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I’ve done it. I’ve bought an Apple Vision Pro from the US – and I live in the UK.
I have no idea how many other people have done this, but YouTube videos and social posts featuring Apple’s brand-new mixed-reality headset on British soil are beginning to surface.
There can’t be that many, though. Reports suggest that Apple sold around 200,000 Vision Pro headsets at launch. That’s not a lot of anything for them (although it’s quite a few more than people were predicting leading up to the big day) and the fact remains that most of those sold units will reside somewhere in the US.
If you’ve bought anything tech-related from the United States and had it shipped over to the UK, you’ll know it’s a tight balance between exchange rates, VAT, and import duties when it comes to how much money you might save over waiting for an official UK launch. Sometimes, you’ll end up paying a premium.
Is that the case with Vision Pro? Well, let’s find out!
Should you buy Vision Pro from the US?
A quick caveat here. I’ve bought Vision Pro from the United States and had it shipped over to the UK because I’m a tech reviewer who focuses predominantly on Apple gear. It’s my wheelhouse, it’s where the majority of my audience resides, and it’s what keeps the lights on. For me, Vision Pro is an investment in the content that will result from having one in my hands (or, rather, on my face) – I’m not buying as a consumer.
Despite this, buying Vision Pro ahead of the UK launch and facing the potential costs associated with getting it over here – not to mention the prospect of it not working fully due to regional restrictions – is still a risk. Only, for me, it’s a calculated business risk.
If you’re not in the same boat as me and you just fancy getting your hands on Vision Pro before it is officially launched in the UK, I’d tread with caution. As you’ll find out, this isn’t a simple endeavour – and it’s expensive. You need to really want one to go through with this.
Can you buy Vision Pro in the UK?
This is a two-pronged answer.
No, you can’t walk into an Apple Store in the UK and buy Vision Pro. Nor can you head online and buy one (from any official retailer) and have it delivered to your front door.
However, nothing is stopping you from heading online and ordering one from the US Apple Store, even if you’re based in the UK. That part is, actually, rather straightforward. There’s just a bunch of strategic moves you need to make before and after to ensure it does end up at your front door.
This won’t be for everyone, but if you’re ready and up for it – let’s dive in.
How to buy Vision Pro from the US in the UK
Good news – buying Vision Pro from the US in the UK isn’t as tricky as you might think. You can use your UK-based credit or debit card and place the order through the US Apple Store as you would the UK Apple Store.
There’s just one thing to bear in mind: you need a US-based physical address for the shipping; Apple will not ship Vision Pro from the US to the UK for you.
I achieved this via a trusted contact based in Arizona. You may have someone you know and trust – a family member or colleague, possibly – who can do the same huge favour for you (although you might need to factor in the cost of their time, depending on your relationship!).
Whichever legal method you choose to obtain a US-based shipping address, just keep in mind that Apple will only send it there and nowhere else. The other option is, of course, to have a trusted contact head to an Apple Store and pick up Vision Pro for you, either after you’ve reserved one online or if you fancy risking a walk-in purchase without a reservation.
How much does Vision Pro cost in the UK when purchased from the US?
Vision Pro starts at $3,499 for the base model version with 256GB of storage. This is the one I went for. The resulting amount debited from my bank account after currency conversion was £2,946.19.
If you place the order from the UK via the US Apple Store and use your credit or debit card, you’ll most likely pay a foreign currency conversion fee. This depends entirely on your bank, but to give you an idea, Santander charged me £86.91 as a foreign currency conversion fee.
Another option would be to use your trusted US contact and their US-based credit or debit card. That would avoid the foreign conversion fee, but does of course put a bit more pressure on that contact of yours. I’ll leave that one to you.
Next, you’ll need to figure out how to ship Vision Pro from the US to your address in the UK. The quotes we received for this ranged from $45 to $116, with delivery times ranging from two to ten days. I opted for UPS Express, which was a two-day service, priced at $99.
