# Moving from USA to Sydney



## jacque (Apr 29, 2008)

Hi all,

I am originally from Sydney but living in the USA - I have not lived in Sydney for 17 years and my family and I ( husband and 2 1/2 yo. ) will be moving to sydney later on this year. My husband is from Cuba - so I feel like I will (almost ) be an expat moving to sydney - would love to talk to other people who are moving from USA to sydney or people who have just done it! I hear sydney is very expensive now compared to the USA - lifestyle will be similar - we live on the beach here in Miami and want to move to Mosman, neutral bay or even northern beaches but I am not sure what it will be like.....any tips, any good moving companies from USA - should I sell all of our stuff or should I ship it? sorry for all the questions - would love to connect and if you would like you can email me personally [

thanks


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## Dolly (Feb 17, 2008)

Hi jacque,

Welcome to the forum.

I'm afraid Sydney is rather expensive these days, although Melbourne is giving it a good run for it's money!!

What to ship is really a personal choice. Some people like to start afresh so sell off/give away most of their stuff. Others like to have their things around them when they move over, giving them a sense that there is still something familiar for them. Sorry I can't help on american shipping companies, but there will be members who post on the forum who will be able to give you the answers you're looking for.

And trust me, before you move over, you'll have loads more questions to ask 

Dolly


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## jacque (Apr 29, 2008)

Hi Dolly!

thanks for the response. Do you know where I can get info online for things like mattresses and buying furniture. I am so americanized! crate and barrel and pottery barn. What are the aussie furniture stores. Do they have info on line?

What are the exepnsive things living in sydney - for example - food is definitely getting expensive here in the US but I think clothes are very cheap - and really good quality. Things go on sale very regularly so really you never need pay full price. 

You are right - a million questions!


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## Dolly (Feb 17, 2008)

Hi jacque,

What I did was to search yellow.com.au - Keyword Search . You can search bed shops and furniture shops and anything you want!

Most popular stores for:

Furniture: Freedom Furniture, Sydney's, Ikea, Fantastic Furniture
Beds: 40 winks, Bedshed, Snooze
DIY: Bunnings, Mitre 10
Department Stores: KMart, Adairs, Myer, Target, BigW

Food here is getting expensive and personally I'd say the clothes aren't as well made as back in the UK, so I wish I'd have stocked up before we moved over!

Dolly


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## jacque (Apr 29, 2008)

Dolly...too funny - I am stocking up right now - keep shopping like crazy - I have so many shoes - Husband keeps asking why - and I say - because then I wont need to shop for a year in sydney! ha ha! thanks for the websites will take a look.

Jacuqe


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## anj1976 (Apr 24, 2008)

Hi Jacque,
Though i am not in OZ as yet but from all the reading i that i have done and all the sites that i have gone thru, i guess it is best to pick things like furniture and electronics from australia itself.

If you compare prices, the shipping cost wil be almost the same as the cost of buying all that you would be importing/shipping from the US.

Also, You will have lots of time to pick things as you need them. But if you ship them all at once, the cost will have to be paid at one time. I dont know how comfortable you would be with the cost involved in shipping, but for anyone moving out of their current country to another, one should save as much as you can.

And, Australia has some issues like different plug point etc, if US plugs are different, thn u wil hv to work extra hard just to convert them to what can be used in Australia. and in some cases the appliances might just not work because of voltage/power supply difference.

A friend of mine from India shipped his furniture and what he finally got wasn't what he had sent from India. There are times when there are certain damages involved, another thing not to be missed is the Import Duty/Tax, you might have to pay these on certain articles.

So think twice about shipping etc. as for linen, other households, it makes lot of sense if you carry those with you or get them shipped as a parcel and not in a container. More thn the cost factor, it is the inconvenience that you might face due to post shipment formalities.

Hope this helps.
Cheers
Anj


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## jacque (Apr 29, 2008)

Hi Anj,

thanks....I am trying to save like crazy but it is really hard....I know shipping is expensive - I have dont it a couple of times but there are some things I cant part with and some I can live without - I know that we will be 2-3 months without our stuff as well but thing like my king size bed with a pretty new mattress that I paid $2500 US for I think would cost me a lot more in Oz and if I sell it now I really wont get any money back on it! so it is hard wokring things out! I know about all the electrical stuff we have to buy.....it is all so much stress! ANyway - when we are sitting in Sydney enjoying my first glass of wine I will be happy!!!!

thanks
Jacque


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## anj1976 (Apr 24, 2008)

Hi Jacque,
being from India, there are so many things that i too would want to take. We have emotional values attached to a lot of things. there is stuff given to me by my parents during my wedding. heavy clothes(and indian dresses/embroidery work is very heavy)lot of jewelery-including heavy sets. out bed and furniture that we just got from my dad (i got married on 8th feb). all these things will have to be left behind. i wil not carry the jewelery, wil give it to dad to keep it in safe. as for my furniture, the bed and living room 8 seater sofa set, the chairs on which our wedding ritual happened, all this will go to my dad's place. i just picked some very pretty mattresses and throws/rugs, wil hv to give those as wel. for a simple reason that carrying all these would be too much of a hassle. when u r moving to a new town, u r starting a new life. with no old contacts to meet etc. everything wil be new, and who knows what we are going to face. also, i believe there is a problem with getting things like mattresses/carpets etc. they need to be quarantined. 
as for saving, wel, we have been at it since forever now. there is a difference in indian currency and dollars. a dollar equals 37 indian rupees, so u can imagine how much we wil hv to save just to take some 8-10k with us. though with me and my husband working, and earning a decent amount, it isnt difficult. we have managed about 5k already. our acs application has just been filed, so we have good one yr and few months to manage those extra 5-10k that we would want to take with us.
what's your scene? what all has been done in terms of applications etc?


