To Bring or Not to Bring?

We've been trying to figure out what we should bring with us and what we should sell. This can be a difficult problem to navigate when you have an overly-sensitive fourteen year old who wants to keep everything he ever owned in his entire life. His closet is filled with Legos, stuffed animals with the stuffing falling out, the flags of every country that ever existed in various sizes, magnetic car sets, unfinished ship models, and stacks and stack of drawings that include every piece of paper he's ever scribbled on since he was a two years old. Each thing has value because of this, that or the other thing and in his opinion everything must come with him to England. I don't think he even realizes that we won't be taking the tarantula yet.

My husband has musical instruments ship and he has been researching some ways to do that. We could rent a freight or ship things UPS or pay for things as excess baggage. We still have to figure these things out.

We sold some books to a used bookstore and my husband has started putting things for sale on Craig's list. I don't have much stuff of my own and what little I do have I don't mind parting with.

Here's an interesting website I found while looking for information about shipping. This site talks about what you have to pay duty on.

Visas and Passports and Fees, Oh My!

My husband is a British national. This makes my visa situation quite simple. I don't have to worry about applying for a work visa and getting sponsored by an employer or anything like that. I can get a spouses visa for just over a thousand dollars. I can work with that visa. Why do visas cost so much? What are you paying for exactly? I haven't figured that out. Of course, the visa I need is the most expensive one.

My husband was married before and has a son. He will be going to London with us. We were wondering if we needed to get a British passport for him. We started our online search and ran into a snag. On the website for the British Consulate there is no information about what we should do in this situation. I've searched on the web and can't find any concrete information. All of the phone numbers listed for the consulates have written next to them "for emergency use only". The email address listed says that all inquiries about passports will be disregarded because you can find the answer to your question on the website. Well, I've thoroughly searched the website and can't find the answer to my question. I emailed my question to them about a month ago and I assume it was disregarded because I haven't heard anything back.

My husband has also let his son's old American passport expire. We have to get him a new one but in order to get it we need to get notarized form from his mother giving permission for him to have a passport. There is no standard form for this on the website so we were going to make something up until my husband came across some information that said we didn' t need permission if the child was fourteen or older. He turns fourteen at the end of the month so we'll wait until then.

We've decided against getting the British passport. We'll wait until we get there and see what happens. Hopefully, things will work out for the best.

What to Consider?

Moving overseas is a big step. There are a lot of complicated considerations. Here are some things you need to consider.

What type of visa are you eligible for? How much does it cost to apply? What information do you need? How long will the application process take? You can find out about visas at this site.

List the items that you have. What will you take with you? What can you bring on the plane with you? How much will it cost to ship things you can't bring on the plan with you? Will you have to pay duty on any of these items? What can you sell? How much money will you make from selling these items? What will you have to give away?

How much money will you need to move? Consider costs of airplane tickets, shipping costs, and the first month's expenses in your new home--food, rent, utilities, transportation and entertainment.

Start looking for a place to stay when you move, now. It is important to gage the cost of living in your destination. I look on these sites ( gumtree, foxtons, find a property) to see how much rent will in the area of London we want to live. You might consider getting a short term lease that you can extend if you like it. This way after you get to know the area better you can find better accommodations if you need them.

These are just a few things to consider before you move. The sooner you start planning the better.

The Decision

My husband is a British national who has lived in the States for roughly 14 years. When we married, I causally mentioned the idea of moving to the UK. He seemed open to the idea. After a year of marriage, he seemed to be backing out so we started looking to buy a house here. I didn't really want to live here but renting doesn't make much sense. The housing market was falling and I thought it would be a good time to buy.

Then we had a medical situation. Neither of us have health insurance because we are both self-employed. I'm a massage therapist and he's a musician. The reality of the heath care situation here finally hit home for my husband. He went to London for a few weeks and found out that he could easily find work there. With this information we made our decision to make the move.

We have six months until our lease runs out. That's not really much time to plan a move overseas. This blog will chronicle all of the things we need to do to make the move. I will include useful tips and links. I've had a hard time finding information and thought it would be great if it were all in one place.