I am going to transfer my normal place of residency from the EU to the UK. For this I need to move most of my my personal belongings over the border. The UK offers a ‘transfer of residence’ (ToR) relief on tax and duty for personal belongings. For this, I need to apply to HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) to claim relief. This application requires me to create a more or less detailled list of all the belonings that I plan to transfer. Since I do not yet know what I will transfer, I have the following question:
Question
How long before crossing the border should I make this application? In other words, how long does it usually take HMRC to approve the application? Would it be sufficient to apply, say, one week before the transfer?
I was unable to find this information on GOV.UK.
Side question: is it a good/bad idea to put things on the list that I might eventually decide not to transfer? In this way I could create a list right now that might be "too long" though.