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## tesse (Feb 16, 2010)

Hi Jacque,

I am also originally from Australia. I've been away for 12 years and am currently planning to move back my family too (husband and 3 kids). Would love to hear about your experiences about your move back to Sydney. ie. what company did you end up using for shipping and did you ship/not ship? If you could plan it again, what would you do different?

Any tips/advice you can give would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers.


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## Trixie1973 (Feb 9, 2011)

Hi

Good luck with your move, we are planning on emigrating to Sydney towards the end of this year and am avidly reading about everyones experiences on all the forums.

I have read somewhere that the bed sizes are different in Australia (?!?) so I'd double check and bring some bedding too if it is the case and you are bringing your bed. I've also read that the good quality bedding is v expensive so it may pay to bring what you like with you anyway.

Also.. apparently underwear and toiletries are more expensive so if you have spare room bung some in you shipping. I obviously don't advocate adding to your shipping to accommodate these as it would cost a fortune LOL

We too are looking at the Northern Shores/Beaches. Check out rental/purchase prices on domain . com.au and realestate . com.au They are quite high but personally I think it is worth it if it doesn't wipe out your monthly budget.


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## tesse (Feb 16, 2010)

Hi Trixie,

Thanks for the post. After reading some of the posts, I am really torn as to what should be shipped or not. I'm trying to make a list, but it's hard. I most likely will not ship the mattresses; we have a cal-king, and while we have bedding sets for it, i don't think we'll find a frame for the mattress in Sydney.  

I'm not sure if I should ship our other furniture like, sofas , dining sets etc. as I know to replace them in Sydney would cost a bundle! Then there's the import duties that we would probably have to pay on it.. not sure if it will make it worthwhile.

I like the idea of starting fresh, but we're going to have to ship some stuff anyways because they won't fit in our luggages.

I am looking at the northern suburbs as well, but it is expensive. 

Good luck with your move too. Have you decided what you will send over?

Cheers.


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## adi1980 (Nov 29, 2010)

tesse said:


> Hi Trixie,
> 
> Thanks for the post. After reading some of the posts, I am really torn as to what should be shipped or not. I'm trying to make a list, but it's hard. I most likely will not ship the mattresses; we have a cal-king, and while we have bedding sets for it, i don't think we'll find a frame for the mattress in Sydney.
> 
> ...




We are in the same position ... but our research shows that if you have owned your furniture / personal belongings for more than a year, the import duties get waived.
Can anyone confirm??

Thanks!


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## tesse (Feb 16, 2010)

Hi Adi1980,

Yes, I heard about that. Apparently if you have it for about 12-18 months they will waive it, but you need a receipt?? Arrghh.. who keeps receipts for stuff that are older than that? I don't keep any receipts older than a month, unless it's related to doing tax returns.

When are you planning to make the move? Have you inquired with any shipping companies yet?

Cheers


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## adi1980 (Nov 29, 2010)

tesse said:


> Hi Adi1980,
> 
> Yes, I heard about that. Apparently if you have it for about 12-18 months they will waive it, but you need a receipt?? Arrghh.. who keeps receipts for stuff that are older than that? I don't keep any receipts older than a month, unless it's related to doing tax returns.
> 
> ...



I'd think that the Customs officials have another way to check if the item is a year old or not... I mean folks move their antiques over! I have got moving quotes from a few companies and the reps said that we should be ok as far as import duties go. But it'd be great if someone from the forum can confirm .... 

We are planning to move late April ... still waiting for our 457 visas to come through ... !


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## MRuaro (Oct 28, 2010)

*Could I ask you why?*

To be quite honest I can`t imagine why would someone move back from US to Sydney. The life cost is a lot more expensive in my opinion and the taxes are bigger, so, from your salary you have less liquid NET and more expenses. I came here with a 175 skilled VISA as an IT professional with +17 years experience and after two months looking for a job I am coming back do my third world country (Brazil) because by the end, if a compare the liquid NET I can save (after taxes and life cost) and what I can buy with that in the country I came to a situation in which I couldn't find a job which could pay me enough here to keep the same life style and save the same money as in country of origin. What I feel from distance (I know that things change when you are really in the place) is that US allows a lot more to get money that Australia. But maybe you're already rich, so that doesn't matter ..
Cheers.


