Moving Question Please

[SheilaF]

Hi Everyone

As I have mentioned before we are in the process of applying for a visa (O-1) to be able to live in Florida. I dont want to tempt fate, but was just wondering, if anyone has already made the move can you please tell me:

1. Moving furniture etc. Shipping agencies ? How long did it take to arrive, best way, safest way etc.

2. Timescale, Insurance ?

3. Health and dental Insurance in the U.S.

4. Anything else I have forgotten.

All advice would be greatly appreciated,

Many thanks

SheilaF

[flyrr100]

You need insurance from day one. Don't even tempt fate by not having it. If you get sick you'll bankrupt yourself.
Obviously I don't know your work situation. Most employers will have a plan you can get into. I pay around $50.00 a month.

I've been here since the mid 80s. Anything I can help with, feel free to ask.

[blott]

Sheila, if you have a search through the topics here http://www.orlando-guide.info/forums/forum_56.asp you should find the answers to most of your questions.

[florida4sun]

1. Moving furniture etc. Shipping agencies ? How long did it take to arrive, best way, safest way etc.

<span style="color:red">went private and used our own container and shipping, cost 1500 pounds there and 1800 dollars back for a 40' container.</span id="red">


2. Timescale, Insurance ?

<span style="color:red">around 5 weeks each way, insurance is around $300 per 20k/</span id="red">

3. Health and dental Insurance in the U.S.
<span style="color:red">
Used blue cross for us 2 adults, paid around $700 per month. This was for a no messing around polcicy, you can buy chaper but you will have to pay for all sorts before they cough up. We were lucky to get Florida kid care for the kids, this was excellent at $15 per month, but we had a big claim and the wangled there out of it (after a legal battle) and we had to leave the USA as the cost we astronomical (5 week stay in intensive care, ongoing after care at just under half a million)</span id="red">

4. Anything else I have forgotten.
<span style="color:red">Car insurance is expensive, looking at around $1800 every six months for 2 vehicles until you have had a florida license form 12 months)</span id="red">

<span style="color:red">Deposits on utilities add up, no credit for ages is a killer but did us good as we owed nothing when we left.
The red tape will drive you nuts, you never get used to it. That said we enjoyed our time in Florida and dont regret anything</span id="red">
<span style="color:red">Make sure you take out personal liability insurance, if neighbour trips over your rake, they will sue you</span id="red">


All advice would be greatly appreciated,

Many thanks

SheilaF
[/quote]

[SheilaF]

Morning Everyone

Thanks so much for all your replies. Wow definitely food for thought. Health insurance sounds astronomical and something we have to adjust to. Taking into consideration the high cost of insurance in general etc. do you think you live cheaper in the U.S. than the U.K. ? just curious obviously that has no bearing on our decision to apply for residency.

Jeff and Amy - thanks for that, I am sure I will be in touch again. It seems quite a daunting task ahead of us.

Blott - Thanks, I know I should trail through the forum but most of the ones I looked at seemed to apply to people buying businesses, I will go back to it though ...........

Florida4sun - scary !!! does that really happen with the neighbours? Even with paying $700 a month you still had to return home ? It has really opened my eyes but thats good we need to go into this fully aware and informed. Was it worth it ? ...............

Thanks for all the info we now have a rough idea what to expect to pay. Will you return to the US?

Goes off to print everything ............

SheilaF

[blott]

If you go through all the pages in the topic section, you'll find moving, health insurance, etc with some info and suggestions.

[flyrr100]

<blockquote id="quote" class="ffs">quote:Originally posted by SheilaF
do you think you live cheaper in the U.S. than the U.K. ? just curious obviously that has no bearing on our decision to apply for residency.




[/quote]

Sheila...
Thats the $20.000.000 question! I'd say yes. Your big saving is property. When I left the UK in the 80s a three bed house in SW London was around 90k. Thats risen to over 250k (pounds). I mean, thats just crazy!
Here in Central Florida you'll be paying around 250k (dollars) for a 4 bed, 2 bath, with a pool!
After a visit from my sister last summer when we compared living expenses, I'd say your monthly bills should be around the same. Of course that depends on weather you want full HD cable and high speed internet!
Another thing you have to realise is banking here. In the UK if you go over you just get a letter from the bank informing you of your overdraft. At least thats how it used to be. In the USA you don't go over unless it's pre-arranged. If you write a bad check here it's regarded as fraud and you can be arrested for it.

Good luck with the move. Belive me it's worth it in the end!

[SheilaF]

Jeff and Amy

Firstly let me congratulate you on Chelsea's success last night. My hubby kept calling me in to watch "this fantastic goal" !!!!

Thank you sooooo much for your advice, I am sure it will be worth it, just a little scary. My hubby is retirement age (has an idea to work out there), I am of working age and we have a 17 year old son. We just need to make sure that the right decisions are made. Do we keep a property over here? do we use all the money from the sale of our house to buy one over there, do we rent, do we use half the money and invest the other half. So many decisions, in the words of Scarlet of Hara "I'll think about that tomorrow" !!!

We darent let ourselves get excited yet, the application has been submitted (premium processing) so we should know in a couple of weeks and then its the dreaded Embassy visit but we find ourselves drooling over the properties for sale in Orlando, as you say we can get so much more for our money.

Thanks again, no doubt will "bother" you again if you dont mind.

Blott - I WILL find the time to go thru the boards, thanks.

SheilaF

[flyrr100]

Here's my advise, for what it's worth.
If you intend to move here for good, sell your UK house and buy a house here for cash. That'll save you thousands in closing costs and mortgage costs. Sell your cars, unless they're over 25 years old. Then you can import them here. And anything that uses 240 volts needs to be sold! They won't work here. Your TV and VCR won't work here as the USA has a different system. If you plan to move here permenently look at your UK pension. I'm looking into mine right now. It's a minefield dealing with good old British beuracracy &lt;sp&gt;. Pay off and close all your bank and credit card accounts. Again useless here.

Your 17 year old needs to be ready for college. Look into community college to get him started on the core classes. Then look into one of Florida's colleges or universities to get his batcherlers &lt;sp&gt; finnished. He'll need his graduation papers from his UK high school. Don't let him come here with the idea of not going to college. Without a degree he'll find it hard to find a job flipping burgers.

I missed the last 30 minutes of the Chelsea game yesterday. I had to pick up my dsaughter from dance class! Aaaahhh, the joys of parenthood! We had the game live on ESPN. Tell your hubby than we also have the 'Fox Soccer Channel' now. Regular premmiership games including some live! No lower division games though. I try to follow Brentford but it's not easy here.

[SheilaF]

Hi again

We need to look into the pension issue, my husband has a private pension that will initially be our only source of income. Problem with son is he left school after GCSE's and is working in the IT dept of a local company (has a factory in the US I think). My husband is looking into a business venture which will involve our son.

Not having a mortgage is an idea my husband and I both favour, having paid the UK one off years ago. We would just ship over furniture, we have plenty of family to give the electrical stuff to and the two cars will be sold.

We have been looking at properties, but can't do anything at all until we get the all-clear (IF)...

Hubby is thrilled to hear of Fox Soccer Channel, we spent last summer in Orlando and he really missed the footy. Spent Saturday nights glued to the laptop trying to find the results.....

I am sure you can get results online but if you need any info or a quick score, let me know.

Thanks again for your help
SheilaF