Moving abroad, practical tips?

[Simonjt]

(I think this is the most appropriate section)

My husband and I are planning a move from the UK to Sweden (two children, one dog, one cat).

Do we have any MNers who have moved abroad who have some top tips for the practical side of it? Do people typically take their furniture, or is it easier to sell everything and buy in the new country? We’re clued up on the whole work and school aspect, its the more practical side we’re nervous about, especially as we have the organisational skills of a three year old after a bag of sweets.

Get a good haircut just before you leave. I've moved country twice and areas many, many times - finding a decent hairdresser can take time.

Try the Two Fat Expats Facebook group

I’m a Sikh, so no need there 😁

ooo thank you, I’ll have a look on my husbands profile

If you have a car here sell it and get one in your new country.

Join every association or club that interests you. Get out there. Be very open to meeting new people. It takes lots of energy but it's important to establish networks.

Declutter massively in advance. We didn't.
Don't worry about electrical equipment. Apart from microwaves everything else you can just change the plug.
I wouldn't sell furniture, you'll get virtually nothing for it and spend loads on replacing.
Moved to France in 2006.

We rented abroad. It was typical to find furnished rentals, so we took no furniture. Be brutal with what you take - and consider if it will fit in a typical house at your destination.
There's some stuff you don't take with you, but need before stuff has shipped. You will end up with duplicates!
Yes, yes, yes to 2 Fat Expats.

Whereabouts in sweden are you going?
Have you got a job to move to? Are they supporting your move? We brought all our furniture with us as had a relocation package which helped!
We actually brought our car over as moved over during covid and couldn't fly and the plan was to drive back and sell it but never have so still drive our right hand car here!

Get all your paperwork ready to get your temporary personal number as that is life in sweden! Without your personal number you can't open a bank account or get a phone so pretty useful!

Take your stuff with you (but have a ruthless declutter first!) - having familiar stuff around you will help you feel at home. We've moved several times between the UK, Germany and France and people who've visited us in our various houses and apartments have all commented that it always feels very recognisably like our home wherever we live. Don't take anything you don't want though - it's much easier to dispose of things before you go than find somewhere to put it when you arrive.

The decision to take or not to take comes down to

1. who is paying for the shipping - it's insanely expensive. So either way, declutter like crazy - honestly, that slightly stained coffee table isn't going to look any better after 2 months in a shipping container!
2. how expensive the country is you are moving to, and how easy it is to get replacements - not sure about Sweden but one can only assume the answer is Ikea 😁
3. the difference in housing - I live in Asia, and there are always new arrivals who try and fit a 3-bed semi into a 3-bed flat and then realise it won't work.

So other things to think about

1. property in UK - do you own at the moment, if so do you rent out or sell? Both have pluses and to a degree it can depend on whether you intend to come back. Either way thats a big logistical thing in its own right.
2. mental health - its hard or at least it can be hard, and it can be especially hard on a non-working spouse and on kids. Be prepared for a long settling in time, and be prepared to work at it. If you have hobbies already investigate options where you move it will help the kids settle if they can carry on doing their interests, but equally be open to new ones. Either way I recommend diving in to outside interests as soon as possible to help settle and meet new people.
3. paperwork - prepare a file for each person of their 'life' paperwork - probably more for the adults as it will include insurance, driving licenses, NI details and past tax records etc, but also for everyone think doctors, dentists, health stuff (also for the pets). In the first few weeks, you'll be amazed at how many people ask for random stuff - I needed to show my degree certificate to get a driving license in one country!

But have fun; there will be times you want to stamp your feet and scream but its usually an awesome adventure moving country. Good luck!

Be prepared to find that everything you know about being a grownup is wrong in your new country! This will be everything from registering with the authorities to whether or not you need a TV licence.

We moved to the Netherlands some years ago and had lots of problems registering as residents because we had been told we needed to register in the city hall with the (disappointingly normal looking) alien police. Turned out we needed to register at our parish council office. This took 2 months of back and forth until we went to the right office. Without residency we couldn't buy a car.

Keep some money in an account you can access. It can take a while for bank cards etc to come through.

Don't forget to tell Inland Revenue you are moving abroad. Dont be surprised if they then demand tax returns for the last few years and also fine you for being late with them! I paid the fine and then asked for it back.

Thinking of personal paperwork @OrchidsBlooming mentioned, we had to get apostilles for birth and wedding certificates for the whole family.

I would definitely join an expats in Sweden group on FB. We’re moving to Spain (of course have to choose one of the hardest places to relocate to) and it’s an expat/retirement community I’ve joined on FB simply because they’re so great regarding advice on tax information/financial advice/residency/healthcare etc.
The other groups are more ‘Hi! Any hot yoga enthusiasts in the Andalusia region?’ which isn’t going to help.

Thank you for mentioning this!!

Expat FB groups can be good but disregard at least 50% of what you read (difficulty is knowing which 50%). I personally advise ignoring anything re "stocking up" for anything that you cant buy in new country, as you can normally either find local equivalents (eg Calpol) or live without (eg Doritos).

Agree with pp that the "ship or sell" question really depends on the economics. A year ago, it was not worth shipping anything back from Asia unless your/your kids' love for it made economic considerations null and void- I paid stupid amounts to ship some beanie boos and Wimpy kids books and my wedding crockery in a SS cube. Now the container rates are pretty reasonable again- we are shipping a car back this summer.

