The 5 Best International Moving Companies of 2024

There are several things you should look for in an international moving company. We recommend looking for options such as overseas availability and positive customer reviews:

• Availability. A mover can’t help you if it doesn’t provide service to your destination country. Every full-service mover on this list can ship your belongings almost anywhere in the world.
• Customer service hours. Moving companies don’t usually offer 24/7 customer service—and most aren’t even open on weekends. Companies like International Van Lines (IVL) and North American Van Lines stand out because they have reps available seven days a week.
• Strong reputation. There aren’t many companies that focus only on international moves. That means you want to find reputable international moving companies with solid reputations for domestic moves. We factor that into our rankings.
• Top-notch reviews. Nothing speaks more to quality than customer reviews. Try to find a company that scores higher than the industry average of 3.7 out of 5 stars.

North American Van Lines is the best international moving company we’ve seen. Unlike some companies that provide only shipping services, North American Van Lines can also handle your overseas storage needs. It gets above-average customer reviews and has customer service reps available every day of the week. The only real drawback is that the website’s a bit of a mess (you can find what you’re looking for faster on other sites).

North American Van Lines has one of the largest moving networks in the world. It has partners scattered across the globe that can make a move from California to Georgia (the country) feel like going from California to Georgia (the state).

It can ship your belongings to virtually every country in the world. Need more than just shipping? It’s got that covered too. North American Van Lines has physical locations in nearly 180 countries that are ideal for storing your belongings if they arrive before you. And those locations aren’t all packed into a corner of Europe or Asia. North American Van Lines provides moving and storage services in all seven continents.

You can reach North American Van Lines representatives all seven days of the week. That may not seem like much if you’ve spent time arguing over a lost shipment at 2:00 a.m. with Amazon, but the moving industry isn’t like the tech world. International transport of household items isn’t an overnight process. It might take weeks—or even months—for your stuff to arrive.

Many companies are open only during business hours on weekdays. That’s a problem for the majority of folks who move on weekends. With North American, you can talk to a real human representative every day of the week—including Saturday and Sunday.

North American gets some of the best customer reviews in the business. We crunched the numbers behind more than 12,000 reviews. Our findings show that North American Van Lines has the second-highest ratings on this list. The company’s average rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars is significantly higher than the industry average of 3.7 stars.

Here are just a few of the themes we’ve noticed in positive North American Van Lines customer reviews:

• On-time delivery. Customers often praise North American for delivering belongings on time.
• Minimal damage to belongings. Things almost always get damaged when moving overseas. Reviews show that customers often express appreciation for the condition of their belongings at the time of delivery.
• Frequent communication. Moving can be a nightmare if you can’t reach your coordinator. Reviews are often littered with customers saying how relieved they were to be in constant contact with North American representatives.
• Courteous movers. North American Van Lines has a reputation for professional and friendly moving crews. It’s a small thing, but customers eat it up in their online reviews.
• Reasonable prices. North American customer sometimes comment about the reasonable nature of the company’s international moving prices.

Looking for a global mover with positive reviews?

More customers use International Van Lines for overseas moves than any other company we’ve seen. It’s probably obvious from the company’s name (International Van Lines), but you can’t search for global moving services without running into IVL. The international moving company services just about every country and has shipping and storage options for your move. It even posts pricing info on its website. On the downside, reaching customer service reps for an initial quote can take days.

International Van Lines assigns a personalized account manager to be at your side every step of the way. That’s especially helpful since it can be hard to reach the company through its general phone lines. The last thing you want is to run into a problem on your own when your stuff arrives at the destination country. For example, some countries may have different regulations for bringing things like pets, money, or art across the border. Your account manager can help you plan ahead.

IVL’s account managers make sure you don’t have to deal with that. They help you plan your move (including walking through customs clearance procedures) and choose the most affordable option. They also oversee the timelines and logistics so that everything arrives in the right place at the right time.

If something goes wrong, account managers can help. We love it when companies go out of their way to meet your needs.

International Van Lines takes the rare step of posting average prices on its website. That’s virtually unheard of because costs can vary by thousands of dollars based on things like the size of your home, when you’re moving, and where you’re going. We give the company kudos for listing online estimates.

Take these numbers with a grain of salt.¹ Better yet, use the entire salt shaker. There are simply too many variables to say these dollar amounts will match your international move. However, they can help ballpark a budget (roughly $5,000–$15,000).

International Van Lines is in demand. Sometimes that’s a good thing, and sometimes it isn’t. Here’s the gist. More customers used IVL for international moves than any other company we’ve seen. That means it’s easy to find and comes with an impressive resume. It’s just that not everyone comes away impressed.

