Packing services for an international move, built for the crossing, not the van ride.
Export packing and custom crating for moves from India, the UAE and Singapore — every carton wrapped for the journey, numbered against the survey inventory, and a crate built where a carton will not do.
Packing decides what arrives, and it is decided before the truck comes.
A carton packed for a van ride across town is opened the same afternoon. A carton packed for an international move is lifted, stacked, craned, shipped and lifted again before anyone opens it, and it spends weeks in a container that heats by day and sweats by night. That is the difference export packing exists for.
So the work starts with a list, not a roll of tape. At the survey, what is going is recorded room by room, with a mark on what will need more than a carton: the glass-fronted cabinet, the marble top, the canvas, the piano. The crew arrives with the materials that list calls for, packs each room in order, and numbers every carton against the survey inventory. Where you would rather pack some rooms yourself, you can, and those cartons sit on the same inventory, listed as yours.
At the far end the work is run by our own in-house coordinators, working with a vetted agent network and local destination partners.
Scope
What is packed, and what is not.
Every mover publishes the first column. The second is the part you can honestly compare, and it is settled at the survey rather than on the day.
What is packed
- Every room on the survey inventory, packed by the crew in export-grade materials: corrugated cartons, paper, wrap and tape, brought to your door.
- Fragile pieces wrapped in layers and packed to travel: glassware, ceramics, lamps, mirrors and framed pictures.
- Custom wooden crates built for what a carton cannot hold — artwork, marble and glass tops, sculpture, a piano.
- Electronics wrapped against moisture and packed in their own cartons, with cables and remotes bagged and labelled to the item.
- Furniture dismantled where it must be, its fittings bagged and taped to the piece, and each part wrapped for the container.
- A numbered inventory: every carton labelled by room and contents.
- Partial packing, where you would rather pack some rooms yourself and the crew takes the fragile and the awkward.
What is not packed
Restricted goods are flagged at the survey, so nothing is discovered on packing day. Ask about any of them and you get a written answer.
- Anything the destination refuses or a carrier will not load: aerosols, paint, solvents, gas cylinders, ammunition. Flagged at the survey, and left with you.
- Passports, jewellery, cash, and the documents you will need on arrival. These travel with you, not in the container.
- Opened food, perishables, plants and soil.
- Anything not on the survey inventory. Tell us before packing day and it is added to the list, not improvised on the day.
- Cartons you have packed yourself are not opened or re-packed by the crew: they travel as packed by owner and are listed by count rather than by contents.
- Disposal of what stays behind, and anything you decide to sell or gift rather than ship.
A quote that leaves this column blank is not cheaper. It is less finished.
How it works
Three stages, from the survey to the last carton sealed.
The order, not a timetable: your dates sit on your move plan, and the same inventory runs through every stage.
The survey, and the inventory it produces
The survey lists what is going, room by room, and marks what needs a crate rather than a carton. That list prices the quote and tells the crew what materials to bring.
The materials, sized to the list
Cartons in the sizes the inventory calls for, paper, wrap, tape, and timber cut for each crate on the list. The crew arrives with what your rooms need rather than a van of generic boxes, which is why the survey has to come first.
Packing day, room by room
The crew packs one room at a time, fragile pieces first, and seals and labels each carton by room and contents as it closes. Crates are built to the piece.
What decides your quote
Why two homes the same size cost different amounts to pack.
No price is published here. These are what a surveyor is measuring in your rooms, so you can predict the shape of your own quote before anyone visits.
- 01
Volume, measured at the survey
The largest single driver: how much space your things occupy once packed, not how many rooms you have. A sparsely furnished house can pack smaller than a full flat, and only the survey can tell which yours is. - 02
How much needs a crate
A crate is built to one piece and priced as one piece: the timber, the carpentry, and the space it adds to the shipment. The number of crates on the inventory moves the quote more than the number of cartons does. - 03
The fragile share
A kitchen of everyday crockery and a cabinet of crystal are the same volume and different work. Layered wrapping, dish packs and more cartons for fewer items all show up in the materials and in the crew's day. - 04
Full or partial packing
Packing some rooms yourself takes those cartons off the crew's day and out of the materials list. It does not take them off the inventory, and it is worth deciding before the survey rather than after it. - 05
Access at your door
A lift, a stairwell, a long carry to where the truck can stand, a building that only allows moves at set hours. Told at the survey it is quoted; found on the day, it is surcharged.
What customers say
Moves like yours, in their words.
We shifted from Bangalore to Auckland and our complete move was handled by Venissa from IMove Global Mobility LLP.There was a vessel delay due to port congestion in Hong Kong, but the team communicated well and managed everything smoothly. Still very happy with the service. Highly recommend their service for international relocation. Thank you Vanessia and I Move
Kumail Abbas Jung Mir · Household move · Bangalore → Auckland
Special mention of appreciation to Venissa for handling our shipment door to door from Bangalore to Chicago. Her crew had packed all the items very well and marked each item for identifying as it was a shared container. All the items were intact and without damage or scratch especially the Marble dinning tables, chairs, Diwan and the console. Venissa was tracking the shipment from port to port an updating us every step of the way. Her counterpart team in New Jersey also did a very good job of unloading, opening crates and assembling the furniture. Also they removed all the debris from our site. Overall we were very impressed with the service the Venissa - IMove had provided and will definitely recommend them to our friends and also to people who wish transport items from India. Well done IMove. Once again special thanks to Venissa.
Harish Manjunath · Household move · Bangalore → Chicago
I recently moved from Australia to India and IMOVE handled Indian customs and the experience was seamless. They delivered my shipment within the promised timeframe, and the process was straightforward from start to finish. Riju kept us informed every step of the way, providing regular updates, assisting with the paperwork, and ensuring everything went smoothly. Their professionalism and excellent communication made the move incredibly easy and stress-free. I highly recommend their services to anyone looking for reliable relocation services.
Anushree Chacko · Household move · Australia → India
Questions
What people ask about packing first.
Do I have to use your packing, or can I pack some of it myself?
You can pack some or all of it yourself, and many people pack clothes, books and linen while the crew takes the kitchen, the glass and the furniture, but cartons you pack are listed on the inventory as packed by owner, by count rather than by contents.
Customs at some destinations look harder at those. Decide at the survey, so the materials and the crew's day are sized to what is actually yours to do.
What materials does the crew use for an international move?
The crew uses export-grade materials rather than moving-day ones, meaning corrugated cartons in several sizes, dish packs and cell dividers for glassware, paper and bubble wrap for fragile surfaces, and stretch film and blankets for furniture, because a carton has to survive weeks stacked in a container.
A domestic move only asks it to survive a van for an afternoon, and the materials are chosen for the longer trip.
Which items get a wooden crate?
Anything a carton cannot protect gets a crate, such as large framed art and mirrors, glass and marble tops, sculpture, chandeliers, a piano and some machinery, and the surveyor marks each one on the inventory so a crate is built to that piece.
That is why the crate count is worth settling at the survey.
How is every carton tracked from my home to the destination?
Every carton is tracked by a numbered inventory, because each one is labelled with a number, the room and a description of its contents as it is sealed, and the inventory carries every number, so that one list is also what customs at both ends reads as the packing list.
How long does packing take?
It depends on the volume, how much of it is fragile and how many pieces need a crate, so the honest answer comes from the survey rather than from this page, and the number of crew-days it needs is known once the survey inventory exists. What you can plan on is that packing and loading are scheduled as one block on your move plan, with that count written on it.
Start with a survey, not a price list.
Tell us where your things are going and roughly when. We reply within 2 hours to book a survey, and after the survey you get a written inventory and an itemised packing quote with the second column filled in.