Moving to Turkey from Canada, Door to Door from Toronto

How a move from Toronto to Turkey works

It starts with a survey — in person for a house, by video for a condo — so the quote reflects your actual volume and so we can go through your customs status and the inventory rules before anything is packed. On packing day our crew wraps and packs to export standard (cartons, paper, blankets, and custom crates for art, mirrors and the TV) and builds the itemized inventory that Turkish customs works from: room by room, item by item, with electronics listed by make and model. The shipment comes to our North York warehouse and is loaded into a dedicated 20′ or 40′ container, or, for smaller volumes, wrapped onto export skids or built into a lift van and consolidated with other Turkey-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 Ambarlı, İzmir or Mersin through a Mediterranean hub. On arrival our Turkish partner — an IAM member agent — files the entry under your status, attends the customs examination, collects the container and delivers to your new home with unpacking and debris removal included. Istanbul apartment buildings often need an exterior furniture lift and a parking arrangement with the building manager; the agent books both.

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 Turkey, 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.

1. Free survey (home or video), customs-status 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 skids / lift van for groupage — at our warehouse
4. Rail to Montreal / Halifax and ocean sailing to Ambarlı, İzmir or Mersin via a hub
5. You arrive in Turkey; your passport and permit documents are ready for the entry
6. Customs entry and examination handled by our Turkish partner agent
7. Delivery to your door, unpacking and packing-material removal

Turkish customs: returning citizens, foreign residents and everyone else

Turkey treats a household shipment according to the owner's status. Turkish citizens returning to settle after living abroad — the usual threshold is two years or more — can bring their used household goods and personal effects in without duty, provided the shipment arrives within the window customs allows around the return and the quantities look like a household rather than a shop. Former Turkish citizens holding a Blue Card (Mavi Kart) generally follow the same track. Foreign nationals moving to Turkey on a work or residence permit can also import used household goods under an exemption tied to the permit; depending on the permit, customs may ask for a guarantee that the goods will not be sold, released when you leave. Buying property alone does not usually create an exemption: without residence status, a shipment is assessed as an ordinary import, with duty and VAT on the declared value.

Turkish customs examines household goods carefully. The inventory has to be detailed, items still new in their packaging are assessed as imports, and electronics draw attention: one of each kind reads as a household, three identical laptops read as stock. Mobile phones bought abroad must be registered by IMEI and a registration fee paid after arrival, or they stop working on Turkish networks after a grace period; that is separate from the household-goods entry. Rules and allowances are set by regulation and do change, so our Turkish partner confirms the current requirements against your passport, permit and inventory before the container sails. For the full picture, see our guide to shipping household goods to Turkey and the customs rules.

What it costs to ship household goods to Turkey

Volume drives the price, so the survey matters. A one-bedroom apartment in the GTA is usually 12–20 cubic metres and ships as groupage (LCL) or a lightly loaded 20′ container. A three-bedroom house is typically 30–40 cubic metres and fills a 20′ container; larger homes need a 40′ or 40′ high-cube. On top of volume: professional packing and crating, access at both addresses (an Istanbul delivery with an exterior lift and a narrow street is a different job from a villa with a driveway), which port serves your city, and storage at either end.

Our quotes are door to door and itemize what is included: packing and materials, loading at our warehouse, drayage and rail, ocean freight and port charges, Turkish customs clearance and the standard examination, delivery, unpacking and debris removal. Duty and VAT on goods outside your exemption, a guarantee if customs requires one, and storage beyond the free period at destination are the only items outside the quote.

Whether you are shipping furniture to Turkey 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 Turkey. Not sure what is worth taking? Our guide on whether shipping furniture overseas is worth it runs the numbers.

Timelines from the GTA to Turkey

Ocean transit from Montreal or Halifax to Ambarlı runs 22–32 days, with the container changing ships at a Mediterranean hub on the way; İzmir and Mersin are similar. Around that: a few days from packing to the rail cut-off, and one to three weeks at destination for the customs entry, the examination and the delivery booking. A dedicated container typically reaches your door seven to ten weeks after packing day; groupage waits for the consolidation to fill and adds two to four weeks. You generally need to be in Turkey with your passport when the shipment clears, so we time the sailing around your own arrival, and if your home 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

Turkey runs on 230 volts with European two-pin plugs, so Canadian 110-volt appliances need transformers or replacement — most families sell large appliances here and buy on arrival. Cars are rarely worth it: importing a used vehicle into Turkey is heavily taxed and the rules differ for citizens and foreign residents, so we look at the numbers with you before recommending it. Weapons and anything on the prohibited list stay behind; drones need registration; alcohol and tobacco travel only in small personal quantities; medicines in personal quantities with prescriptions. Keep electronics to what a household actually uses, and leave new items in Canada or out of their packaging. Documents, jewellery and valuables fly with you, never in the container.

• Check your status first: returning citizen, residence-permit holder or neither — it changes the cost of the same shipment
• Electronics: one of each kind; phones bought abroad need IMEI registration after arrival
• Usually not worth it: 110 V appliances, bulky low-value furniture, the car
• Restricted: weapons, drones without registration, alcohol and tobacco beyond small personal amounts

Storage before or after your move

International moving and storage are one booking with us. If your home in Turkey 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.

Why families moving to Turkey choose Metropolitan Logistics

We are an IAM Core Member with IAMTrusted status and the Receivable Protection Program behind our agent relationships, which means the partner clearing and unpacking your home in Istanbul is vetted and financially accountable. Your shipment is packed and loaded by our own crews in our Toronto warehouse, not handed to a consolidator you never meet, and the inventory is built the way Turkish customs reads it. Because we run container logistics commercially every day, the drayage, rail and ocean legs ride the same lanes and carriers we book for exporters — which keeps the freight cost honest.