The big moving list..
 

I need some help with our moving plans!

At the moment we are booked to go to the Embassy in London for interviews the first week in June so that's all in order (hopefully).
I have contacted shipping companies, had a pickfords guy out this morning and have some other firm coming on thursday.

I have made a list of all the electrical items and other stuff I need to sell, plus all the myriad of companies we will need to contact to let them know we are leaving. I will book flights once we know we have the visas.

So - what have I missed out? The whole thing is so overwhelming that I'm all over the place these days :blink:

If you can think of anything else I need to consider before the big move (probably August) I'd love to know!:thumbup:

Re: The big moving list..
 

Don't forget to bring your sense of humour with you...you are going to need it more than ever.

Re: The big moving list..
 

Oh how very true!!

Re: The big moving list..
 

make sure the whole families passports have plenty of life. the may only stamp your i94 on entry with the lowest date on the passport. (my son has a shorter i94 than the rest of us because of this reason)

mail redirection forms (if you dont know where you will be staying bring the form to the us and send it in from there).

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Get copies of medical and dental records, if possible get your dental x-rays so you don't have to get them all done again over here right away.
Also if you have kids make sure you have any vaccination records to ensure they don't have to go through them all again.

Re: The big moving list..
 

Thanks, those are helpful suggestions.

We have passports pending, should arrive in the next day or two, my husband had his renewed last year.

Did you copy your entire medical records or just a summary? The childrens records are not very long, but mine might be more than a few pages!

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If you are moving with a job you may want to keep track (and receipts) of your moving expenses. You may be able to use these expenses to knock down your tax bill

Notify HMRC (Pensions, National Insurance) that you are leaving - depending on age and working record it may be worthwhile making voluntary NI contributions for you and / or spouse
http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/cnr/osc.htm

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Make a list of the people you need to see before you go. If you forget some posessions, you can buy more but it may be a long time until you see your friends again.

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If you have a long medical history because you've had a lot of medical problems then yes taking the full thing would be better - the more info a doctor has on you when treating you the better.

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P-85 for the inland revenue.

Vaccination records from the doctors.

Depending on where you'll be staying when you first move over, bring over a can opener and a couple of the basics in the suitcase because it won't do you any good if that's shipped and stuck in the container and you've got to open a can of soup in your new gaff...

Re: The big moving list..
 

Hi Bob,

I am at home with kids, but my hubby works. I have a tax return to complete for him for last financial year, and then a little bit of this current year to file for as well.

What is the P-85? I don't recall ever getting one when I worked, just a P60 and P45 on occasion.

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P-85 informs IR that you are leaving the country, and also gets you an early refund of your taxes if you are lucky. It's a form you fill out with your forwarding address etc.

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Don't bring your gardening tools unless you've sterilised them first. ;) and get used to a vast difference in gardening, because you're leaving Eden!

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An early refund? *cha-ching!*

We had no idea about that form, that's really helpful! Have any of you used Craigslist to sell stuff? We are in London and I have looked at the site a few times but not sold anything on it yet. I see a lot of people are selling stuff only a week or two before they go, do you think that's enough time to get rid of a few sofas and all my electrical accoutrement's?

We are not planning a move until July, though it might be the right time for a sharp exit if Boris gets elected on Thursday :eek:

Re: The big moving list..
 

(How do you do that thing where you highlight the text from a previous post in your own? :confused:)

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hit the quote button at the bottom of the post to quote it...

And craigslist is good, as is ebay, and if it's random stuff that might now sell, freecycle is a good place to just get rid of stuff :)

Re: The big moving list..
 

We sold almost all our stuff on a Dutch site similiar to CraigsList (lived in Amsterdam prior to here), it was pretty much painless except for the people that would agree the price with you then turn up to collect and try to haggle. And the endless emails of 'it's cheaper at xxx, I'll give you this for it'.
You do need to give yourself time to do it. What you think might sell may take ages but some stuff goes instantly and amazes you. I got EUR 100 within 2 hours for a Sony Minidisc recorder that was nearly 10 years old. But couldn't get more than a couple hundred for my nearly new EUR 1000 sofa that was listed for weeks.

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We are headed for the Deep South, we were there a month ago and the Wisteria,Dogwood and Azaleas were all in bloom so it looked really nice.
It will be a real challenge to have a great looking Garden in the height of summer, but I'll give it a bash! I'm having to give up my much loved allotment, so no more raspberries for me :(

Re: The big moving list..
 

be aware as your a gardener - that the customs form you have to fill in on the plane specifically asks about if you have any seeds etc in your luggage. I read one girl on here ticked no as she forgot she had a small packet of seeds in her case. They caught her and she was reprimanded. The worst part is her records were marked with a customs violation and now every time she enters the country she has a load of hassle at secondary. she gets through but has a lot of time wasted and trouble. if you bring stuff - answer the questions truthfully.

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Oh dear, that's not good news :( I have a shoebox full of seed packets, I had hoped to bring them with me, but they'll need to go on the list aswell.

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We have been told by our removals people to clean all our gardening implements thoroughly and put a note in the shipment as to how exactly we cleaned them, as the most frequent chuck off and burn is these due to hoof and mouth (as they correctly call it).

Also get a company which makes you write down every item with a new cost for insurance (i'm sure they probably all do this) as me and my hubby spent months agonising over stuff "should it stay or should it go now", but have found the mere act of writing it down and finding a price has made us think !ah F*** it and our rubbish and charity bin piles are mounting up.

Another thing I have thought of doing is having a "come and pick over our lives" party for the stuff we haven't or haven't got round to selling for family, friends and acquaintances in our last few days, and leaving a tub by the front door saying if you wish to make a donation to our lives in America please feel free to make a donation, and see what happens!:thumbsup:

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might be able to sneak them in the freight container - just dont put in your suitcase when you go on the plane as thats when you have to fill in the customs form that im talking about.

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Our friends came round and helped themselves anyway, cheeky bu**ers. The last day was like a free for all. And none of them gave us a single cent. (OK one drove us to the airport - whoop de doo!)

Re: The big moving list..
 

Tips I can think of ...

Do you have pets? If so, look into getting a company to transport them. We used Airpets. Best thing I ever did for our cat - he arrived safe and sound and in a good state.

Sell things at home rather than here. You'll get nowhere near the price you paid for them here.

Are you keeping your home or selling up? We're only here for an assignment so kept our UK home and let it out. Can give you some tips if you're doing the same.

Oh, and don't do what we did and say goodbye to everyone individually. I wanted a big one-off party, but OH wanted it all to be small and personal. Big mistake! It all took up far too much time and we ended up saying goodbye to some 2, even 3 times. Ridiculous. And there are only so many meals you can eat/times you can hug people farewell.

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Oh, and 'garden maintenance' doesn't mean the whole garden! It means lawn cut, edges trimmed and stuff blown away. We thought it meant gardens weeded and hedges trimmed so we left all our garden stuff at home :frown:

Our mistake - but proved to be an expensive one!

Re: The big moving list..
 

Hi sorry for hijacking the thread!
We will be letting our house out when we move any tips much appreciated:)
I havent a clue where to begin!
Thanks

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And if you are a gardener (or a hiker, camper etc) watch out for things like Poison Oak, poison ivy and sumac. I dont think you get the first one down south (its a west coast plant IIRC) but I think that the other two are present. I know to my own cost that poison oak can give you a very nasty rash if touched - I think poison ivy and sumac do the same thing