Moving to Switzerland

Moving your home? Movers to Switzerland from Dubai and Abu Dhabi · Relocation to Zurich from Dubai and Abu Dhabi

Switzerland has no coastline and no seaport, so every household shipped by sea to Zürich, Geneva, Basel, Bern or Lugano arrives the same way — sea to a European port, then road over the border. With the Strait of Hormuz closed to commercial shipping since February 2026, the container is first trucked to a port outside the strait, such as Khor Fakkan or Fujairah on the UAE’s east coast or Sohar in Oman, then sails to Genoa or Hamburg before it is trucked inland and cleared at the Swiss frontier. We confirm the routing and a working schedule at the survey — the standard a Swiss move runs on, and the one we have built into UAE shipments across 22 years and 1,213 moves.

The people on this corridor follow Switzerland’s industries: a banker moving from DIFC to Zürich’s Bahnhofstrasse; a scientist joining Novartis or Roche in Basel; a specialist heading to Geneva for the UN agencies and other international organisations; an EPFL-adjacent engineer settling in Lausanne or Vaud; a founder drawn to the Zug crypto valley; and households for whom the cantonal tax system is part of the decision. The goods tend to be high in value, the timelines tied to a contract start, and the customs entry full — because Switzerland sits outside the European Union and grants no EU shortcut to anyone arriving from the Gulf.

Why move with Seemleius

How your move works

1. Survey and brief

   A UAE survey or video walk-through measures volume in cubic metres and flags anything that changes the customs treatment — a used car, wine, a piano. Sea-and-road and air options come back against your Swiss start date.

2. Documentation before sail

   The Übersiedlungsgut declaration (Form 18.44) is drafted with a full list of goods and proof of your domicile transfer, such as the lease or purchase contract for your Swiss home; customs may also ask for your UAE deregistration. The customs file and the EU transit paperwork are lined up so the frontier crossing is a formality.

3. Export pack and dispatch

   Export-grade packing from Dubai or Abu Dhabi, with ISPM-15 timber where needed. We book the rotation to Genoa or Hamburg, or air from DXB to ZRH or GVA when the timeline is tight.

4. Clear, truck and deliver

   Inland trucking lifts the box off the quay; the Swiss customs clearance is filed at the border with the relief applied. Our destination partner’s crew unpacks, reassembles and clears the debris in Zürich, Geneva, Basel, Bern or Lugano on the same visit.

The UAE–Switzerland corridor in detail

Transhipment routing — why there is no direct Swiss leg

Switzerland is landlocked, so the sea leg always ends elsewhere. The two practical gateways are Genoa — the Mediterranean run, natural for Lugano, Lausanne, Geneva and the south — and Hamburg, the northern gateway, with a road run south to Basel, Zürich and Bern. Whichever port handles the box, it is then trucked across the Swiss frontier where the real import clearance happens, so allow three to six days for the road leg and border formalities on top of the sea transit. Any quote that hides the transhipment is hiding a real cost.

Air freight from Dubai

When a contract starts before a container can arrive, air bridges the gap: DXB to Zürich (ZRH) or Geneva (GVA) is roughly seven to eight hours in the air, and a clean file usually clears within a working day. Many banking and pharma moves split the shipment — priority air for the urgent items, sea-and-road for the rest — under a single Übersiedlungsgut umbrella, so the inventory reads consistently across the airwaybill and the bill of lading.

Swiss customs — the BAZG and Übersiedlungsgut

Swiss customs is run by the Federal Office for Customs and Border Security (BAZG, formerly the EZV), and because Switzerland is not in the EU your goods face a genuine import entry rather than a member-state transfer. The household filing is Übersiedlungsgut — transfer-of-residence relief — which lets used personal effects enter free of duty and the 8.1% import VAT, provided you have used them abroad for at least six months and keep using them, you are taking up residence in Switzerland, and they are imported within two years of the move, declared on Form 18.44 with a list of the goods; new, boxed or commercial goods sit outside it. Because the goods cross EU territory first they travel under a T1 transit document opened at the port and discharged at the frontier; mishandle that transit and the box sits at Basel or Chiasso, which the advance file is there to prevent.

Cars, pets and restricted goods

A used UAE car can move, but it joins a Swiss process on arrival: it is cleared — free of duty and VAT with your household goods if you have used it abroad for at least six months, otherwise with import charges to pay — then presented for the Motorfahrzeugkontrolle (MFK), the cantonal roadworthiness and emissions inspection, before it can be registered. For many residents it makes more sense to sell a mainstream car in Dubai and replace it in Switzerland; we quote the shipping so you can compare. Cats and dogs travel under the rules of the Bundesamt für Lebensmittelsicherheit und Veterinärwesen (BLV, the Swiss Federal Food Safety and Veterinary Office): an ISO microchip, a rabies vaccination given after the chip and at least 21 days before travel, and an official health certificate from a UAE government-authorised vet, with the live-animal leg handed to a specialist pet-transport agent. Other items travel only with a permit or not at all: firearms and certain weapons need Swiss authorisation; wine and spirits above the household allowance (200 litres of drinks up to 25% vol, plus 12 litres over 25% vol) are dutiable, so a serious cellar is declared and costed; plants need phytosanitary clearance; and new boxed electronics read as commercial. We mark all of this at survey, because the surprise to avoid is a frontier hold over an item that should have been declared.

What shapes the quote for a Switzerland move from the UAE

Three structural factors shape the price, and none is hidden. The sea leg to Genoa or Hamburg is the base freight, set by volume and the rotation you book; the transhipment and inland trucking to the Swiss address is a real, separate line — the road kilometres and border handling a direct-port corridor does not carry; and our destination partner files the customs entry at the frontier, claims the relief and settles duty or VAT on anything outside it. A one-bedroom on a shared container sits far below a four-bedroom villa taking a dedicated 40-foot box, and air is priced by chargeable weight. Every quote itemises freight, transhipment, haulage, customs and packing.