What should I be doing in the UK before we move

[printpress]

Just got my visa! We'll be moving more or less indefinitely to California in Sept. I'm trying to make a list of things I need to do before we leave, particularly noting down things that are hard to do long distance. So far I have:

• choose a moving company
• give notice at nursery
• open new free checking account (current one charges)
• sort out mail forwarding
• get letter from doctor stating children's vaccinations
• research requ'd vaccinations in California and get those done here
• get copy of all our medical records
• sell lots of stuff
• cancel direct debits/memberships

What am I missing? Do I need an international driving license?

Don't bother with an international driving license you will need to get a new one in California (how long you have depends, it was 3 months for Illinois). If you move State there is a "grace" period and then you have to get a new one, often passing a test.

Make sure you will be covered for health care from the moment you land.

Consider leaving an account with one or two payments running through it (direct debits) to keep your credit rating. You may want to come back at some point, and if you don't have a credit rating, you won't be able to get a mortgage.

If possible keep a UK credit card for this reason.

We moved back to UK last year and found it v difficult to get a mortgage.

You may not plan to move back, but leave the door open just in case.

Check mobile phone / TV contracts now as they might have couple of months cancellation time.

IF you can keep an address here - a parent or sibling perhaps - then I would do that. Always handy to have if you are having something sent to a UK address.

Keeping a UK bank account can be very useful even if you only visit. I kept a US one for a few years, and of course I could have really used it just after I closed the account.

Book flights.
Any pets to consider?
What's happening to your UK house? Do you have to give notice to a landlord? If you own, do you intend to rent it out?
Give notice on your landline, mobile phone and utilities

Have you organised insurance for travel and once there? You'll want that done before you move so you are covered immediately just in case, especially with children. Look into the statuses of any private or employer pension plans and decide what you want to do with them, and go through every direct debit that comes out of your current account and give notice. Pay off any credit cards.

You may want to buy things to take with you, such as some kids DVDs and story CDs, and perhaps books, using British English.

Sell car
Notify TV Licencing, Council Tax, Utilities, HMRC, Child benefit , NI
Pensions , investments ISA (some accounts are not tax free or available to non UK residents) including any Child trust ones.
Keep a bank a/c to pay any outstanding bills and tax, receive dividends or interest.

Make a will.
Sell/rent your house.
Make sure utilities payments are up to date.
Cancel car insurance.

Make sure the bank account you leave open is one you can monitor online.
Mine isn't and when I send money to it from California, I have to send my Mum in to make sure it arrived.

Eat loads of chocolate while it still tastes like chocolate.

Other than all the oficial things, make a list of friend's birthdays.

Defo keep your UK bank account and crédito card active.

We opened a Citibank account in the UK before we moved, and then opened one in NYC when we arrived. It was very handy to be able to move money relatively easily from the UK to the US and back, and I think also helped us get things set up as we were already their client. Not sure if Citibank is big in California, but it's worth looking to see if there are banks there with branches in the UK (HSBC is another idea).

Hi, thanks for all the replies. Don't really think we'll be back, but I agree it's useful to have a bank account and credit card here. My checking account currently charges me a monthly fee though, so shall have to find a free one somewhere. I already have a Chase account in the US from when I lived there way back, so I'm ok on that score. I was thinking about opening one with HSBC since they're supposedly global but sometimes these global banks end up not being actually communicating very effectively with foreign branches of themselves.

We do have travel insurance but need to look into getting health insurance for when we're there. mummytime, is there a site or other good reference that breaks it all down. All this health insurance stuff seems like a bit of a nightmare.

We're going to give notice to our landlord and nursery on Monday. I think once we do that, it'll actually seem real.

Regular travel insurance is no good if you are immigrants, as soon as you make a claim they will drop you. You need the immigrant insurance, they were talking about it over on britishexpats.com but they are having site issues this week so I'm not going looking for the name in case I get a virus.
Some of the international accounts want $100,000 balance (HSBC) so you are better off with normal local ones and use something like Xe to transfer small amounts and use the banks own wire transfer for large ones as they charge you.

I wouldn't recommend HSBC! We moved to the US last year, a central London branch had supposedly set up a dollar account for us linked to our UK £ accounts and when we arrived, it was non-existent! They'd managed to set up another £ account somehow, no one here could resolve things - cue a hasty trip to another local bank (PNC in our case) to open accounts to transfer a few thousand £ to. So much for the world's local bank - I was so annoyed, I closed my UK accounts with them.

On a positive note, if you have a UK Amex card, Amex here will issue you with a $ card sent out recorded delivery to arrive the next day. Amazing service.

Anyway, I digress. Moving here, I would sell all your UK electricals and plan to rebuy due to the voltage. We have left some stuff at home with friends/family but to be honest, by the time we move back, everything will be out of date (eg TV) so we'll end up buying again there.

If you bring children's DVDs etc, make sure that when you buy a DVD player here, you get a multi region one or you won't be able to watch them.

I would also recommend getting an accountant here (and in the UK depending on property income etc) as we have now been here a year and have just about sussed the system (and are due a huge rebate due to DH being massively overtaxed all the time we've been here). The systems are complex and you need an expert who knows the two inside out IMO. Ours was great and managed to file for us as residents for 2012 - needing to be here for more than six months of the year. As we'd arrived mid July and the tax year ends in December, this could have been tricky. However, he was able to use the dates of recce trips we'd made to push us over the six month mark - certainly something we'd have known nothing about if we'd tried to file ourselves.

Ditto an accountant back home if you move part way through the tax year and have various income streams.

I would also brace myself for a lot of bureaucracy and frustration. There are great things about the US but the bureaucracy we have encountered here is something else! It will be tough for the first few months, there will be times when you just want to go home, but it will be fine in the end!

A couple of useful websites include diapers.com and zulily.com for children's stuff. Don't bring nappies etc, get next day deliveries on everything. We didn't have a car initially, but sign up for Zipcar in advance of arriving here, even if you just use the Zipcar to trawl garages one weekend when you need to buy a car. Everyone drives here, it is pointless trying not to!

Good luck with the move and feel free to PM me!