Household & Personal Moves to Turkey

A household move to Turkey is rarely just about the boxes. It is timing the shipment around a residence permit and a school term, deciding what is worth shipping versus replacing, and trusting that the things that matter — the furniture, the keepsakes, the everyday objects that make a home — arrive intact. Seemleius household and personal relocation to Turkey is built around that reality.

We move individuals, couples and families from across the UAE to addresses throughout Turkey — İstanbul, Ankara, İzmir and the Antalya coast — keeping one coordinator with you the whole way, from the survey in your Dubai or Abu Dhabi home through to the last carton being placed in your Turkish one.

Door-to-door, not port-to-port

Our household service is genuinely door-to-door, and that is the line between a calm relocation and a stressful one. Collection from your UAE address, export packing on site, transport to the departure port for sea or DXB for air, shipping, arrival at İstanbul’s Ambarlı terminals or Mersin, customs clearance with our destination partner, devanning and onward road delivery to your Turkish address, unpacking and placement — all under one coordinator. You never deal with the port agent, the customs broker or the delivery crew separately. The Strait of Hormuz has been closed to commercial shipping since February 2026, so sea containers are trucked to a port outside it, such as Khor Fakkan or Fujairah on the UAE’s east coast or Sohar in Oman. Routing and dates are confirmed at the survey; air usually reaches İstanbul in four to five days.

What we move

Most household shipments are a mix of the bulky and the precious. We handle all of it:

• Furniture — wrapped, dismantled where needed, and reassembled on delivery
• Fragile items, glassware, art and mirrors — cushioned and crated as required
• Electronics and appliances — packed against handling and humidity in transit
• Personal effects, clothing, books and the everyday contents of a home
• Children’s belongings, toys and school equipment packed last and unpacked first

Inventory and valuation cover

Every carton is logged on a written inventory before it leaves the house — numbered, room-coded and described. This does three jobs: it underpins the Turkish customs declaration and the residence exemption, it gives you a reference at unpacking, and it is the basis for transit insurance (all-risk cover), available with the terms confirmed in your quote. Valuation is declared on replacement value, not purchase price, and high-value items such as art, watches and designer pieces are itemised separately so they are properly covered. We walk through valuation at the survey, and the claims window opens at delivery and runs for a defined period, so we recommend opening any cartons with fragile contents before signing off the inventory.

The residence permit and timing the move

Turkey’s used-household-goods exemption is granted against a valid residence permit (ikamet), and the goods generally have to arrive within a set window of your establishing residence — which means we book the freight schedule against your permit, not the other way around. We prepare the Turkish-language inventory and brief the customs broker before the shipment sails. Schools are the other timing pressure: most families aim to land at least two weeks before term so children settle before their first day, and we schedule the move backwards from that arrival date.

What is included

How a household move runs

1. Survey. We assess your home’s volume and contents, walk through the residence exemption and valuation, and recommend sea or air for your budget and timeline.
2. Pack. Our crew packs to export standard and builds your inventory before anything leaves the house.
3. Ship and clear. The shipment travels on the booked route; we prepare the UAE export and Turkish import paperwork, and our destination partner clears the goods in Turkey.
4. Deliver. Our destination partner delivers, unpacks and places your belongings so you arrive to a home, not a stack of boxes.

Whether it is a one-bedroom apartment or a full villa, the care is the same. Request your quote and we will plan the move around your dates, your term start, and your residence-permit timeline.