Technical article

Shipping Your Car and Your Things: What Customs Pages Say

If we ship it all, what will customs ask of us?

By Neil Solomon · 5 min read

Picture a couple named Frank and Diane. Both are 64. They own a car they like and a house full of things they have kept for thirty years. They are looking at Portugal and Montenegro. They ask a plain question. If we ship it all, what will customs ask of us?

The cost of the ship or the truck is a private price, and no government publishes it. What a government does publish is the rule on tax and duty. That is what I looked for.

What the official pages say

Portugal

The government service page says the request is free and is made online through the tax portal. It was last updated on 27 March 2026. The conditions it lists: you are over 18, you lived abroad for at least six months, and you owned the car in your home country for at least six months. The page states that you must be "proprietário do veículo no país de proveniência, pelo menos, há 6 meses". Each person may ask for one vehicle only. The request must come "até doze meses a contar da data em que transfere a sua residência para Portugal".

A separate tax authority ruling, about one particular case, says an exempt car cannot be sold, rented or lent for 12 months after it is registered in Portugal. It also says the owner must keep a normal residence in Portugal for 185 days or more each year. That ruling is about one set of facts, so I treat it as a hint, not a rule for everyone.

For household goods, Portugal applies the European Union's duty relief for people moving their normal residence from outside the Union, set in Council Regulation (EC) 1186/2009. I read its text on the EU's legal database on 11 October 2026. The relief covers personal property you owned, and for goods that are not consumed used, for at least six months at your former home (Article 4). It is open to people whose normal residence was outside the Union for at least 12 continuous months (Article 5). Goods must be entered within 12 months of setting up your residence, and may come in several consignments (Article 7). Alcohol, tobacco, commercial vehicles and tools for a trade or profession are excluded (Article 6). Until 12 months have passed you may not lend, pledge, hire out or transfer the goods without telling the authorities, or you owe the duty (Article 8). The Portuguese customs office is the place to ask how it applies the rule and which papers it wants.

Montenegro

The rules I read are a government regulation from 26 March 2015, published in the official gazette (Službeni list Crne Gore, no. 20/15). A later change is possible, and the text I read is the 2015 version. If it has not changed, the main points are these (my paraphrase of the articles):

• You lived outside Montenegro for at least 12 months in a row, or clearly meant to.
• You owned and used the goods in your household for at least six months.
• You bring them in within 12 months of registering your residence. Goods may come in several shipments.
• Bicycles, motorcycles, private cars and their trailers count as household goods.
• Alcohol, tobacco, commercial vehicles and professional equipment are left out.
• You apply at the customs office for your place of residence, with proof of your earlier residence abroad, proof of residence in Montenegro and a list of the goods.

Romania

Romania is in the same customs territory, so the same Regulation 1186/2009 applies to household goods and a private car you bring when you move from outside the Union: free of import duty if the six-month, 12-month and 12-month conditions above are met. Romanian customs publishes its own page for people who settle in Romania from outside the Union, and a search extract of it, read 11 October 2026, repeats the six-month possession rule, the 12 months' rule on lending or selling and the legal basis in the Regulation. The Romanian registration tax for a car brought in is a separate matter that this article does not cover.

What this article leaves for another day

• Value added tax or registration tax on a car in Montenegro, and car registration fees in any of the three countries. They differ by car and are set by other offices.
• Any shipping price. No government publishes one.

If you plan to move a car, an accountant or lawyer who works with Americans abroad could confirm which rules apply to you, and whether the rules above still stand.