I’m afraid it doesn’t end there – and nor is that two-day delivery service actually two days. Once your Vision Pro has cleared customs in the US, it needs to do the same for the UK, and that’s where you’re hit with another bill. The fees you’ll need to pay relate to import duty, VAT, and other cross-border red tape that needs navigating to transfer a piece of tech from US to UK soil. I had to pay £565.31 in these fees before UPS was allowed to release the package for delivery.
The total, therefore, that I’ve paid to get Vision Pro from Apple in the US to my front door in Leamington Spa, is £3,678.41. That takes into account the original purchase price, the foreign currency conversion fee, shipping, and those pesky but unavoidable import duties.
I’m pretty happy with that. If we assume that Apple will charge £3,499 for Vision Pro in the UK, I’ve only paid a £179.41 premium to receive it early.
Whether or not you’ve got the stomach for that and the faff involved in getting it to your front door is entirely up to you!
How to get Vision Pro working in the UK
The fun doesn’t end after you’ve emptied your bank account to get Vision Pro from the US to the UK. As was widely reported immediately after pre-orders went live, Apple has been careful to restrict much of the functionality of its headset to US users.
The good news is that there is a workaround for most of those restrictions – with one notable exception.
I have fellow tech creator, Tausif Hussain, to thank for the following insight, who has made a brilliant video on how to get Vision Pro working outside of the US – it’s definitely worth checking out if you’re serious about doing this.
Firstly, you can sign in to visionOS with your UK Apple ID. What you’ll quickly discover, however, is that you can’t access the App Store, which severely limits what you can do with the headset.
To get around this, you need to create a US Apple ID. I set one up before Vision Pro arrived, but, as discovered by Tausif, the easiest way to do this is in fact within visionOS itself. Do that, and Apple will, presumably, automatically set it to a US account.
Once logged in with your fresh new US Apple ID, you’ll be able to enter the App Store and download free apps to your heart’s content. What you can’t do is purchase apps – unless you add a US-based credit or debit card to your new Apple ID. Once again, we’re in the realm of needing access to a trusted third party who can provide that for you. And, once again, I’ll leave that with you.
Once you’ve downloaded the apps you want to use on Vision Pro, you can sign out of your US Apple ID and sign back in with your UK Apple ID. Those apps should still work as intended and you’ll also gain access to various iCloud-related stuff that is tied to your Apple ID, such as your synced notes. This is great news, but there is one caveat – you can’t access the Vision Pro Apple TV experience because that is completely region-locked at the moment to the US.
So, most of Vision Pro will work just fine if you buy it from the US and have it shipped to the UK, including the cool Mac screen-sharing stuff that everyone is showing off on social media. You just won’t be able to experience the full beans of immersive Apple TV on visionOS until the headset is officially launched in the UK.
Wrapping up: when is Vision Pro coming to the UK?
At the time of writing this guide (February 2024), no one outside of Apple knows the answer to this. There are even suggestions that Apple itself is yet to confirm a specific date internally for a UK launch of Vision Pro.
That same rumour mill (led largely by Mark Gurman) noted last year that Vision Pro is likely to head to Canada and the UK first, after the US release, as part of a worldwide launch. Despite this, there are still no firm dates. Some have suggested it might happen before WWDC (that would make sense, given the impetus placed on developers to get on board with the new device) or simply ‘by the end of the year’ (I wouldn’t put this past Apple, either).
There’s a chance Vision Pro may not even reach the UK until 2025. Who knows?
The one thing I do know is that you need to really want one of these headsets to get involved early. Alternatively, you could just wait for my hands-on first impressions and the avalanche of content I’ll send your way about Vision Pro!
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2 Comments
Very fascinated by the tale of importing Vision Pro. Love that you’ve got into such detail about it. I wonder if some of the UK banks that offer a US bank account as an optional add-on such as Starling Business would work with a US Apple ID? Depends if you need a US billing address to go along with it, I suppose.
There are bank accounts that don’t have foreign currency transaction fees so if you plan to import more US goods it might be a good idea to get one of them?
Do you think a model taken from the US to the UK would eventually work with a UK account once support is added or would it just be locked to the US forever?