Moving to India from Canada, Door to Door from Toronto

How a move from Toronto to India works

It starts with a survey — in person for a house, by video for a condo — so the quote reflects your real volume and so we can talk through Transfer of Residence and the dutiable list before anything is packed. On packing day our crew wraps and packs to export standard and builds the itemized inventory that Indian customs, the insurer and the delivery crew all work from. The shipment comes to our North York warehouse and is loaded into a dedicated 20′ or 40′ container — or, for smaller volumes, packed as a groupage consignment: wrapped, strapped to export skids or built into a lift van, labelled with your name and destination, and consolidated with other India-bound shipments.

The container is drayed to the CPKC Vaughan or CN Brampton rail terminal on our own truck, railed to Montreal or Halifax, and sails to Nhava Sheva, Mundra or Chennai via a transshipment hub. On arrival our Indian partner — an IAM member agent — files the entry under your Transfer of Residence, attends the examination, pays any assessed duty on your behalf, and delivers to your door with unpacking and debris removal included. You need to be in India when the shipment clears: customs requires the passport of the owner, and the entry is made in your name.

1. Free survey (home or video), Transfer of Residence review and a fixed door-to-door quote
2. Packing, crating and the itemized inventory at your home in the GTA
3. Loading into a dedicated container — or wrapped, palletized groupage — at our warehouse
4. Rail to Montreal / Halifax and ocean sailing to Nhava Sheva, Mundra or Chennai
5. You arrive in India; your passport and documents are ready for the entry
6. Customs clearance under Transfer of Residence by our Indian partner agent
7. Delivery to your door, unpacking and packing-material removal

Transfer of Residence: how used household goods clear duty-free

India's Baggage Rules give a Transfer of Residence (TR) concession to people moving their residence to India — returning Indian citizens, OCI holders and foreign nationals taking up residence alike. The core conditions: you have lived abroad for at least two years, your visits to India during those two years stayed within the allowed short-visit limits, and you intend to transfer your residence. Under TR, used personal and household articles — furniture, kitchenware, clothing, books, bedding, the contents of a normal home — clear free of duty. A specific list of appliances (refrigerator, washing machine, air conditioner, dishwasher and similar) clears at a concessional duty rate up to a value cap rather than duty-free, and a handful of items are excluded from the concession entirely: flat-panel televisions are the famous one, assessed at full duty on their depreciated value, which is why many families sell the TV in Canada and buy new in India.

The shipment must be yours, used, and sensibly timed — goods should arrive within the window customs allows around your own arrival, which is one of the things we manage when we book the sailing. Alcohol travels only within tiny allowances and is rarely worth shipping; gold and silver beyond personal jewellery have their own rules. The exact rates, caps and windows are set by notification and do change, so our Indian partner confirms the current figures against your inventory before the container sails — you will not be surprised at the port.

What it costs to ship household goods to India

Volume drives the cost, which is why the survey matters. India is unusual among our lanes in how much of it ships as groupage: a family sending 5–15 cubic metres — furniture, cartons, a few crates — pays for the space it uses in a shared container instead of a whole box, and that is the economical way to move anything smaller than a full household. Two- and three-bedroom homes fill a dedicated 20′ container; larger homes a 40′. On top of volume: professional packing and crating, access at the Canadian address, which port serves your city, and any duty assessed on TVs or above-cap appliances at destination.

Our quotes are door to door and itemize everything: packing and materials, loading at our warehouse, drayage and rail, ocean freight and port charges, customs clearance in India, delivery, unpacking and debris removal. Duty on dutiable items and destination storage beyond the free period are the only things outside the quote — and because the inventory is priced against the TR rules before sailing, you know the duty exposure in advance.

Timelines from the GTA to India

Ocean transit from Montreal or Halifax to Nhava Sheva or Mundra runs 35–45 days, with the container changing ships at a hub — Colombo, Singapore or a Mediterranean port — on the way. Around that: a few days from packing to the rail cut-off, and one to three weeks at destination for the entry, the examination and delivery, longer if your city clears through an inland depot. A dedicated container typically reaches your door nine to thirteen weeks after packing day. Groupage waits for the consolidation to fill before it sails, which adds roughly two weeks — the trade-off for the lower price. If your home in India is not ready, our agent stores the shipment after clearance and delivers when you are.

What to leave behind, and what to think twice about

India runs on 230 volts, so Canadian 110-volt appliances need transformers or replacement — and the flat-panel TV pays full duty on arrival, which usually makes it a sell-here, buy-there item. Cars are effectively out: importing a used foreign vehicle into India is restricted and prohibitively taxed. Alcohol beyond the small allowance, drones and radio equipment without approval, weapons, and anything on the prohibited list stay behind. Gold and silver beyond the jewellery you wear have declaration rules of their own — talk to us before packing any. Medicines travel in personal quantities with prescriptions.

• Dutiable despite TR: flat-panel TVs (full duty on depreciated value); listed appliances above the concession cap
• Restricted: alcohol beyond the allowance, drones and transmitters without approval, weapons, gold/silver beyond personal jewellery
• Usually not worth it: 110 V appliances, bulky low-value furniture, the car — India's import rules make vehicles impractical
• Carry with you: documents, valuables, jewellery and medications — never in the container

Why families moving to India choose Metropolitan Logistics

India is our busiest private lane, and it shows in the details: crews that build export skids and lift vans for Mumbai-bound groupage as a matter of routine, an inventory format our Indian partner clears without back-and-forth, and honest advice about what is worth shipping under TR and what is not. We are an IAM Core Member with IAMTrusted status and Receivable Protection Program coverage behind the agent relationship, the shipment is loaded in our Toronto warehouse by the crew that packed it, and the drayage, rail and ocean legs ride the same commercial lanes we book for exporters every week — which keeps the freight cost honest on a long route.