  suggest you get a copy or PDF and read it thoroughly.

i would not bring in your furniture and appliances ( unless you own a Viking, a Sub Zero, a Miele, your Kitchen Aid stuff, and by the way, you are out of luck in getting them  serviced in Brazil anyways ), unless you must. Short of your dear heirloom stuff, which i understand might be the deal breaker, I would sell off the rest that has no sentimental value  ( Yard Sale ). And even the Heirloom items,. if they are not large, you can actually bring item by item on a piecemeal basis by yourself or through relatives and friends.

The furniture here used to be well made. Not anymore.  You could buy lots of decent stuff in stores by Sao Bernardo do Campo-SP , mostly family owned business by Italians mostly , and Pinheiros, and since the Arabs start taking over the business, quality and service delivery went through the floor.   No offense to any ethnic group, it is just they started cutting corners, and buying in bulk through containerized loads.

So you will resort, once here, to shop on Antique Shops, and some venues ( Embu, Cotia, Southern States such as Parana ).   The Brazilan  Made Cabinetry was never any out of this world stuff, and has gotten worse and pricier since. These days, the substrate is all on MDF ( heat pressed composite of ground wood and glue   ), thanks to tighter environmental regulations and the lack of good laminates and hardwoods ( which ironically are smuggled to Asia, Europe, and US ).

@dandowumn What international moving company did you go with?

@abthree What international moving company do you recommend?

Just to give some details on items I would want to ship to Brazil:

6 - 8 Boxes of clothing and shoes

2 - 4 Boxes of kitchen stuff and small appliances (We will do away with this if the shipping cost more than the items value)

2 bicycles

4 boxes of random stuff

Our White English Lab. We are looking into special pet moving services for this.

12/17/22 @abthree What international moving company do you recommend?
-@john8670

I knew from my consulting work that not just anyone can ship successfully to Brazil.  There are a thousand ways to screw up in big, expensive, and sometimes irretrievable ways, so my first screening question when I started calling moving companies was always, "Have you ever moved anybody to Brazil?"  If the answer was "no", I thanked them for their time and checked them off my list.  If they had moved people to Brazil, the next question was who took care of the handoff when the shipment got to Brazil.

I was living in Chicago, so I called a couple of big local movers and had them come out to give me estimates.  One was Pickens-Kane, an Allied affiliate that does a lot of corporate moves.  When I asked their Sales Manager, Matt Buckley, my first question, he started laughing.  Hard.  When he caught his breath, he said, "I used to think that moving people to China was hard, then I moved someone to Brazil.  China is easy in  comparison!"  The answer to the second question was good, too, and the estimate was in the ballpark.  I'd found my guys. 

Matt told me about the connection between Allied (and North American) and Sirva, an international logistics company with a big presence in Brazil.  There was a Stateside coordinator for my shipment in the US, and a Sirva coordinator in São Paulo; they were both in constant contact with me, and with each other, and did the handoff flawlessly.  The US coordinator and packing crew knew exactly how to pack label, and inventory my shipment to get through Brazilian Customs, and the Brazilian coordinator gave me a checklist of documentation that I'd need to give to Customs, and sent a Customs broker to my home to pick it up when I had it ready.  Once the broker got the shipment released, Sirva delivered the shipment to my door.  Since oceangoing ships stop at Manaus, in this case it was only a short local pull from the port.

So I'd recommend calling all the biggest movers in your area, and asking them my question.  If you come up blank, ask the local Allied and/or North American people if there are any firms nearby in their networks who might have Brazil experience.  Your shipment won't be able to leave the US until you have a CPF, a Brazilian address, and either your CRNM or the Protocolo showing that your CRNM application has been accepted and that the card will be issued, so you'll probably need to arrange for some storage, as well.  Best of luck!

12/17/22 Just to give some details on items I would want to ship to Brazil:
6 - 8 Boxes of clothing and shoes

-@john8670

A heads up on clothing -- my woolen suits arrived full of holes.  Having wool dry cleaned before packing may help.  Cottons, silks, linens, and synthetics, no problem.

cm, -@john8670

A heads up on clothing -- my woolen suits arrived full of holes. Having wool dry cleaned before packing may help. Cottons, silks, linens, and synthetics, no problem.
-@abthree

Holy wow! I'm 6'3, 235 pounds, (191cm, 107 kilos) so finding clothes in Brazil is almost impossible. I come back from the US with a suitcase full every time. I too tried to bring Icelandic wool wear from my mother country of Iceland, but they did not last long in Brazil.

@john8670 I moved from Minneapolis to Brasilia. I contracted with a local firm, Mohawk, which is affiliated with United. Mohawk did the packing and removal, and transferred our belongings to United. United then brought everything to Sao Paulo. They involved a company called Planes Global Moving Services. This latter company was involved in putting together the paperwork for getting our belongings through customs and delivering it all from Sao Paulo to Brasilia.  We only had to contract with Mohawk and they arranged the rest. We had many contacts with Planes Global Moving Services regarding logistics. As is normal, there was an extra fee related to storage in Sao Paulo, but this was expected and made clear in the initial contract. We had no problems with anything, and the total contract was for 6700 pounds and $11.2k. We brought beds and mattresses and our expensive Scandinavian design furniture as well as our better electronics and exercise machines. All of these items would be considerably more expensive in Brazil for similar quality. We also moved all of our kitchen items (dishes, pots, pans), excluding all electrical appliances because of incompatibility with the 220v system in Brasilia. We eliminated most of our books and other heavy items. We sold all of the furniture we wanted to get rid of on Facebook marketplace (we also bought some stuff to bring down-again, things that would cost considerably more in Brazil). Good luck with your move.