Shipping your vehicle to Korea

From Misti Prochnow;

This is a subject that we agonized over before we came. Everybody's situation is different, but I can honestly say that we are so incredibly happy that we shipped our minivan here. We have 3 children, and getting around was a huge hassle for us, not to mention a significant expense.

If you decide to ship your car, you will first need to get permission from your lender (if you have one) and find an insurance company that will cover you here in Korea. USAA is a good option, and is the company we use. We pay less than $10 a month for liability only.

If you are command sponsored, you will be authorized shipment of one POV. The government will NOT pay to store your vehicle if shipment is authorized. Basically the government will only store your vehicle if you are going to an area where POV's are NOT allowed. So, not Korea. If you decide not to bring it, you will have to make other arrangements for storage or sell the vehicle.

There are VPC's (vehicle processing centers) all over the US. You will need to get the vehicle to one of these VPC's and drop it off.
https://www.whereismypov.com/locations.asp


Here is a checklist of required documents for dropping off your POV:

1. Proof of Entitlement:
7 complete copies of your official Orders, plus any amendments.

2. Proof of Identity (official and valid photo-identification)

Service Member:

Spouse:

Agent

Military ID

Military or Government ID

Official Government or State ID AND copy of Service Member's Military ID


3. Proof of Ownership, Registration and/or Title. It is strongly recommended that you always provide the Contractor with a legible copy of your Title for U.S. Customs or Host Nation Customs review/clearance purposes. These documents must be in the Service Member's name as listed on their Orders.

Also please note: If the vehicle is registered in a name other than Service Member, such as spouse's maiden name, you must provide a copy of your Marriage Certificate.

4. If applicable, Lien Holder Shipment Authorization Letter: a letter from your Lien Holder authorizing the exportation of your vehicle. (Request letter on official company letterhead.)

5. If applicable, Lease Holder Shipment Authorization Letter: a letter from your Lease Holder authorizing the exportation of your vehicle. (Request letter on official company letterhead.)

6. Power of Attorney. If the vehicle is being turned into a VPC by someone other than the Service Member (e.g. Member's spouse, relative, friend, etc.), the Agent must present a valid Power of Attorney that authorizes him/her to act on behalf of the Service Member. The POA must include the names of the Service Member and the appointed Agent, as well as the vehicle VIN.

Appointed Agents should bring a photocopy (front and back) of the Service Member's Military ID for U.S. Customs or Host Nation Customs review/clearance purposes. If the Member's spouse is listed on the official Orders as a dependant then they need only bring their own official and valid Military or Government Dependant ID as long as all the requirements listed in item 3 (above) are met. Agents should also have the vehicle specifications (make, model, year, color, VIN, and exact mileage).

7. Valid email address, destination address, notification address, and emergency contact information. This information is required so that we can contact you as soon as your vehicle has arrived at its destination and is available for pick-up.

8. Documentation for "Hard Lift" location. A "Hard Lift" location is a location where there is no VPC or contractor presence. If you turn in a vehicle to a "Hard Lift" location, you must provide the contractor with a legible copy your vehicle title. A list of Contract VPCs can be found in the SDDC "Shipping Your POV" pamphlet available from the SDDC website or your TMO. Please contact the turn-in VPC or American Auto Logistics if you are unsure.



Vehicle Preparation Checklist

No more than 1/4 tank of fuel (gasoline or diesel)

A complete set of keys (ignition, doors, trunk, gas cap & wheel locks)

Make sure your vehicle is clean (includes all interior spaces and compartments, and all exterior and undercarriage areas)

Make sure your vehicle is in safe operating condition. The vehicle must have fully functioning service and parking brakes, and no noticeable fluid leaks, and/or any major cracks in the windshield

Your glove compartment, trunk, and all other storage spaces must be clean, empty, and free of trash, personal items, and house-hold goods. (Dry-vacuum all spaces, especially in-between and underneath seats)

The following items can be left in your vehicle:

Hand tools, not to exceed $200 in value

Items such as jacks, tire irons, fire extinguishers, and jumper cables

One spare tire & two snow tires

Portable cribs, children's car seats, strollers

Factory-installed and/or professionally installed after-market audio/video/navigation equipment inside the vehicle or trunk, including amplifiers, speakers, subwoofers, CD changers, DVD players, and navigations systems (These items must be permanently installed or bolted to the vehicle)

Thermos bottles, car cushions

The following Items MUST BE REMOVED from in your vehicle:

Loose audio/video/navigation equipment

Accessories not permanently installed

Flammable, combustible, or hazardous substances, oils, paints, waxes

Any liquids or pressurized cans (propane tanks must be purged and certified by an authorized dealer)

Citizen Band radios

If you are not near a VPC (we were more than 500 miles from the nearest) you can contract with a car shipper to haul your vehicle to the VPC. It has to be an approved shipper who can act as your agent to process the vehicle for drop off.

