budleigh

Moving to Danville, Ca and we fly out on Easter Sunday, I'm trying to sort out paperwork.

What should we hold on to?, what can we shred? and what should we get hold of before we go?

Anyone have a list?

Bank Statements, I currently have at least 10+ years worth for myself and husband. 3 years should be enough right?

UK Utility/Phone bills? any use keeping these?

Is there anything you wish you had kept or that you would recommend hanging on to?

thankyou

traceym

I just packed a box with old bank statements, pay slips etc and left them with my brother in the UK, I could see no point in hauling them over here. All I brought were my latest P60 and the obvious Birth Certificates etc.

Jscl

I would bring a copy of your latest car insurance documents, as they will help reduce your car insurance here. Obviously driving license too.

Degree/Work certificates can be useful, depending on your employer, some ask for them, some don't. Latest payslip maybe if you are going to be negotiating salary with anyone soon after your arrival.

You wouldn't really need bank statements in the US but I think we brought the last one of each of the last few years, and left the rest with other stuff at my parents' house. Make sure you have contact numbers for your bank/credit cards etc though... if you can get the actual branch phone numbers rather than the 0845 numbers (or whatever they are now) they are cheaper to call from the US - my phone carrier now charges a supplement for calling UK 0845 numbers .

My experience was that UK utility bills meant nothing here - either a utility company will make you pay a deposit for having no (US) credit history or they won't, nothing you supply from England changes that. I'd keep the last one from each of the last few years for a while though (stored in UK), in case they are useful if you return back home sometime.

Depending on what you'll be doing immigration-wise in the near future you might want to bring your childhood innoculation records. You'll need to know your medical history if you are likely to be applying for a greencard. But right now you'd only need whatever is necessary for your any medical issues you have... unless you're going into some field that requires it.

Bob

Birthcert
Marriage cert
Medical history, especially vaccinations

Depending on how you got here, a copy of your parents birth/marriage certs might be worth getting too

Driving history from the DVLA, but minimal use, insurance no claims doesn't make a difference in the US, you'll start fresh

Qualifications, Degree awards etc, have a copy and of transcripts if you can in case you need them verified/translated here

AmEx, sort that out to start a credit history if you have one as other stuff won't make much difference

Bank statement and utility bills, don't bother, won't help and no use over here

Other things to recommend, do the touristy rubbish and take photo's of local surroundings like the park, pub and all that, it'll be nice if/when you get home sick, especially if you have kids because it's the daft little things that you take for granted that you'll miss the most.

Jerseygirl

Do not close your UK bank account and keep one UK credit card account open.

budleigh

thanks al l, I can see us not bothering to unpack the box with older bank statements in etc! we are not planning on leaving anything in the uk really so might as well all come with us.

Jscl great advice about the phone numbers, I will add that to my list too.

Bob good idea about touristy things, the kids are taking cameras to school one day in their last week. Our road here has just come up on Google street view so I can always have a little virtual stroll into the village when feeling a bit homesick

MsElui

i would bring one of each utility bill just in case there are any issues. Its a lot easier to ring them up if you have all the relevant customer service telephone numbers and your own account details etc if you need to query something (like a DD being taken incorrectly or whatever). if you bin it then you will spend longer ringing around trying to get any possible issue sorted.

Also - at one point our mortgage broker did an international credit ref for us (didnt actually get used in the end) and this needed the phone and customer numbers of various UK utility/mobile/credit card/mortgage etc as was often how much we paid and what frequency.