Recently, a Wasabi Ventures portfolio company, Etherpad, was acquired by Google. As part of the acquisition, the engineering team had to move to Australia from San Francisco to join the Google Wave development team. This was exciting times for the young engineering team, but one of the things they had to figure out was how to ship their cars to Australia. One of the engineers even had an antique Chevy that he wanted to bring with him. One great service that handles just such a thing is Buy and Ship International (BASI). There are many regulations, red tape, and hassles to Import US Cars to Australia, but the great news is that companies like BASI are experts. Things that have to be considered when you do this are importation laws, customs forms and regulations, taxes, and Australian emission laws. These items can take a long time to decipher as a lay person. In addition, you can actually wind up spending more trying to do this yourself without the help of an expert who lives in this world every day. This is especially true of antique or exotic cars where the guidelines for importation are even more stringent. The last thing most people want to worry about is if an import is covered under a carnet or under Section 162 of the Australian Customs Act! Just reading that sentence should make you think of hiring an expert.
If you ever are in the need of a move to Australia from the States and want your auto to come along, don’t go about the process alone. Find an expert firm like BASI to guide you through the process.