We used Horizon Auto Shipping http://www.horizonautoshipping.com/about/

They charged $500 to pick up the vehicle from St. Paul MN and take it to St Louis MO, and they did all the paperwork and inspections for shipping for us. If I had driven the vehicle and either rented a car or driven back, I would have spent nearly that much, and the savings on my emotions and stress level (at such a stressful time) aren't able to be calculated...but were ENORMOUS.

I will make another post for picking up your vehicle at Yongsan. If you have any questions about shipping, let me know.

from Julie Chenette Addison;
Misti can you tell me approx. how early you shipped your vehicle before you flew out and how long where in Korea before you got your vehicle? Thanks!

from Misti;
My father in law shipped it for me, the day after I left. We got it about 6 weeks later

from LaTonya Williams-Talbott;
I find it strange that we got our car before our hhg...still waiting on them

from Misti Prochnow;
yeah, we have been waiting almost 4 months for our HHG.

from Adriane Mandakunis;
We shipped our vehicle the day before we left the States and it took about 6 weeks. Our unaccomp baggage arrived before we did and our HHG about 2 weeks later. We packed out about 3 weeks before our flight over.

from Jasmine Paynter;
Can u ship a German spec car to Korea??

from Adriane Mandakunis;
I am assuming. I know you can ship Japanese spec cars here. I have a few friends who have the steering on the wrong side.

from Julie Chenette Addison;
We are going to try and ship out our vehicle 3-4 weeks before we leave. Does anyone know if there is a restriction on how soon you can ship it? I will miss my car but would rather miss it here then over there!

from LaTonya Williams-Talbott;
@ adriane- how did you get your stuff so fast? our things were picked up dec 21 and 29 and today is feb 16. we are still waiting. we were told march 1 but now they saying march 15. this is not fair knowing i have small children.

from Julie Chenette Addison;
I have another question about the shipping of POV. We went an applied for our military passports & visas today. My husband asked the woman in the office if this (waiting for the passports) would hold up anything else in our 'to-do' list and she stated it could possibly hold up the shipment of our vehicle. Anyone heard/know of this being an issue?

from Adriane Mandakunis;
@ LaTonya - I think we were just luckily! We PCSd during normal PCS season so the boats got fuller faster therefore, we got our belongings quicker.

@Julie- that does not make sense. Your passport has nothing to do with your vehicle. You do not even need it to ship your car. This is the link to the company that ships the vehicles https://www.whereismypov.com/ They are great by the way!

from Adriane Mandakunis;
The nofee passport will not hold up anything. You can actually come over without it if you have a tourist passport, but a no-fee passport is highly recommended. If you come over on a tourist passport you have to get a Korean Visa put in it within thirty days. Our no-fee passports came in the day before our plane left

from LaTonya Williams-Talbott;
here is my current issue- i went ahead and bought but we were prepared to come without them and they were going to mail them to us when they came in.
the tourist passport because the lady at fort irwin was saying the official one would take three months. thing is we did not have three months. my husband had already put in leave and he found our place. so with all this said i just applied for the sofa stamp yesterday because the lady in acs was telling me all this crazy stuff. i had to reorder my kids birth certificates. so when ever the official one show up i will be happy so i can get my original copies. word of advise always scan your original documents into a pdf and email it to yourself or store it on a secure backup server. march 1 is monday and i have a feeling me and housing we will be having a talk. my paperwork says march 1 not the verbal march 15 that was told to my husband.

from Adriane Mandakunis;
We have two certifed copies of our birth certificates so that when we have to send them for passports, etc we have an original still in our possession.

from Donna Frick;
ok, my dh and i are planning on buying a car while there in Korea. does anyone know how hard it would be to send it back to the states? I mean, we are cs, and it does say they will ship a vehicle over there for us.we decided our big trucks would not work over there, so they are staying stateside. what about shipping it back? anyone know?

from Julie Chenette Addison;
From what I understand (and I may be wrong) you have to ship one over to get one shipped back. That is what we understood.....maybe someone else knows differently.

from LaTonya Williams-Talbott;
you can send one car if it is specified on your orders. we got our car faster than our hhgs. we have two cars so i left the other one with my daughter. i pay the note she pays the insurance. how big is your truck? someone has a huge truck in our appt complex. i feel if your paying a carnote you should bring your car with you.

from Donna Frick;
i have a chevy silverado exteneded cab and a crew cab as well. we are paying notes on both of them right now. oone will be paid off this summer. thank goodness. our orders said we could send them, but its to late to send it over now. our stuff is almost there anyway. i fly over in about 3 weeks time. we are looking at purchasing something while over there. i was just curious if anyone knew if we decide we like the vehicle if we could have it sent back to the states when our tour is up.

When my husband left in October they told us we could take his POV. We owned his car so it was no problem like an hour before we were gonna drive 800 miles to the port they said we couldn't until we were command sponsored. So then we sold his car to get me over here. Then we were hoping to ship my Toyota Highlander over here but the bank will not let us take it. Which is freakin retarded!! So therefore no car over here. We can't refinance it either. If we originally would have financed it with USAA there would have been no problem!!! So frustrating so we are going to buy a crappy car from Yongsan! Which is probably better since I had a nice suv and it wouldn't be nice after korea got ahold of it!!!