thisnaturaljourney

Congratulations on the approval of your residence visa!! When do you move out & where to?

Thank you for sharing your experience & for the advice

kirstyp

Hi,

Sounds like you've got lots of organising to keep you busy! Hopefully I can help get you started with the shipping bit..

When it comes to arranging international removals we find most people start the research process about 3-4 months before their target move date. This gives you enough time to evaluate and select a company and then work through the planning and preparation process with your chosen mover. You can start research and reach out for quotes at any time though if you prefer to be organised a bit more in advance, just make sure they explain how long their quote is valid for or for which period of time as prices can vary depending on time of year you move due to peak seasons.

My personal top tip for removal companies is to look for members of professional bodies.

The top two to look for are FIDI FAIM which is a quality certification under which holders are independently audited to make sure they meet over 200 different standards including things like training and experience of staff, responsiveness, complaints and claims, equipment and materials, documentation processes etc. The idea behind this one is that in achieving those 200 marks of quality they close the loop holes and reduce the risk of poor service or anything going wrong.

The second one is BAR Overseas with the Advance Payment Guarantee. This works in a similar way to 'ATOL protected' in the holiday industry. It protects the money you pay to the remover in the event that they go out of business during your move, for example once your shipment is on the water and means that if the worst does happen you don't end up having to pay out a second time to get your move completed. It's rare, but it has happened and so if peace of mind is important to you then that's an important one to look out for.

Please do have a look at our Vendor Forum (Overseas Removals, Shipping & Storage Advice and Information from Bournes International Moves - British Expats) I am on hand there to personally help and we have a guide that has lots of tips & several other online tools and articles that may help further whilst you're researching this topic.

Hope it helps, and good luck with everything!

Kirsty

thisnaturaljourney

I wish we had a bit more time... We leave in September!!

thisnaturaljourney

Thank you so much Kirsty, this reply is so helpful, really appreciated.
Thank you for the link, I will have a good look!

KOH2

We're booked to fly out in October & moving to OH's home town of Wanganui

No problem. Good luck with your move.

kirstyp

Don't worry, that's still plenty of time.

LittleGreyCat

Noting that it all seems to be financial plus social.

I would have thought that statements from long term family friends, for instance, vouching that you had a long term stable relationship might help.

I know, of course, that you could make them up but if they came, for instance, from a Minister of your local Church, a reputable person such as a JP or similar then they should have some weight.

Or is it just that utility bills and bank statements are the modern measure of your life?

Stormer999

So who is going to verify the claimed qualifications of the Minister or JP or research the validation of the "friends" statement....it has to end somewhere. For this reason the immi peeps require facts.

MrsFychan

as Stormer has said he needs to be fact base on a day to day, week to week. month to month basis. hence the reason that marriage certs, kids birth certs don't hold much traction, all these show is at that particular time in the pass you had a relationship with that person it does not show that that relationship is a stable long term one, hence the need for unbiased proof, like bills, social media chat, holiday booking receipts etc

Stormer999

My wife had medical research papers published in her maiden name so when we married she kept it, so now we were married in separate surnames. We kept separate bank accounts and she paid all of our living bills. I could not provide immi with any joint household bills ! Luckily we could establish bank transfer amounts between our separate banks to convince immi that we were cohabiting, that together with pics of us both on the Shotover jet boat whilst investigating the country managed to fit their requisite. Certificates were useless bits of paper.

moving2NZ2013

nope.

married,together 10 yrs.living together 9 years 2 children. not enough proof.

I STILL had to send off a bunch of things.

movingtonewzealand

We are not married, no kids, together over 3 years only. Evidence they needed was to show we had lived together in a stable relationship for over 12 mths.

Our bills were in separate names, no joint account apart from the NZ one we had started to set up while we were in UK.

Letters from friends etc I was told were pointless to include.

Instead used very recent letters that were sent to us separately but at the same address - stretching back to two years.

Some photos of us on hols and the plane ticket receipts to back them up.

A timeline of our relationship.

That was it and went through in two and a bit weeks.

Sumner is lovely by the way!

Forgot to mention, we didn't have any bills in joint names, only our rental agreement was joint.