How did you do it?

So here's the deal...my husband is from Hull, Yorkshire and we've been married for 6 years now.  We've lived in Los Angeles, CA and now in Boston, MA (where I'm from). 

He and I have talked about it for a while now and we've made the decision to move to London when our lease is up next year (August 2011).  I've been researching online and am trying to figure out the best strategy to do this move.  I know that he will have to move over there first to establish a place to live, etc.  We have money in our savings (not much now, but we are starting to save aggressively), so by the time I apply for my visa, we'll have enough to show that we don't need to rely on public funds.

My husband is a musician/sound engineer, but he also bartends and has waited tables, so finding a job in London hopefully won't be too bad for him.  Once he finds something, I would apply for my visa as soon as possible and get over there.  I'm an Executive Assistant, so I'm hoping to do some temp work until I can find something permanent once I get there, but I know that I can't apply for jobs until I get my visa (which makes it a bit difficult and nerve-wracking).

I want to find out from others, how did you do the big move abroad?  How did you handle and what steps did you take to make the move easier for those who both started from this country?  Also, when shipping your household items (furniture and such), when did you send your items to the UK and (if you don't mind me asking) about what was the cost?  Any info is helpful as I'm trying to figure this out and most of you have already been there, so I appreciate an help you can give me.

KB,

You might want to look through the past posts which would be very helpful for you.The way you do this is look above on the right hand side for an item that is underlined that says "Advanced Forum Search" click on it and then insert the information you want and it will take you back to postings related to the questions you have. Good luck.

I'm in the middle of this process right now so I'd say take a look at my sig from the last year.  That's kindof been the process.  If you don't have kids or a house to sell you're already starting in a better place from my perspective!

As for the move:
1. My husband is doing an intracompany transfer so we're all going to go at the same time. (hopefully).
2. Because we've been married for >4 years and lived together outside the UK during that time I'm applying for ILE instead of LLE but by next year all of that may have changed so I wouldn't worry about it.  Essentially you may be eligible to become a permanent resident right away because of the length in time you've been married. See my past posts for more info.
3. We opted for the slash and burn style of move. We have been slowly getting rid of our personal belongings and furniture by firesale and donation and to friends for the last year.  We'll do more of that this month.  The plan on our end is to end up with boxes and two pieces of furniture that have been in my family for more than a generation to ship. The cost of shipping is pretty expensive if you're paying yourself and the cost to refurnish is not as high as you think - plus it seems like a good way to make a fresh start AND the housing in the UK is much smaller scale - so not everything would work there.
4. We're planning on taking most of our daily used stuff (clothes, toys, papers, etc) on the plane with us - the cost of the extra baggage is worth it rather than have those things on a slow boat).
5. My understanding of shipping is to plan for at least 6 wks and probably more like 10 wks for your stuff to get there if you use a service like Upakweship.com. Which is what our current plan is as of right now. 100cuft all boxed and packed by us is about 1500$ We're sending mid-month next month and we leave June 2.
6. I spent the entire year on this forum paying attention to everyone else's questions and trying to gain information about the move.  I'd suggest looking into the posts on establishing a credit rating once arrived, transferring money between US and UK using xe.com, getting an AMEX card that can be switched to the UK when you move, the amount of money necessary to put down on an apartment if your credit is not good/nonexistent (up to  6 months), budgeting for your spousal application, using an expediter, etc.

You'll be so glad to have found the forum as you go through this process... I know that it has been invaluable in helping me prepare for our own move.  Don't hesitate to ask questions, but do search through and read posts as you think  of things, most stuff has been covered at least once.  It's too much information to just sit down an learn in a day -but if you take a few weeks and kindof go from topic to topic you'll be able to put together a picture that is helpful for your own circumstances.

Good luck!
Urs

Thanks guys.  I have been looking through the site for a while now before posting (still look through for new advice).  It's still somewhat confusing as to the best way to handle the timing of things...hence the question.

It seems like there are a lot of people who are lucky enough to be relocated by their company or their spouses.  Unfortunately, we won't have the luxury, but that's still not detering us from making the move.  Also, we won't have anything in storage here becuase we are making our move permanently and have no intentions to return.

Again, thank you for replying.  I'll keep searching through the site to get more advice to make this move as simple as possible (which I know won't be a easy feat, but I can try).   

When I first moved over here, my husband did already live over here, but he had just finished his MA.  Unfortunately his mother had passed away the year before, so he had some savings but no real job.  We gave him nearly 6 months to find a job, and while he was looking his dad gave him a job helping with his dad's consulting firm.  It wasn't until I had already landed in the UK that he was able to sort out some permanent work but the savings had been enough to allow me to get my fiancee visa (but this was 4 years ago and the rules have changed a bit now).  I only ended up sending 1 cubic meter (I think) of boxes through Upakweship I think was the company, and didn't bother bringing over any furniture.  I had to be very brutal about what to ship and what to take.  I want to say the shipping cost me about $625 apparently when I did warehouse to warehouse shipping or I could do apparently warehouse to my front door in England or $1150, but that was in 2006.  I imagine it's only gone up from there. 

I don't know if that helps you at all but we did the move on the bare minimum amount of money we could at the time and I think, well I know because I've just looked through the old emails and excluding my visa but including a hiring a van to pick up my boxes and bring them to our house and plane tickets I think it cost me about $1500-$2000, just moving costs.  But like I said, we did it on the cheap and I brought next to nothing with me besides clothes and a few items. 

Actually very very few on here have the luxury of a paid move.(Transfer). They have to do it the hard way and since they are relative young they don't have much to ship.

I moved over as a single, 30 year old grad student.  I sold my house in the US, put much of my furniture in storage and shipped 10 boxes via slow boat.  I lugged 3 suitcases on the plane and that was it.  Shipping my stuff was about $650 (in 2004).  I stayed with a former UKY-er and her husband who were good friends until I got on my feet and found my own flat. 

Honestly, there wasn't much I needed to get settled.  My flat was furnished, I brought the basics (a box of basic kitchen stuff, linens, etc) and the rest I bought when I got settled, either on Amazon or the high street. 

If you know you're not returning to the US, sell your electrics, get rid of bulky furniture.  Keep what you can't easily replace or have major sentimental attachment to.  My husband moved across the US to be with me when we got married.  He arrived on my doorstep with his cats, 4 boxes and a suitcase.  Being brutal in your purging is very liberating.  And it saves a lot of money in the long run!

Good luck!

I appreciate all the responses.

Peace, it may have just been the ones I happen to look at in finding information.  It looks like they just happened to be the ones who were fortunate to have a company relocation.   

We've already figured that we would purge all the electrics and our couches (since they probably won't fit in a new place anyway).  My bedroom set used to belong to my grandparents, but I'll probably give that to my parents (they have an unfurnished spare room).  I would like to keep my dining table (it's pretty small and round, so it should fit anywhere) and our tv stand about the size of a small credenza because my parents bought them for us.  However, if I I have to sell it because of the cost, then so be it.

Luckily, we don't have a house to sell here as we are in an apartment...nor do we have a car.  So, I've just been trying to figure out the best way of moving everything else.  I was going to use the US postal service to send our boxes (we did this when we moved back from Los Angeles and it worked well).  We'll see, though.