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## Trixie1973 (Feb 9, 2011)

Hi Tesse

We are in a slightly different position as currently we live in Warsaw, Poland and OH's job has been moved to Sofia, Bulgaria. So we have to move all our stuff to another country before moving it to Australia. We have decided to just take our cases of clothes to Bulgaria as we are hoping it will be a shortish visit whilst we are sorting out our move to Sydney. And basically leave our furniture here for the landlord.

For us we bought a few Ikea pieces when we arrived in Warsaw as we had been in Croatia before here and sold all our furniture before leaving UK so had nothing. I did a price check at the Ikea in Oz and it would cost £1750 to replace it. But to ship it to UK would cost £2500, then of course there is the shipping to Oz which would probably be the same again. Because of that we are just taking the kitchen equipment and small electricals, books, ornaments etc, clothes/shoes, TV & DVD, CD's/DVD's and a couple of rugs. Generally personal items, which we have had rough quotes for approx £800 + any duties blah blah.

We will try to take advantage of the Singapore Airlines/Emirates where you can have double allocation on baggage (certain conditions do apply). so can have 40kg each plus hand luggage.

I personally like the idea of having new furniture as we don't have kids yet we can build up the new stash gradually... just need a bed and sofa really to begin with - and white goods if none in the rental we get (but I don't own them anyway).

If I were you I'd do a price check with online retailers in Oz to give you a general idea of cost of replacement 'V' cost of shipping.

(sorry it's so long)

Maybe we can meet up once we are there... but it won't be for another 6 months


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## tesse (Feb 16, 2010)

Hi Adi.. which shipping companies have you gotten quotes from? I contacted one, but they said I have to know what I want to ship first. So my task right now is to determine what I want to ship. To be honest, I would love to start a new and from scratch but hauling three little kids a long, we have to be a little more cost conscious. So I'm making a list of what I will need to get started in Sydney and then get a rough estimate on how much it will cost, and then compare that to how much to ship the items.


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## tesse (Feb 16, 2010)

Hi Trixie, Thanks for the reply. What you said about the shipping and getting new totally makes sense. I am in fact, starting a list of items of what I want to potentially ship and then going online to find similar items in Sydney. This way I know whether it'll be worthwhile to ship or not.

I definitely like the idea of starting new and getting new stuff.  And who knows, our shipped items may not even 'fit' in our new home (where ever that may be).

We most likely won't move until October, although that throws things off a little with school for the kids. My oldest will finish up 2nd grade in June and my second is scheduled to start Kindy after the summer. So we have to decide if we want them to attend the first trimester of school in the US, or leave early (say in July/Aug) so they can attend the later half year there.

It's a good thing you don't have kids yet. I think it totally adds another level of stress to the planning as you don't want to disrupt them too much.

Stay in touch, and maybe we'll be able to meet somewhere in Sydney some time down the road.

Cheers.


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## adi1980 (Nov 29, 2010)

tesse said:


> Hi Adi.. which shipping companies have you gotten quotes from? I contacted one, but they said I have to know what I want to ship first. So my task right now is to determine what I want to ship. To be honest, I would love to start a new and from scratch but hauling three little kids a long, we have to be a little more cost conscious. So I'm making a list of what I will need to get started in Sydney and then get a rough estimate on how much it will cost, and then compare that to how much to ship the items.


Hi Tesse,

I understand. My employer will be paying for my move... so its a bit easier on us. We were initially planning on asking for a cash allowance, so that we can start afresh in Melbourne, but then there are too many little things that we'd need to buy and we would have needed to ship over at least a half a dozen boxes anyways. So finally settled on getting the movers and ship over a vast majority of our belongings.

I'd recommend that you take a look at Movingscam website (do a google search on Movingscam + International) before you settle on a moving company. The website has some very useful pointers. They also recommend some companies ... but its up to you ... you can approach some major van lines such as Atlas, United etc... generally, they have an international shipping department.

My main takeaway from all my research was that ... it can be done, if you educate yourself and take some precautions as the international moving industry is not as regulated as the domestic one is ... the transit times are also long and you should be ready to hang in there until your furniture arrives. 

Hope this helps ... good luck!


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## kiwifruity (Dec 5, 2010)

jacque said:


> Hi Dolly!
> 
> thanks for the response. Do you know where I can get info online for things like mattresses and buying furniture. I am so americanized! crate and barrel and pottery barn. What are the aussie furniture stores. Do they have info on line?
> 
> ...


 Yes jacque - rentals. food prices etc....going through the roof all over. It is global. We lived in Sydney, rental for a family of 6 and to feed 4 kids....:confused2: scary to say the least. Our weekly grocery bill per week was around $450, but remember we have 3 teenage boys who eat like horses and a daughter that eats like a bird - thank goodness.......our first rental was $600 per week, needed at least 4 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms - we were lucky enough to find 4 bedrooms and a rumpus room, added bonus. Hit the shops for end of season sales - and buy in bulk, obviously 2 sizes to big and store away......:clap2: Am lucky, as can 'pass down' from boy to boy. As for furniture - drive around on Sundays and look for garage sales, hell, can you get some bargains, for next to nothing, a little varnish and 'Bob's your Uncle' brand new. All our games, pool table, dart board etc in our games room is from......garage sales...... and no one is none the wiser!!


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