- How Do I Move My Household Items From Australia To California?
- What’s The Difference Between Door-To-Door Delivery And Port-To-Port Delivery?
- How Do I Ship A Vehicle From Australia To California?
- What Should I Know About Importing A Vehicle Into California?

It makes sense as to why Australian’s might consider a move to California. The Golden State offers a unique opportunity to experience the American dream through glamorous nightlife, beautiful beaches, endless summers down south, and much more.
Once you secure a visa to establish permanent residence in America, the topics of transporting household items and vehicles from Australia to California become pressing issues. While shipping household items and cars, long-distance may seem like a daunting process; a little planning goes a long way.
To plan appropriately, you’ll need to acquire an overview of what’s involved with shipping household items, vehicles, and pets from Australia to California.
How Do I Move My Household Items From Australia to California?
Since over 8,000 miles separates California and Australia, your two options for transporting household items will be sea freight and air freight shipping. If you’re in a rush and want your items delivered as quickly as possible, air freight shipping will get the job done, but be prepared to pay much more than you would with sea freight shipping. Sea freight costs less because your belongings will take longer to reach California from Australia. Both sea freight and air freight shipping have service options to accommodate different-sized moves.
A cargo plane can only carry so much weight to fly adequately, so opting for a full household move via air freight shipping is going to cost a pretty penny. Sea freight container sizes are commonly select in 20ft, 40ft, and 40ft high cube variations. Once you select which size container is right for your needs, you can choose either a shared Less Than Container Load (LCL) or a Full Container Load (FCL), which you’d be renting solely for yourself.
What’s the Difference Between Door-to-Door Delivery and Port-to-Port Delivery?
Let’s be real.
The process of moving from Australia to California can be stressful at times, so it’s essential to look for ways to mitigate that stress. You can make things easier for yourself by selecting door-to-door delivery for household items instead of port-to-port delivery. Door-to-door delivery involves a shipping company picking up items at your home in Australia and dropping them off at the door of your new home in California.
Port-to-port delivery is going to be more of a challenge as you’ll have to go through the hassle of transporting items back to your new California home from the air or seaport that the items are dropped off at. Moving items from a port to your new home in California can be even more complicated if the port is close to the coast, and your destination is further inland.
Performing an honest evaluation of which items you need to transport is helpful when beginning to plan the process of moving to California from Australia. The less weight you’re moving, the easier the transition will be.
How Do I Ship a Vehicle From Australia to California?
Airfreight or sea freight shipping will be able to deliver a vehicle from Australia to California. The majority of people choose sea freight shipping for their vehicles due to the lower price tag. If you own a rare vintage or modern exotic vehicle, air freight shipping can provide you with extra protection for your prized vehicle. Roll-on-roll-off and sea freight shipping containers are two of the primary means of loading and shipping a car overseas. Your vehicle has to be functional to select roll-on-roll-off service.
Like shipping household items, overseas moving companies will make insurance an optional add on for your final cost.
What Should I Know About Importing a Vehicle Into California?
First, check if your vehicle is eligible to come into the United States. If your car is suitable for importation, determine which port your car will be entering. Los Angeles is an example of a California location that features one of the largest ports for importing cars into the United States from Australia. Additional costs associated with importing a car into California from Australia include American taxes and duties, cleaning fees, and vendor fees.
Requesting a quote from an overseas vehicle shipping company will help you get a run-down of all the costs you’ll be subject to.