If you are renting out your property in UK, I seriously advise getting a managing agent. Managing directly from overseas is really stressful and not great for the tenant.

Good luck!

What paperwork etc do your pets need to travel? Since you mentioned them, I assume you are planning to take them?

We brought our cat back from the US to UK and I swear that was one of the most stressful and expensive parts of the whole process.

Otherwise, keep a bank account open in Uk, with internet banking access. Get your address changed and post redirected on everything you can think of (we used my parents address)

Welcome to Sweden! It might be worth joining the Brits in Sweden facebook page, it's pretty good for advice, and wrong advice gets usually called out by those more knowledgable.

Begin sorting out your pets now. Post-Brexit it's more difficult to move pets and they might need things like rabies jabs a while in advance.

As for shipping stuff: Is someone else paying? Then ship (almost) everything. Are you paying? Then take personal belongings only and buy new furniture here.

DH and I have moved once to Scandinavia and a couple of times within Scandinavia. Each time one of us has gone first and the other followed a few days or weeks later. It allows the first person to make sure the basics are in place (accommodation, a few days' worth of food, etc) and everyone else has a softer landing. It also means that when shipping stuff, there is someone at both ends to handle the pick up/delivery.

Bring a few UK extension leads. That way you only need to change one plug (the one of the extension lead) rather than on every single device.

Thank you so much for your replies, apologies this is my first reply.

To answer some of your questions.
We aim to move in around 18 months, so no jobs lined up yet, my husbands company however do have offices in Sweden and have said a transfer will be possible, at the moment we’re both distance learning as we need slightly different qualifications for our profession. We have however said if something does come up earlier we would consider an earlier move, if all goes well we will have completed all of our exams by the end of June.

My husban, daughter are both Swedish passport holders, our son will be soon, so that helps paperwork wise for them. He owns a small house he rents out in Stockholm, I think the area is called Enskede-Arsta-vantor, so that is a possibility if we don’t need to rely on the rent, if we do we are hoping we can have a more temporary move to Uppsala (his grandma lives there). This is where we stay when we visit at the moment. He hasn’t actually lived in Sweden since he was a child (UK boarder) so he is fairly useless on the practical stuff as he hasn’t experienced it.

We think we’re okay on dog paperwork as we took him on our trip there this Easter (we have a campervan), so we need to figure the cat out.

We own property in the UK, in an ideal world we’re hoping to keep our flat so if it doesn’t work and we do return, we are at least returning to our old home, we’re hoping to then review that if we manage two years as we should be more sure about staying after that amount of time.

I assume you've looked into the visa situation for you? If your husband has lived in the UK since before Brexit you might be able to move over under the "non-EU partner of an EU citizen"-rule. This is normally not available to Swedes who want to move their partner to Sweden, but it is available to Swedes who live in another EU country and who want to move home with their non-EU partner. This means you could move without applying for a sambo visa beforehand. Best to check with Migrationsverket though, or one of the numerous Facebook groups for Swedes with non-EU partners (which are often a better source of info than MV).

If you rent out your UK property, be aware that you will have to pay tax on the rental income in Sweden. If you do decide to sell your flat in 2 years, you'll also be liable to pay capital gains tax in Sweden.

My husband has accepted a job offer, so the pie in the sky dream is on its way to becoming reality, which is both scary and exciting. We were advised that as I’m married to a Swedish citizen and as both our children are Swedish citizens I could apply for a residence permit, rather than needing a job offer for a work permit. As we’re married I am able to move before the process is complete, it also means we don’t have to wait for the physical card and I will have a right to work/start job hunting. The process has so far been so much easier than when I was sorting out my right to remain in the UK etc, you can actually talk to a human if needed!

We’ve started going through our things to see what we no longer need, luckily we don’t have lots of stuff. We do have a lot of books, but we are able to safely store these so if need be I can move them over at a later date. We have an eye on a school for our son, as my husband owns a house we can apply whenever, rather than after we have arrived.

Ah, posted too soon. We’ve looked at booking everything to get it moved over, wait times aren’t too bad. We’re hoping to be moved over by mid September, if that doesn’t go to plan I’ll be staying in the UK a bit longer to sort things out, while my husband and the small people go over with him.

I’m so so excited, which I’m sure will wear off very quickly when the stress of moving sets in!

Many, many congratulations!

It is exciting and scary at the same time for you all. In many ways it can be an emotional roller coaster. You are all on it but not necessarily all at the same point at the same time. Be prepared to hold hands!

You mentioned school, are your DCs both school age?

When we moved to The Netherlands only our oldest was school age. We sent her to the local primary school and the others followed in their turn. For each it took them about 6 months to become fluent Dutch speakers.

Funny anecdote time: in DD2's class if the teachers wanted to speak to each other and not be understood by the children they would speak in English. Until they realised that 4 year old DD was innocently providing simultaneous translation for the rest of the class! They couldn't understand why the reception class seemed to be able to anticipate what was coming up or why they knew so much gossip!

Thank you, we’re both seeing lots of excitement and stress in the future! Our son is primary school age, our daughter is a toddler, so she will go to nursery on any week days we are both working, obviously we won’t know those days until I get a job.