Customer reviews illustrate what we mean. While IVL has more customer reviews than anyone else, it doesn’t often knock them out of the park. Our analysis of over 12,000 customer reports shows that International Van Lines’s average rank of 3.7 out of 5 stars is a smidge below the industry average.

In other words, not too hot, not too cold. We’ve seen positive and negative reviews that hype the same things. For example, one customer might praise safe delivery while another may report extensive damage. The same thing goes with things like professionalism and timely delivery. It’s a mixed bag.

Interestingly, IVL winds up smack dab in the middle of our international moving rankings—right about where customers put it.

Want to play it safe with the industry’s most popular moving company?

United Van Lines is our top pick if you need to move overseas for work. United’s service area is massive. It can go almost anywhere and has regional partners in more than 150 countries. The company assigns an international moving coordinator to help you every step of the way. Support ranges from a pre-move consult to customs clearance support. United Van Lines even offers tailored moving packages to match your budget. Add it all up, and we’re a little surprised United doesn’t have higher customer review scores.

United Van Lines is a surefire pick if you need to move overseas for your job. It doesn’t matter whether you work for a small paper company based out of Scranton, Pennsylvania, or a tech giant in San Francisco, California. United Van Lines can streamline your move so that you can focus on work.

It has all of the bells and whistles you’d expect from an international moving company:

• Car shipping
• Custom clearance management
• Global property protection
• International moving consultation
• Loading, transporting, and unloading
• Moving protection
• Packing and unpacking
• Personal move coordinator
• Pre-move coordination
• Qualified drivers
• Standard appliance transport
• Standard furniture placement
• Storage (short-term and long-term)
• Trash and debris pickup

United Van Lines lets you pick and choose which services go into your moving package. That means if you don’t need assistance packing your belongings, you don’t get charged for it. Maybe that seems like common sense, but many full-service moving companies make you pay for the whole kit and kaboodle whether you need it or not.

It’s more than a price issue too. Sure, you save money not paying for stuff you don’t need. But you may also be able to speed up your delivery timeline since the coordinator isn’t blocking out calendar days for services you don’t need.

Put it all together, and United can often save you time and money when moving to another country for work.

United Van Lines can service moves almost anywhere globally thanks to its tri-regional network. That’s a fancy way of saying that United strategically picked out three regional headquarters in Europe, Asia, and North America. By having three regional offices instead of a single epicenter, United can quickly respond to needs regardless of origin and destination countries.

For example, let’s say that your coordinator is out sick the day your belongings are due to arrive. Maybe the two of you previously worked out a tricky delivery detail, and you’re not sure things will get where they need to without her. You can ring up the nearest regional office to explain the situation without worrying about what time it is in your destination country. United can quickly find someone to take over—even if it’s just to assure you that everything’s on schedule.

Moving to another country for work?

Allied Van Lines can ship your belongings almost anywhere in the world. The international moving company’s partnerships in more than 170 countries allow it to provide shipping and storage services on all 7 continents. Allied has an impressive virtual survey that enables you to get fast ballpark estimates. The company also has a nearly 100-year history, making it surprising to see below-average customer reviews.

Allied Van Lines provides moving services to almost every corner of the world. The international moving company’s partners in more than 170 countries result in a service area that reaches every nook and cranny of the globe, from Algeria and Antarctica to New Zealand and New Brunswick.

Not only can Allied ship your belongings, but it can also provide storage services on the tail end of your international relocation. That can be a lifesaver if, for example, you and your partner arrive at different times and need to rent a separate apartment before moving into your new home.

Allied’s virtual quote software allows you to get quick ballpark estimates for your international move. We like the way Allied advertises it: “This is just like FaceTiming with your family and friends.”²

It’s a simple three-step process:

1. Schedule an appointment. Allied Van Lines will send a link to download its app before your scheduled meeting time.
2. Do a virtual walk-through. The Allied app lets you talk to your coordinator while showing a live video of your home. The coordinator will have you zero in on specific areas to determine how many belongings you have and how much it will cost.
3. Get your quote. Allied’s coordinator will send you a moving quote when you finish. Be aware that it’s an estimate (nothing is set in stone until movers walk through your house). However, you can usually plan on something close to the quoted amount. Just don’t forget to cover high-cost items during your meeting (like packed storage closets or large appliances).

Want to get a quick moving estimate?

Our review process includes an exhaustive analysis of Allied’s services, availability, and customer reviews. While we love the company’s wide availability and virtual survey feature, things aren’t as rosy for customer reviews.

