Decision made to move - what's next?
 

(and how glad am I that I found this board??)

Hi all - I'm a US citizen (dual UK/USA national) living in the UK with my British husband, and we've decided we're moving stateside. We've decided where we're going to, visited, checked out that we can afford the housing and get employment. We got funds for the move, so I'm beginning to check out shipping and what I'll need to do to get our doggies over there (plus clearing and selling this house, ugh).

I've got pretty much all the paperwork together to start the application for his Immigrant Visa app (anyone got a handy link as to how we get a police certificate?), so I need to know what's to do next while we're all waiting on the visa. We're looking to move within the next 6 months, so I'd like to get as much sorted out as I can now. I've already found a few great tips on here (just applied online for an AMEX card) so anything else would be useful, especially what worked for you guys.

- I found the form online to fill out for the UK tax office when you leave the UK permanently. My sister (stateside some years now) said something about me having to file records of 7 years tax paying in the UK for me to avoid being liable for US taxes over that time. Anyone got any detail on that? I've had a look but can't find anything

- Do we look to rent first? We can afford to buy outright and have already looked at some houses (and found a few realtors). I've bought the US edition of House Buying for Dummies. Did anyone here use a buyer's agent, and how did that work out?

- Are relocations consultants worth the money?

- Would I be able to open a US bank account (without a permanent address) prior to moving or, if not, do I stick our banking in an online account so I can sort out transferring our cash once we're there?

- Am I allowed to sponsor my husband's visa?

etc etc.

Really, anything would be great, this looks like it's going to be an exciting but terrifyingly grown-up process. Thanks in advance!

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

IMHO you'd be better off renting for the first year or two before committing to a house purchase. You want to make sure that both of you are happy where you live and after a year or so you'll have a good idea of which neighborhoods you like (and can afford).

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

The links in my signature will get you to everything you need to know about the immigration part. Search the marriage-based visa group here for london + Direct Consular Filing or DCF.

You will have to sort out your back tax returns. IRS London has been reported as being *very* helpful to (the many) people in your situation. You'll need to do a minimum of the past 3 years for the immigration part.

Look for recent posts by carin123 about the banking. She has been unable to open a US account without being physically present, but found some other solutions.

The portion of 'sponsoring' that you most need to be concerned with is the I-864. I suggest you read the DCF Guide linked in my siggy for more info about that. London has been very forgiving on 'establishing domicile' in the past.

good luck!

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

Police cert ain't hard, just time consuming, but that'll depend on where you live, google the local police area...

You'd also want to get his vaccination history sorted now as it'll be a lot cheaper and quicker getting squared away on this end.

Inland revenue, P-85 if you want to claim this years taxes back.

Banks, there was a recent thread in the US section about trying to open one, best bet would be if you bank with say HSBC to get them to open one over here for you.

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

I did direct consular filing through the London embassy recently as the wife of a US citizen. All went well and it still took 5 months to get my visa. So don't rush handing in your notice or anything.

Because my husband didn't have a job out there when he filled in the sponsorship form he had to show assets worth 3 x the poverty level, can't remember what that amounted to but we used the value of our house. Even though he'd been living in the UK with me we had no problems establishing domicile in the US.

I got my police certificate by phoning my local police station and asking if they had a form online that I could download. I also filled in a similar form for the Met - they will do a police cert for you no matter where you live in the UK so I did that one as a backup. Both came through the same day... Apply straight away.

If you haven't done your US taxes then do them now. My husband was 7 years overdue and had to do them all at once. You have to show the last three years or one year for your I-864, but once you do the last three years they are alerted to your existence and may ask for previous years. Turbo Tax is excellent for doing your return.

I would open something like a Citibank dollar account that you can use in both US and UK. Then when you get to the US you can open a more convenient local account.

We used Excess International to do our removals. It was a 20 foot container, included all packing, loading, storage, etc, cost £4500 ish.

I sold a lot of stuff in the UK especially electrical stuff. I did take the PC and laptop and PC to the US because they are dual voltage. I gave a massive amount of stuff away too, then at the end I hired a skip for what was left in the house.

We didn't manage to sell our house before we left, but we had planned ahead and extended our mortgage somewhat to cover unforeseen costs - thank god we did. We finally sold our house nearly 3 months after we got to the US. It was pretty stressful. Mind you, the dollar plummeted so much in that time that we made much more money when we moved it over to the US.

I have never used a relocation consultant, but I did find it a massive learning curve moving here. Forums like this are excellent, but a relocation consultant might be helpful if you can afford them.

I would start off by renting. Remember that rents you are quoted include property tax (at least they do here in Maine) and that can be a serious sum. Our property tax is $500 a month. We are in the process of buying the property we're renting, and we won't really be any better off other than the fact that we will have the security of owning our home, and we'll be paying off a mortgage rather than lining someone else's pockets.

Where are you moving to?

I got her late June and am still loving it - not in the slightest bit homesick and enjoyed the sunshine all summer. I miss family and friends but that's it...

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

i would be interested in that link to the uk tax form if anyone has it?

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

For your doggies you'll need a Pet Passport. Mainly you need to have the doggies inoculated against rabies and that will get stamped in the passport by the vet. You'll need an international air approved dog crate to bring them over in and they can travel in the cargo part of the plane to save money. Our dog arrived just fine and she already speaks with an American accent. :huh:

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

[QUOTE=Bob;5472922]
Inland revenue, P-85 if you want to claim this years taxes back.



Sorry have I missed something ? Is there a way of claiming back taxes paid in the UK this year ? hope to move in Feb and obviously both OH and me have paid tax all this year ? Any advice or links would be great

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

[QUOTE=wisewol;5477006]I don't know....try reading the P-85 form and the inland rev site, it's surprisingly good.

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

[QUOTE=Bob;5477093]Thanks sound like some fun reading for OH tom.

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

Wow, many many thanks everyone, that's all been really useful and saved me lots more fruitless Google searches. Good karma points all round!

The police check form goes off today so now we've got to get absolutely everything ready to go with the visa app soon as the police check comes back. And then at least we've got a few months to get stuff sorted while the visa's being processed.

We're moving just outside of Vegas, NV, so there'll be just a leeetle bit of a climate change to get used to... !

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

Police reports
http://www.met.police.uk/dataprotection/forms.htm

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

[QUOTE=wisewol;5477006]It's because most people are taxed monthly, on the assumption that they will work a whole year. If you leave before the year is out then usually you will have some tax owed back to you. My husband left after working only one month of the financial year, so he got all his tax back because he hadn't hit his personal tax allowance for the year. If you're leaving in Feb then you probably won't have much owed back to you, but it's worth filling in the form and sending it off anyway.

Re: Decision made to move - what's next?
 

She's Bristol, so she needs: http://www.avonandsomerset.police.uk...ct_access.aspx