“moving To Thailand Checklists”

[BKK90210]

Ok this is it, the time has come….. we’re moving to Thailand a year sooner than we originally planned! The reason?.....We got double crossed in the land deal by the realtor this morning for our next development. This pissed me up big time, so we decided to move now. Forget about the US….forget about everything here…I’m done!

I can’t really describe my feeling at the moment…sort of weird, scared, nervous, should I go or not go….but exciting all at the same time....you know what I mean.

How did you all feel at the moment when you reached this decision to move to Thailand for good?....want to share your experiences?

Anyway now I need a little help with “Moving To Thailand Checklists”

Here about us: We’re currently in Seattle, WA – USA. I’m 44 – a licensed structural engineer, my thai wife 42 – architect (w/ US+Thai passport). We owned our own engineering firm for 14 yrs and of course we will have to close it or sell it to someone…not sure at this point yet. We also own a home that we need to sell off first, this will take about 3-6 months.

My questions are

What should I be doing between now and Feb. 2007(the moving date)

How long does it take to pack the stuffs (we have 4 bedrooms home)

How should I ship my belonging and to which port in Thailand and the approx cost? We’re moving to either Hua Hin or Rayong. Any important paper works needed?

About the visa - what visa is best for me (planning to work for ourselves in LOS) and how long will it take to get one. How soon should I be applying for it.

What about the banking and monthly statement both in Thailand and US. How should I deal with this issue.

Do we need to notify the US government of permanent address changed? What about the SS office? What about the US embassy in Thailand?

How do we deal with forwarding mails? Do I have to notify the Thai central post office also?

Anything else I need do or to be aware of?...or any additional advices and suggestions, please let us know.

This is it and there will be no turning back for us!.....I think

Thanks in advance

BKK family

Edited April 12, 2006 by BKK90210

[monochaser]

good luck man, sounds like you're copping out

[jdinasia]

Feb 2007?

All of this is covered in other threads ... but good luck

[thai1on]

Lots of questions but you should sell your house full of stuffs and just go with a few suitcases of clothes and personal valuables and ship the rest by USPS,UPS,etc.All that furniture and appliances and stuffs can be had in Thailand and you can make some money selling it,maybe with your house,

plus save money by not shipping a container over.

Also you do not have to tell the gov your are moving but you may have to tell the USPS about your address change.Just get a mailbox service that can forward your mail to you in Thailand so you can still keep a US address for credit cards,banks,licenses,etc.

[Thaiquila]

Lots of questions but you should sell your house full of stuffs and just go with a few suitcases of clothes and personal valuables and ship the rest by USPS,UPS,etc.All that furniture and appliances and stuffs can be had in Thailand and you can make some money selling it,maybe with your house,

plus save money by not shipping a container over.

Also you do not have to tell the gov your are moving but you may have to tell the USPS about your address change.Just get a mailbox service that can forward your mail to you in Thailand so you can still keep a US address for credit cards,banks,licenses,etc.

I am working on a lot of this stuff myself. I agree it is best to not ship alot of stuff, but I understand some people have good reasons to need to ship stuff.

On mail forwarding, this I think is a much bigger problem.

It is my understanding that credit card companies will not accept a mail forwarding company address because that is legally the same as a post office box, which they also won't accept. Not sure about banks.

I think alot of US people find themselves needing to maintain a fake USA address for these purposes, usually through a friend or relative. Obviously this can be a problem if the trusted person turns out to be a flake or dies.

This subject alone probably worthy of a new thread?

Some other comments, no there is no need to contact social security unless you are near to claiming benefits. Also, good idea to contact the US embassy in Bangkok after you settle in. I believe you can register your address there.

Edited April 12, 2006 by Thaiquila

[thai1on]

Lots of questions but you should sell your house full of stuffs and just go with a few suitcases of clothes and personal valuables and ship the rest by USPS,UPS,etc.All that furniture and appliances and stuffs can be had in Thailand and you can make some money selling it,maybe with your house,

plus save money by not shipping a container over.

Also you do not have to tell the gov your are moving but you may have to tell the USPS about your address change.Just get a mailbox service that can forward your mail to you in Thailand so you can still keep a US address for credit cards,banks,licenses,etc.

I am working on a lot of this stuff myself. I agree it is best to not ship alot of stuff, but I understand some people have good reasons to need to ship stuff.

On mail forwarding, this I think is a much bigger problem.

It is my understanding that credit card companies will not accept a mail forwarding company address because that is legally the same as a post office box, which they also won't accept. Not sure about banks.

