Here we go again.

Our daughter arrives here in 1 week’s time from California (LA) after having lived in the USA since 1987 (she was aged 6 when we all moved over).

We made the transition in 2016, then our son in 2017, so things should be easier and more straightforward but it is still quite stressful, particularly for her.

I started this thread under US-UK taxes as finance and taxes may well end up being the biggest challenges, but it really encompasses jobs, house buying and selling, and cultural changes among the things she is dealing with.

She had hoped to have completed her house sale before moving back but that has dragged on a bit and won’t complete until after she is here but I don’t think that will affect HMRC since it is her primary residence that she has lived in for the past 4 years so no capital gain taxes. The capital gain taxes will be an IRS tax issue that will need to be reported as she is likely to exceed the personal allowance of a $250k gain, but not by too much.

She is in contract to buy a house here, with us having viewed it, then a 2nd time with her on FaceTime. Her surveyor goes there in a couple of days but there shouldn’t be any show-stoppers as the house is only 20 years old and the current owners bought it 18 months ago and have done some considerable improvements on it. They are taking the opportunity of a secondment in Australia (Sunshine Coast) and will be leaving in January. (He is an anesthesiologist with the army).

She has been using her Wise account denominated in GBP to pay bills and has a debit card to keep her going until she opens a UK bank account and will be staying with us for the few weeks/months it takes to complete on her house purchase. Her furniture is already on route and she has arranged for it to go into store in the UK until she is ready for it. Two boxes of musical instruments have already arrived via air freight and are in our house after a tussle with FedEx who ignored the ToR she provided and wanted us (me) to pay HMRC duty of around £700.

We will even have a car for her as our new EV should be with us within 10 days or so and she has asked to buy our existing car which works out great.

I’m sure there will still be some more jogs in the road ahead but so far so good.

This takes me back to when we made the move. 
You'll make the logistics as easy as possible for her, I just hope that the culture shock is not too bad and short lived.
Best of luck to all of you. 

This takes me back to when we made the move. 
You'll make the logistics as easy as possible for her, I just hope that the culture shock is not too bad and short lived.
Best of luck to all of you. 

Thanks. Her partner is Australian American and their long term plans are to retire to Adelaide in 10+ years time. He is planning to move to England early next year, a place on the coast 5 miles away from us is his target. He is coming to stay for 2 weeks over Christmas and is renting a place there to see how he finds it. If he can handle it in December with the snow and sand blowing in horizontally over the North Sea I’ll be impressed. They have been “together “ for 10 years now but have always lived in different dwellings as they both like their own space.

Both of them work for big IT companies who say they can work from home.

Nothing to add, I can just imagine how excited you must all be to be living in the same country!

It will be the first time since 1998 that we have lived within 150 miles of one another, the last 10 years it has been over 1,000 miles.

We are all really excited about living in the same small town.

We picked her up from Manchester airport on Monday (today is Thursday) and she is already making good progress doing what she needs to do.

Our EV arrived a week ago so she can buy our Prius now.  She has been down to the solicitors to present herself with the 2 forms of id needed plus a copy of a bank statement from Chase US proving who knows what.  Her house sale in the US is going well after some jogs in the road, but should close on the 29th. Yesterday she went and visited the house here she has an agreement to buy.  That seems to be progressing well and the owners are already into packing mode even though they don't move to Australia until January.

Last night she downloaded the Chase UK Bank app and now has a UK bank account.  She read out the sort code and account number and I sent her a small amount to test it. It worked like a charm, my app confirmed her details as an exact match which surprised me as it was literally within a minute or 2 of her receiving the text conforming her new account details. She did not have to prove residence which is a change from a few years ago. After answering a bunch of questions there was a delay while a human reviewed the details and approved the application.

She has not yet registered to vote or applied for a NI number or a UK provisional driving licence but that will come.  She has registered with the NHS, which required  a form to be completed then down to the GP surgery with her British passport plus a copy of a utility bill to prove residence here. (I had her name added to our account a few weeks ago)

Fantastic news Durhamlad!  Any plans at the weekend to celebrate the family being back in one country?

Fantastic news Durhamlad!  Any plans at the weekend to celebrate the family being back in one country?

Yes indeed.  Our son came over for dinner on Tuesday and on Saturday he will be back again along with my sister and her family for a get together.

My other sister lives about 35 miles away so we will arrange a visit up there soon, although we did visit her with our son daughter in February when her family sprung a surprise 60th birthday party for her.

It's all good.

Wow! That's a LOT of the drudgery completed in no time at all. Well done, all of you. 

Wow! That's a LOT of the drudgery completed in no time at all. Well done, all of you. 

This being our our 3rd time doing this I was well prepared having gone through the process ourselves, then our son. Still, it is a lot of things to do.  She has an insurance record on pdf from her last car insurer and that is high on the list to do - it worked with our son, using Aviva, so I hope she will have the same success.

This being our our 3rd time doing this I was well prepared having gone through the process ourselves, then with our son. Still, it is a lot of things to do.  She has an insurance record on pdf from her last car insurer, and that is high on the list to do - it worked with our son, using Aviva, so I hope she will have the same success insuring the car.

With the Chancellors' announcements yesterday, it might be worth taking UK residency for a test drive first! 

Keeping politics out of it (if that is really possible) I do fear what a Labour government will do when they get back in power (which does seem inevitable).

For now I'm keeping my powder dry, but am sure glad to have USC to fall back on together with a US social security pension...........

Our daughter’s house sale in the USA completed yesterday and her house purchase here is progressing well. Her furniture was shipped well before her house went on sale many weeks ago. It has traveled to the port of LA, back to storage and then back to the port which is the last she heard so it looks like it will take many months to get here.

Next step is moving a very sum of money over which I’ve recommended that she speaks to her Chase bank in both the US and UK about. She has been using Wise quite successfully so far but not for this size of a transfer.

Our daughter’s house sale in the USA completed yesterday and her house purchase here is progressing well. Her furniture was shipped well before her house went on sale many weeks ago. It has traveled to the port of LA, back to storage and then back to the port which is the last she heard so it looks like it will take many months to get here.

Next step is moving a very sum of money over which I’ve recommended that she speaks to her Chase bank in both the US and UK about. She has been using Wise quite successfully so far but not for this size of a transfer.

Definitely worth shopping around when that much money is involved. I'd call all the currency brokers!

She has just heard that her luggage is at sea, will be going to Liverpool via Cape Horn instead of the Panama Canal and is scheduled to arrive February 6th