Emma M

How long did you wait before booking flights and shipping your items to the US? Did you wait until you had your interview and then get a rush on with moving everything and booking flights, or did you book flights and ship stuff once you found out your interview date?

ryanayr

It depends on your risk appetite, as well as whether you plan to have a gap between the USC spouse going out and the immigrant joining later.

I have been in the US for three weeks and we had the interview today. We shipped our stuff out before I flew out because it worked with the timing of us selling our home. Most shippers will offer an option to delay delivery on the other side so ask them about any charges etc. Regarding the flights I would only ever book flexible tickets for something like this - prohibitively expensive though

MrsWaring

I am starting to ship things over now... Me (USC) and my children are going in Jan with hubby hopefully joining us end of Feb. Hubby should hopefully have his interview before we go in Jan, still leaving enough time to deal with any unexpected problems with his visa application. Will not be picking hubby's flights until visa is in his passport though.

ian-mstm

You should not book flights until the visa is in your passport and in your hands. Having an interview is, by no means, an indication that the visa will be approved in a timely manner.

Ian

jeffreyhy

I can attest to that. I booked my wife's flight to the USA for a few days after her interview. There were a couple of surprise issues raised by the consular officer, which my wife remedied within 24 hours. However, 24 hours was enough time for the consular officer to leave town for holiday and vacation, and the visa was not issued until 3 weeks after the interview.

Regards, JEff

Scouse Express

I concur with my Learned Friend.


Jim.

Rete

Also, I doubt that the regulations have changed, so I will remind you that if you are doing a shipment of furniture on a container for example, you need to have your visa number to give to the shipping company before your items can be shipped out.

Now since you have a USC spouse who is living in the US, that might not pertain to your shipment.

Emma M

My spouse isn't in the US yet, he's sitting in the same room as me )) We're all waiting to go back together. We can ship stuff though, we'll be living with his parents for a while so there will be someone the other end to receive it.

Emma M

Yeah, problem is we're trying to get around the cost of flights if we leave it until a couple of weeks before we want to fly. It would be like triple the cost! I know though, got to be sensible...

Didn't think of it like that.

lansbury

I am digging this from the back of a failing memory, from when we moved over in 2006. I am sure that in order to avoid input duty etc, we had to be in the US when the container arrived.

rpjs

Alternatively the USC can have household goods shipped as a "returning resident" which has the same customs exemption as a new immigrant. That's what we did - the shipping was all in my wife's name and we had no problems.

Scouse Express

You may want to wait until the Olympcs are well gone, before you book your flights.

Book a Round-trip with a distant date for the return portion of your trip, then just do not show up.


Jim/

Emma M

Hi, yeah that's what we are going to do, problem is that right now, we're looking at £1707.18 (round trip, for me, my hubby and our son) IF we booked soon (we're looking at about 2 to 3 months until we "hope" to go). If we were to book right after the interview and were looking at going within 3 weeks or so, the price would go right up to about £3000 for the same flight. Flight costs rise and dip. Looks like it's in the "dip" and we can't book yet! Oh well lol.

ryanayr

Anglo-Pacific didn't need us to provide visa information to book. They were flexible on the destination until we pushed the button but then I ultimately went to the US and had a fixed address.

Emma M

While we're on the subject of shipping... who did you ship with and do you have any recommendations?