Shipping times and costs from New York, United States of America to Doha, Qatar

Shipping Container Costs to Qatar

Looking to move your belongings to Doha?

If you’re in a rush, putting your possessions on a plane is possible, but pricey – it’ll typically cost you much more than shipping them to Qatar by sea.

How to get quotes for shipping to Doha

1. You’ll be asked to provide a few details about your move to Doha
2. If we have shipping partners who can help you, they’ll contact you with quotes
3. You can compare these quotes and choose the deal that suits you
4. Our shipping partners will then help prepare your shipment for customs, deliver it door-to-door, and generally make the process as easy and stress-free as possible

Should you choose sea freight or air freight?

You may decide to send your belongings to your new home in Doha via plane or ship – either way, it should be an informed decision.

Here are the main advantages of each method, with more detailed explanations available on our Air Freight vs Sea Freight page.

Benefits of Sea Freight

• A 99.99% safety record
• Sea freight is 12-16 times cheaper than air freight
• You’re typically able to fit more on a ship than a plane
• A container ship creates 44 times less CO2 than a plane
• The International Maritime Organisation has pledged to reduce CO2 emissions from shipping by 40% by 2030

Benefits of Air Freight

• An identical 99.99% safety record
• Planes are faster

However, there are unpredictable factors that can affect your shipping time, such as:

• Natural disasters
• Adverse weather conditions
• A route being unexpectedly blocked, as the Suez Canal was in March 2021
• Global health crises like COVID-19

Clearing customs at the Qatar border

Customs officials in Qatar are strict, bureaucratic, and make around 270 seizures per month – but you can navigate the process fairly easily if you follow the rules and lean on your shipping company’s expertise.

Most shipping companies will send you all the forms you need to fill in before your move, which should help you to move smoothly through customs.

To clear customs, you’ll need a form declaring where your items are from, a copy of that form, and an inventory detailing everything in the shipment.

If you’re entering the country with cash, jewellery, or documents like bearer bonds that are worth at least 50,000 Qatari riyals (£9,900), you must fill in a Customs Declaration Form at the border.

Not doing so can lead to three years in prison or a fine of up to 500,000 riyals (£97,000).

 

What can and can’t you bring?

You can ship all your personal effects duty-free, as long as you used them before coming to Qatar, and as long as they enter the country no more than six months after you do.

You’ll have to make a pledge not to dispose of any of these items within a year of arriving in Qatar. If you break this pledge, you’ll have to pay tax on the goods you threw away.

You’re also allowed to bring gifts without paying any tax, on the condition that you don’t intend to sell any of them.

You can also bring one of the following:

• 400 cigarettes
• 20 cigars
• 500g of raw tobacco
• 300g of chopped pipe tobacco
• 2kg of shisha tobacco mix

Just make sure none of these items have a value above 3,000 riyals (£600).

You can’t bring any of the following items:

• Drugs
• Weapons, ammunition, and explosives
• Radioactive devices and materials
• Alcohol
• Pork
• Anything made in Israel or containing an Israeli component, “whatever its percentage.” Applied strictly, this would ban iPhones, Intel-powered computers, and Windows XP
• “Immoral items.” As in Qatar’s law banning same-sex relations, “immoral” isn’t defined. In this case, it seems to refer to anything containing pornography

For more information, check out Qatar’s official customs website.

Is there a shipping port in Doha?

Since 1971, the Qatari capital has been home to the Doha Port.

However, your precious cargo will almost certainly be transported south to Hamad Port, which took over commercial operations from Doha Port when it opened in 2017.

The pride of Qatari shipping handles the equivalent of 1.4 million 20-foot containers per year, and is planning to expand its impressive capacity over the coming years.