Moving to Ireland

For UAE residents, Ireland has become the obvious European landing point, and the reason is plain. It is the only English-speaking member left in the EU after Brexit, so a relocation that elsewhere means learning the local administrative language alongside a new job, a new school run and a new home is, here, simply a move. Most of our Irish traffic lands in Dublin, where Google, Meta and LinkedIn run their EU headquarters and the data-centre and fintech roles cluster around the Docklands and the south-side suburbs. Cork follows, anchored by its pharmaceutical belt at Ringaskiddy, and Galway and Limerick round out the picture for med-tech and the growing midwest.

The people on this corridor sort into a handful of familiar shapes. A software or fintech professional taking an EU role at one of the Dublin tech campuses, often with a family and a school start to pin down. A pharmaceutical or process engineer heading to a Cork or Galway plant. An Irish citizen coming home after years in the Gulf, household and all. And the occasional commercial consignment bound for one of the industrial parks. The route is exacting on paperwork and slightly longer at sea than the direct European corridors, but run properly it is one of the steadier ones we operate. Across 22 years and 1,213 moves we have learned where it tightens.

1. Survey and brief

   A UAE survey in person or by video, volume measured in cubic metres, and any item that changes its customs treatment flagged early. Sea and air options come back priced against your Irish start date and the school calendar if there is one.

2. Documentation before sail

   The Transfer of Residence file is built with the Irish inventory, your residence evidence and UAE deregistration proof. EORI confirmed for commercial flows, PPSN timing mapped, and the AIS data set readied so clearance is not improvised on arrival.

3. Export pack and dispatch

   Export-standard packing from Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah, with ISPM-15 timber where the crate calls for it. Booked onto a Jebel Ali rotation transhipping through a continental hub to Dublin Port or Cork, or flown DXB to DUB, SNN or ORK.

4. Clearance and delivery

   AIS lodgement at the port of entry, Transfer of Residence relief applied, then devanning and road delivery to your address in Dublin, Cork, Galway or Limerick. The crew unpacks, reassembles the larger pieces and clears the packing debris on the same visit.

The UAE–Ireland corridor in detail

Dublin Port, Cork and the sea route

Ireland is the western edge of the EU and an island, which shapes every routing decision. There is no road option from the UAE, and since Brexit the old UK landbridge — trucking across Britain between two ferry legs — has become slower and heavier on paperwork. The settled answer is now an EU-direct sailing. A box leaves Jebel Ali, tranships through Rotterdam or Antwerp, and completes the final leg to Dublin Port, which handles the bulk of household and commercial traffic. The Port of Cork, with deep-water capacity at Ringaskiddy, is the natural second option for moves into the Cork pharmaceutical cluster and the south. Quay-to-quay you should budget roughly 21 to 25 days, with the door-to-door window nearer 28 to 35 once transhipment, clearance and inland delivery are counted.

Air freight from Dubai

Air is the straightforward part of the corridor. Emirates and other carriers fly direct DXB to Dublin in around seven and a half hours, with onward feeds to Shannon (SNN) and Cork (ORK). Cargo can move inland within a working day of a clean clearance, which is why we often split a move — the things a family needs in the first fortnight by air, the bulk of the household by sea behind it on the same relief umbrella.

Revenue, the Automated Import System and Transfer of Residence

Revenue Commissioners is Ireland’s tax and customs authority, and the import now runs almost entirely through its Automated Import System. For a household, the filing that matters is Transfer of Residence relief, declared on the electronic C&E1076 ahead of arrival. Where it is granted, it removes customs duty and the 23% VAT on used personal effects, provided the goods have been owned and used outside the EU for at least six months and you are transferring your normal residence to Ireland. Without it, VAT at 23% falls on the assessed value of the goods, which on a full container is a real number rather than a rounding one. A Personal Public Service Number is required before clearance on many bonded flows and on vehicles, and because it can only be obtained once you have arrived, we treat its timing as part of the plan. New white goods, commercial stock and certain vehicle situations sit outside the relief; the file we build makes that distinction explicit so nothing is challenged at the desk.

Used cars, the NCT and what stays behind

A used UAE car can come, but it is rarely the economical choice. On import you face Vehicle Registration Tax, calculated on CO2 emissions and the open-market selling price, and the vehicle must pass the National Car Test — the NCT roadworthiness inspection — which applies from four years after first registration. Left-hand-drive UAE cars are legal but resell poorly into a right-hand-drive market, so for most movers the maths points the other way. Beyond vehicles, the usual exclusions apply: firearms need the correct Irish certification, plants and seeds require phytosanitary clearance, alcohol above personal allowances attracts excise, and anything new and boxed is read as commercial rather than personal effects.

Pets, restricted items and pricing

Pets move under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM). A dog or cat needs an ISO-standard microchip, a valid rabies vaccination, and entry through an approved route with the documentation DAFM specifies for a non-EU origin; dogs additionally require tapeworm treatment. We hand the animal to an IPATA-accredited handler at the Dubai end and meet it at the Irish end. On pricing, every quote is built from the same parts — volume, route, freight mode, customs treatment and delivery access — and itemised so freight, customs, haulage, packing and insurance read as separate lines rather than a single opaque figure. We do not quote a corridor average and hope; we quote your move.