mudcat

For our move from SF Bay area to Buriram we used https://www.sevenseasworldwide.com/en-th/. Found their shipping cube tightly packed with UHaul boxes got everthing here safely. Not cheap or fast, but pleased at the end. Worried about duty as well, but in the end nothing, box not opened since we closed it up. Avoid red flag items such as bicycles. New items, and multiples of items.

We waited the three years until my wife was naturalzed as the residence qualifying seemed to take more time and was filled with gotchas. As to how much a spouse can receive it depends on whether there are minor children and how close to full retirement age they are. A spouse at 60 receives 70% of your Primary Insurance Amount which is what your work history wouldhave entitled you to if you had waited until your full retirement age. Do searches for social security EN-05-10084.pdf survior's benefits and EN-05-10137.pdf for benefits paid overseas.

As the nephew and trustee of a maiden aunt who was a housekeeper for the same family for 49-years, I have my own thoughts about long-term employment relationships and the benefits and problems. One of the issues is whatever arrangements get made are frozen in place as time goes on - what appeared generous in the early 1970s when the family became less so when the last member passed away. As it turns out my aunt was fine having U.S. social security and a modest pension from her employers that together with her savings (and investments after I became trustee) she lived out her life in comfort without any resentment about how she was treated. My siblings and myself benefited from what was remaining of her assets when she passed and only wished that she had more joy in her life while she was tied to an aging family. Always better to be generous when possible - after thirty-years an household employee is quasi-family, just my thoughts