Private moves · GTA → India
India is the route we run more than any other: week in, week out, shipments leave our North York warehouse for Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and beyond. Most of our clients are families moving back after years in Canada, exactly who India's Transfer of Residence rules are written for: used household goods clear duty-free when you qualify, with a short list of exceptions led by flat-panel TVs. We pack, build the customs inventory, load at our warehouse, and our partner agent in India clears and delivers.
What follows is the practical version: timelines, costs, how Transfer of Residence works, and what to leave behind.
India moving at a glance
A Canada to India relocation, handled door to door: we are the international movers from Toronto to India who pack your home, take care of shipping household goods from Canada to India, and hand over to a vetted partner for customs and delivery.
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.
When a moving company sells an international move and then hands it to a broker, nobody owns the whole job. We work as international movers end to end: one coordinator from the survey to delivery in India, our own crews and warehouse in the GTA, and a vetted partner at the other end. If you are curious how the packing is done, here is how we wrap furniture for international shipping.
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.
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.
Whether you are shipping furniture to India for a whole house or a few rooms of personal effects, the method follows the volume — so the survey, not a guess, sets the cost of shipping household goods from Canada to India. Not sure what is worth taking? Our guide on whether shipping furniture overseas is worth it runs the numbers.
| Home size | Typical volume | Usual method | Door-to-door timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Boxes / studio | 3–10 m³ | Groupage (LCL) — palletized or lift van | 11–15 weeks |
| 1–2 bedrooms | 10–25 m³ | Groupage or dedicated 20′ | 9–15 weeks |
| 3 bedrooms | 25–40 m³ | Dedicated 20′ container | 9–13 weeks |
| 4+ bedrooms | 40–65 m³ | 40′ or 40′ high-cube | 9–13 weeks |
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.
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.
International moving and storage are one booking with us. If your home in India is not ready when you leave Toronto, your packed and inventoried shipment can wait in our North York warehouse until the sailing date suits you. On the other side, our partner can hold it after customs clearance and deliver when you have the keys. Ask your coordinator before planning long storage on either side: some customs reliefs set a deadline for when your goods must arrive.
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.
The route
Your home in the GTA
Survey, packing, crating and the customs inventory
Our North York warehouse
Loaded into a dedicated container or consolidated groupage
CPKC Vaughan / CN Brampton
Drayed on our own truck, then railed east to the Atlantic
Montreal / Halifax
Ocean transit 35–45 days, via a transshipment hub
Nhava Sheva (JNPT), Mumbai · Mundra (Gujarat)
Customs entry and clearance by our partner agent
Your new home in India
Delivery, unpacking and packing-material removal
Nhava Sheva (JNPT), Mumbai
India's busiest container port and our main gateway — Mumbai, Pune and western India.
Mundra (Gujarat)
Fast-growing alternative gateway; rails inland to Delhi NCR and the north.
Chennai
Southern and eastern India — Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad deliveries often clear here.
Inland container depots
Delhi (Tughlakabad) and other ICDs — containers rail inland under bond and clear customs closer to your city.
City-to-city routes
Families moving to India plan it city by city, and the city decides the gateway. These are the routes we run most from the GTA — Toronto, Brampton, Mississauga, Scarborough, Markham — with the port or inland depot each one usually clears through. Every route runs door to door under Transfer of Residence.
via Nhava Sheva (JNPT)
Moving from Toronto to Mumbai is the classic India route: Nhava Sheva is the country's busiest container port and our main gateway, so Mumbai, Navi Mumbai, Thane and Pune deliveries clear close to home. High-rise buildings need society permission and a lift booking, which our partner arranges.
via Mundra, then rail to an inland container depot
Containers for Delhi, Gurugram and Noida usually land at Mundra and rail inland under bond to an inland container depot such as Tughlakabad, where customs clears them closer to your home. You need to be in India, with your passport, when the entry is filed.
via Mundra, then rail north under bond
Families moving from Brampton and the rest of the GTA to Chandigarh, Ludhiana, Jalandhar or Amritsar ship the same way as Delhi: the container lands on the west coast and rails north to clear inland. Groupage is the economical choice for anything less than a full household.
via Chennai
Southern India clears at Chennai: Chennai addresses are a short run from the port, and Bangalore deliveries go on by road once the shipment is released under Transfer of Residence.
via Chennai
Hyderabad and Telangana shipments usually clear at Chennai and finish the trip by road, with delivery, unpacking and debris removal included in the door-to-door price.
via Mundra (Gujarat)
Mundra is Gujarat's own port, so Ahmedabad, Vadodara and Surat deliveries are a road leg from where the container lands rather than a rail trip inland.
Door-to-door times are for a dedicated container; groupage (LCL) adds roughly two weeks while the consolidation fills. Cities that clear through an inland container depot take longer. Times are typical, not guaranteed.
Before you move
FAQ
Volume calculator & quote
Tell us your address in the GTA, which city in India you are going to, and roughly what you are taking. We will book a free survey, check your Transfer of Residence eligibility and send a fixed door-to-door price.
Pick your items and the calculator totals your volume; pick India as the destination and a move coordinator prices the route.
