Moving to Turkey

Since the Strait of Hormuz closed to commercial shipping in February 2026, a container for Turkey goes by road to a port outside the strait, such as Khor Fakkan or Fujairah on the UAE’s east coast or Sohar in Oman, and sails from there to İstanbul’s Ambarlı terminals, or to Mersin for the south coast. Routing and dates are confirmed at the survey, and once the sailing is booked we hand you the vessel name, the booking reference and a projected ETA to plan around. Whether you are taking a family to a Kadıköy apartment, moving a professional into an İstanbul office, or settling on the Antalya coast, this is a corridor we run regularly, and daily Dubai–İstanbul flights sit alongside the sea route for anything urgent.

A Turkey move is as much about paperwork as freight. What keeps it calm is getting the customs side right before the box ever sails: matching the shipment to your residence permit, preparing a Turkish-language inventory that a customs officer will accept, and knowing which items change the treatment at the border. With 22 years’ experience behind us, that is the part we prepare most carefully.

Why move with Seemleius

How your move works

1. Survey and brief

   A home survey across Dubai, Abu Dhabi or Sharjah, or a video walk-through, with volume measured in cubic metres and anything that changes customs treatment flagged early. Sea and air options come back priced.

2. Documentation before sail

   We assemble your residence-permit evidence, passport copy and a full Turkish-language inventory, and brief the customs broker in Turkey before departure. Commercial flows get HS-coded invoices and the right import registration.

3. Export pack and dispatch

   Export-standard packing from your UAE address, ISPM-15 timber for any crating, then a booked rotation to İstanbul (Ambarlı), Mersin or İzmir, or air from DXB to İstanbul for time-critical consignments.

4. Clearance and delivery

   The broker lodges the entry against your residence permit, the container is cleared at the arrival port, then trucked to your door in İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir or Antalya, where our destination partner unpacks, reassembles the larger pieces and clears the debris.

The UAE–Turkey corridor in detail

Sea ports, air routes and modes

Most shipments travel by sea. İstanbul’s Ambarlı terminals on the European side are the default for the northwest, Marmara and the city itself; Mersin is the gateway for the southern and Mediterranean coast, including Antalya; and İzmir (Aliağa) serves the Aegean. Sailing dates from the departure port are confirmed at the survey; after arrival, allow a few days for clearance and one to two days of road delivery. Air is the faster alternative — usually four to five days from Dubai to İstanbul Airport — but priced for urgency, so the sensible split is sea for volume, air for the things you cannot be without.

Turkish customs and the residence permit

For personal effects the relief that matters is the used-household-goods exemption for people taking up residence in Turkey. It is tied to a valid residence permit (ikamet izni), the goods generally have to arrive within a defined period of your establishing residence, and the declaration is normally made through a licensed customs broker against a detailed inventory. Used belongings you have owned and used already are the straightforward case; brand-new goods, and anything bought in the run-up to the move, are treated differently. Because the exemption is granted against paperwork that has to be in order before the goods land, we prepare the file at the documentation stage, not at the quayside, and we confirm the current rules and time window with our destination partner at the survey.

Restricted goods, pets and vehicles

Some categories sit outside a normal household clearance, and we flag them at the survey rather than the border. New goods, and alcohol and tobacco above personal allowances, attract duty and tax. Firearms and certain bladed articles are prohibited or need specific authority, and commercial stock is declared on its own invoice. Pets move under Turkey’s import rules — an ISO-standard microchip, a current rabies vaccination, a rabies antibody titre test where required, and an official veterinary health certificate — usually flying into İstanbul, with a limit on the number of animals per passenger. Vehicles are the hard case: Turkey applies strict limits and heavy taxes on importing used foreign cars, and for most moves it simply is not economical — we give you a frank view at the survey rather than a false hope.

What drives the cost

Every quote itemises its levers: volume in cubic metres, any sea-to-air split, custom crates, port handling at the departure port, Turkish terminal handling and broker fees, and onward road delivery, which rises with distance from the port — lowest into İstanbul, higher to Ankara, İzmir and the Antalya coast. We do not quote a flat rate sight unseen.