We looked at more than 1,000 Allied Van Lines customer reviews. The company’s 3.4 out of 5 stars rating is well below the 3.7-star industry average. The most common complaints alleged poor communication and badly damaged personal items that Allied’s insurance policy didn’t cover.

These results surprised us since we’ve seen plenty of five-star Allied ratings and had positive experiences posing as Allied customers. However, nothing speaks to company quality more than customer reviews—and we can’t ignore an analysis of 1,194 reviews from 11 different review sites.

In the end, Allied can likely move you anywhere in the world—and you can get quotes in lickety-split time. However, you may also be at a higher risk of experiencing something that would cause you to leave a negative review. (If that were to happen, we can walk you through the steps to file a complaint with your moving company.)

Bekins Van Lines has the best customer reviews. Our analysis of 12,000-plus reviews shows that Bekins beats the industry average by about one-half star (a massive difference). And it’s not hard to see why. Bekins can go anywhere, owns its facilities, and offers an impressive array of international moving perks. The biggest downside is that the company’s customer service reps are available only Monday–Friday (no weekends).

Bekins has an average customer review rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars—much higher than the industry average of 3.7 stars. To put that in perspective, consider this. Our list of the best international moving companies includes only those that stand out from the rest. And yet when you compare Bekins against the best of the best, it’s nearly a full star higher than the lowest-ranked competitor.

So, why do customers give Bekins Van Lines such stellar reviews? Positive reviews seem to zero in on a few key themes:

• Professional moving crews. It doesn’t seem to matter whether you look at packing, transporting, or unloading. Bekins staff seem to be especially careful with your stuff.
• Minimal damage to belongings. International moves are more about limiting damage than entirely avoiding it. And reviews suggest Bekins excels at minimizing property damage.
• Incredible customer service. Bekins reps sound like they enjoy talking to you (we backed this up by calling and posing as customers). They’re a cut above the rest.
• Timely delivery. Few things matter more to international movers than timeliness. Bekins tends to get the job done on schedule, if reviews are an accurate measuring stick.

Bekins Van Lines stands out in a way we don’t often see: targeted relocation services. Every company offers something to help make your move smooth, but few go as far as Bekins. Its international perks cover everything from customs clearance to finding you a new place to live:³

• Furniture rental
• Home finding assistance
• Home-sale services
• Immigration services
• Intercultural training
• Language training
• Local labor
• On-assignment support
• Post-arrival orientations
• Preview trip services
• Property management
• School search

Bekins Van Lines has more than 200 facilities in nearly 60 countries worldwide. That doesn’t mean it can help you move to only those 60 countries. It means that you also have storage options strategically placed in dozens of worldwide locations. Even if you’re moving to a country where Bekins doesn’t have a facility, it can temporarily hold your belongings in a warehouse and then ship them when you arrive.

Most international moving companies use partner facilities in these overseas locations. Technically, Bekins does too—but it has only one partner, Crown Relocations. And Crown Relocations owns its facilities (rather than relying on additional partners).

We’re still sussing out all of the ways you can benefit from this. The most obvious callout is that Crown Relocations, or Bekins (you may talk to reps from either company), is more self-reliant than many competitors. It can handle problems and opportunities in-house. Other companies must first cut through the red tape that surfaces when mixing two or three different company cultures and regulations.

You see that play out in customer reviews. It’s probably not an accident that Bekins uses only one partner and has far-and-away the best customer reviews of any international moving company.

Want a company with its own facilities?

North American Van Lines is our pick for the best international moving company. However, every company we’ve looked at brings something valuable to the table:

1. North American Van Lines. Our number one choice. It does everything you need for an international move.
2. United Van Lines. United misses out on the top spot by a hair. We love that United lets you mix and match international services to fit your budget.
3. International Van Lines. IVL wins the popularity contest. More customers use International to move abroad than any other company on this list.
4. Allied Van Lines. No company services more international moving locations than Allied. We love its widespread availability.
5. Bekins Van Lines. Bekins rakes in the highest customer reviews in the international moving industry. That’s a big deal.

Move.org identifies the best international moving companies by following a fourfold research approach:

1. Site visits. We invite industry leaders to visit our headquarters in Salt Lake City, UT, and ask questions about specific companies and general trends.
2. Mystery shopping. We call international moving companies posing as customers. We ask questions about pricing and services to pinpoint what each company does best.
3. Traditional research. We carefully analyze publicly available information to see how companies stack up against each other. We then analyze our findings in a proprietary calculator that looks at variables such as international availability, moving features, and more than 12,000 customer reviews.
4. Annual calendar. We repeat all of these steps each year to ensure you constantly have access to the latest information.

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