International Student Removals Manchester

Manchester Airport and the First Night

Manchester Airport is 14 kilometres south of the city centre. The University of Manchester says the train to Piccadilly or Oxford Road takes about 20 minutes, and that a taxi to university accommodation is likely to cost £25 to £35 and take 25 to 30 minutes, depending on traffic and luggage. TfGM lists the 43 and 103 buses from the airport to Piccadilly Gardens among the routes serving the Oxford Road campus.

The university ran an airport welcome desk in the arrivals halls from 8am to 8pm on 16 to 18 September 2026. Outside those days you make your own way, and its advice is to check you can get into your accommodation on the day you land, in line with your contract start date. Suitcases fit in a taxi. A van is for what comes later: the bedding, desk chair and kitchen kit bought in the first week, and any boxes sent on ahead.

Arriving Before Your Contract Starts

GOV.UK lets you arrive up to one month before a course that lasts more than six months, or up to one week before a shorter one, but never before the start date on your visa. Hall and private contracts do not always start that early, so some students land with a gap of days between the flight and the keys.

If that happens, the boxes have to wait somewhere. We can bring them over from wherever you are staying once the room opens, and for a gap of weeks rather than days, storage bridges the dates.

Customs Relief on Shipped Belongings

If you are coming to the UK for full-time study, you can ship your personal belongings in under customs relief without the ToR1 form that people moving here permanently fill in. GOV.UK tells students to have their shipping agent declare the goods under customs procedure code 40 00 C06 and to send evidence of the period of study with the entry. The relief covers clothing, the things you need for your studies, including a computer, and household effects. Alcohol and tobacco are excluded.

The usual rule that you must have owned the goods for six months before moving does not apply to students. If you stay in the UK after graduating, you can claim transfer of residence relief within 12 months of graduation using the ToR1 form. The detail is in GOV.UK's transfer of residence guidance.

Your eVisa and Renting a Room

Biometric residence permits have gone. GOV.UK says all BRPs have now expired and been replaced by eVisas, a digital record of your immigration status. You travel with the passport you have added to your UKVI account, and you use a share code from that account when you rent a home or start a job.

In England a private landlord checks your right to rent before the tenancy starts, so have the share code ready before moving day rather than on it. A late check means a late key, and a late key leaves the van waiting at the kerb.

Council Tax Once You Leave Halls

Halls of residence are automatically exempt from council tax in Manchester. A house or flat is not. If everyone living there is a full-time student you will usually have to apply for the exemption, with your student ID, your university, your course dates and the address, and tell the council when your course ends.

One rule matters to international students in particular. The council can also exempt a home where a full-time student's partner or dependant is not a British citizen and is not allowed to work or claim benefits in the UK, and it asks for a copy of the visa and proof of no recourse to public funds. Apply when you move into the house, not when the first bill arrives.

When the Course Ends

On a course of 12 months or longer, a Student visa runs for four months after the course end date; on a course of six to twelve months, for two. If you want to stay and work, you apply for the Graduate visa from inside the UK before the Student visa expires, and you can apply as soon as the university has told the Home Office you have completed the course, without waiting for graduation.

The length is changing. A Graduate visa lasts two years if you apply on or before 31 December 2026, and 18 months if you apply on or after 1 January 2027. Staying on usually means leaving a student room for a first flat on an ordinary tenancy, and a room's worth of belongings with a desk and a bike is a single van load. The dates are on GOV.UK's Graduate visa page.

Going Home for Good

Leaving the UK means splitting a room three ways: what goes in the suitcase, what is shipped, and what stays behind. Shipping overseas is a job for a freight forwarder or a student shipping company. The Manchester end of it is a van job: furniture that has been sold delivered to its new owner across town, and whatever nobody wants cleared rather than left for the landlord.

Book that end of it for before the visa and the contract run out, not after. A room still full on the last day of a contract is the most expensive version of the move.

What an International Student Move Costs

One mover with a large van starts from £45/hour and two movers from £50/hour. A room in halls is usually one van load, and the price depends on the floor, the carry and how much there is, the same as for any student move.

Every band we quote from is published on the rate card.

How to Book

1. 1Send us your hall or street address and your contract start or end date.
2. 2If boxes are arriving separately, tell us roughly how many and where they will be.
3. 3Tell us the floor, whether there is a lift, and the nearest place to stop.
4. 4We confirm the time, the van and the price in writing before the day.

What we cover and how your belongings are protected is set out on the insurance and compliance page.