Sea-freight removals from our Lower Dicker depot to Ras Al Khaimah and Fujairah. The container clears at Jebel Ali and travels north by road to your villa or apartment.
Removals to Ras Al Khaimah from the UK take you to a different side of the Emirates. RAK, as almost everyone calls it, is the northernmost emirate: a strip of coast backed by the Hajar Mountains, with more space, fewer towers and a slower pace than Dubai. The expat community is smaller but growing, drawn by hospitality, education, industry and the lower cost of a villa by the sea. Across the mountains, Fujairah looks east over the Gulf of Oman and attracts a similarly independent kind of mover. These are longer, quieter deliveries, and the planning is less about lift permits than about distance, timing and heat.
The city of Ras Al Khaimah is split by a creek, with the older town on one side and the newer district of Al Nakheel on the other. South along the coast, Al Hamra is a large, established community of villas, townhouses and apartments around a marina and a golf course, and it has long been one of the first places British families look. Nearby Mina Al Arab is a newer waterfront development, with low-rise apartments and villas beside a lagoon. Behind the coast the land rises sharply to Jebel Jais, the mountain that holds the highest point in the UAE.
Fujairah is the only emirate that sits wholly on the east coast. The city and the coastline north towards Dibba are separated from the rest of the UAE by the mountains, which gives the area a character of its own: greener in places, more humid, and much less built up. We deliver across RAK, Fujairah and the smaller communities between them. Deliveries here tend to be to villas rather than towers, and the loads are often large, because people moving to the northern emirates usually do so to have more room.
Between Sharjah and RAK lie the smaller settlements of the northern coast, and inland there are farms and villages where a British family occasionally rents a house with a large plot. We are happy to deliver to those too. The only difference is that we want a clear address, a pin on a map and a phone number for someone at the property, because street addresses outside the main communities can be less precise than a Sussex postcode. With those in hand, the destination crew finds you first time, and the vehicle is not driving up and down a coast road looking for the right gate.
There is no container port on our route into RAK itself. Your shipment arrives at Jebel Ali and, once cleared, travels north by road, typically 90–180 minutes to Ras Al Khaimah or across the mountains to Fujairah, depending on the address and the traffic through Dubai and Sharjah. That drive shapes the day. The vehicle must leave early enough to arrive with the crew’s full working time ahead of it, and in summer, when temperatures routinely pass forty degrees, early means very early.
At the property the job is usually easier than in Dubai. Villas in Al Hamra and Mina Al Arab have driveways and ground-floor access, and there is rarely a lift to book. Gated communities still want notice of the vehicle, and the apartment buildings within them have their own move-in procedures, so our destination agent confirms these beforehand. For houses up a mountain road or on the more remote parts of the east coast, we check access at the survey stage so the right size of vehicle is sent.
The customs rules do not change because you are living further north. The entry is lodged when your container lands at Jebel Ali, and the goods are released once your residence visa and Emirates ID have been issued. Many RAK residents are sponsored by an employer based in the emirate, including companies in its free zone; others hold visas sponsored from Dubai while living up the coast. Either way, the documents are what the port needs, and the official requirements are explained on the UAE government portal. If the visa is delayed, the container sits in bonded storage at Jebel Ali until it is issued; with the documents ready and a clean inventory, clearance normally takes three to seven working days.
The restricted list is the same across the country. At the survey we go room by room and flag pork products, prescription medicines that are controlled in the UAE, drones, e-cigarettes and anything alcoholic, together with any media or artwork that could attract attention. It is much easier to make those calls in your own house in Sussex than to find out at the port that something has been held.
The sea voyage from Felixstowe to Jebel Ali is 4–6 weeks. After that, allow 1–2 weeks for clearance and the delivery itself, including the 90–180 minute road leg to Ras Al Khaimah or Fujairah. A sole-use container is the usual choice for the larger villa moves we see in the north; a shared LCL shipment adds 2–4 weeks for consolidation and suits smaller loads.
If you need your essentials quickly, an air consignment into Dubai International arrives in 7–14 days door to door and is brought up to you by road. We will also tell you honestly if the dates are tight: a villa lease starting before the container can clear is a common mismatch, and the fix is either an air shipment for the first weeks or storage at our end until the timing works.
A move to the northern emirates is often a considered, long-term change rather than a short posting, and it deserves the same care from the start. We are an owner-managed Sussex removals firm, founded in 2017, with our depot at Lower Dicker in East Sussex. Mark or a senior surveyor visits, or holds a video survey if you live further away, and the quote already allows for the long road leg and the villa delivery. Find out more about our family business and its values and how we plan international moves from East Sussex.
Big villa loads mean big furniture, so we lean on our export packing and crating work for sofas, dining sets and beds, build timber crates for fragile valuables, and move pianos through our dedicated piano removal team. Our whole-house packing service is popular with people moving a family home; if you prefer to pack your own books and clothes, get export boxes and packing supplies delivered first. When the villa handover is later than your UK completion, we can keep everything in pre-shipment storage at Lower Dicker.
We are a BAR Overseas Group removals member and work to the BS 8564 standard for international removals. For the whole country see our guide to removals to the UAE, and if you are comparing emirates, see removals to Sharjah and Ajman. Read reviews from families we have moved or call 01323 848 008 to talk about your Ras Al Khaimah move.
Closer to the big cities, or in the capital? Our other UAE pages cover each of those routes.
Our household containers arrive at Jebel Ali and travel north by road after customs clearance. The road leg to Ras Al Khaimah or Fujairah is typically 90–180 minutes, depending on the address and traffic.
Yes. Fujairah is reached by road across the Hajar Mountains from Jebel Ali. We check access at the survey, particularly for properties on the quieter parts of the coast, so the right vehicle is sent.
Anywhere in the emirate. Most of our deliveries go to villas and apartments in Al Hamra, Mina Al Arab and Ras Al Khaimah city, but we also deliver to homes further inland and along the coast.
No. Customs at Jebel Ali need your residence visa and Emirates ID to be issued, wherever the sponsor is based. Once they are, the goods are cleared and delivered to your RAK address.
Allow 4–6 weeks at sea from Felixstowe to Jebel Ali, then 1–2 weeks for customs and delivery, including the road leg north. A shared LCL shipment adds 2–4 weeks; air freight for essentials takes 7–14 days.
Call us for a free, no-obligation quote, or use our online form. Whether it is a shared part-load or a whole house, we have handled the route before and we will handle yours with care.