I think alot of US people find themselves needing to maintain a fake USA address for these purposes, usually through a friend or relative. Obviously this can be a problem if the trusted person turns out to be a flake or dies.

This subject alone probably worthy of a new thread?

Yes,family or relatives would be better than a private mailbox to use as one's US ghost address or mail drop, but I changed 3 credit cards and 2 banks and my stock brokerage account to my private mailbox with no problems.I probably couldn't open an account with a mailbox,but after they are already opened I just went online and changed my addresses with no problems in receiving statements,checks,etc.

[seonai]

Hi BKK,

Don't listen to Monochaser, he suffers from chronic depression and can't help his nasty comments.

I can't help with most of your questions but I suggest you do searches in the forum search box. As JD says, it should be in other threads.

Best of luck,

if you are in Ranong, do get in touch when you come over. I am not far from there.

Seonai

[BKK90210]

Yes I wish we can run away with just a suitcase but sadly this is not possible for us.

All the furnitures and apliances will be sold or donated...but the problem is we have tons and tons of technical books we must take with us....as references for future works, because we will also be writing a few technical books while in thailand. In addition to that we also have close to 2000 blueprints belonging to our clients that we had worked on during our 14 yrs and by professional liability law we're required to keep them for 20 yrs after.....so I guess we will just have to drag them around and over to thailand with us also! Therefore a big shipping container is a must have item for us....can't be avoided.

For the US mail address I will have to work something else out because I absolutely hate to burden my parents with this responsibility. So many things to do in so little time. I hope in the end everything will be fine and worth it.

[BKK90210]

Hi BKK,

Don't listen to Monochaser, he suffers from chronic depression and can't help his nasty comments.

I can't help with most of your questions but I suggest you do searches in the forum search box. As JD says, it should be in other threads.

Best of luck,

if you are in Ranong, do get in touch when you come over. I am not far from there.

Seonai

Thanks I will make sure to look you up when we're there.

I like Hua Hin but my wife likes south of Rayong...I'm sure we will ended up in one of these two places, just don't know which one yet at the moment.

[jdinasia]

Ranong .... and Rayong .... are rather far apart

[jackr]

Hi. Aren't the technical books you refer to available on disk? Also, could you get the blueprints digitized and transfered to disk that you can take with you and then simply store the real ones in the US?

Hope it all works out for you. Hua Hun is a lovely place and there are some cracking condos on the shore.

[BKK90210]

Hi. Aren't the technical books you refer to available on disk? Also, could you get the blueprints digitized and transfered to disk that you can take with you and then simply store the real ones in the US?

Hope it all works out for you. Hua Hun is a lovely place and there are some cracking condos on the shore.

About the books: we literately have THOUSANDS of them(not kidding) and only a few of them available on the disk. We have them lined up in our 22'x22' library full on all 3 walls - that's how many books we have. We can let go of everything else...but not our books!

About the blueprints: It's difficult to scan them all because most of the jobs usually come with many additional attachments and addendums from the city and county, plus too many revisions and other things too. As for many gas stations and churches....each one of them can be a few inches thick and it would be quite expensive to scan them all. It's not entirely impossible....will just have to check out the cost first.

Edited April 12, 2006 by BKK90210

[autonomous_unit]

I'm feeling nostalgic to my own similar move, so I'll give specific answers that you could probably find with a lot of nervous searching...

You'll want an O visa for having a Thai spouse, whether you want to get a work permit or not. It took me two visits to get an O visa from the Los Angeles consulate, citing "family reunion" or something like that on the application. (One visit to apply, another to pickup the passport a few days later.) If you can document your marriage and have your wife go to the embassy in person and help sign docs, that should be easy and fast. I guess it is longer if you need to do something by mail (I don't know if there is a consulate in Seattle) and cope with any screwups before your departure date. The visa will be for entry within a year from date of issue. You can get a multi-entry if you expect to travel a lot in the beginning, or just get a single entry and start the whole annual extension process, described in other threads, during the last month of your first 90 days here.

To work legally, you will need time to arrange an employer and do the work permit process described elsewhere. If that means starting your own limited company, I would suggest that you give yourself several months minimum to get to the point of being able to work here, all told. You might want to consult with a service bureau about your specific goals... I do not know what restrictions there are on your profession for foreigners.

I agree with everyone stating to sell of your belongings and travel light. We ended up sending about 1/4 or 1/8 container of items, mostly books and cold weather clothing we wanted to keep for trips out of Thailand, and a silly items like old bicycles and audio equipment "as long as we're shipping anyway and they have little resale value." As it turned out, we lived for 2 years on what we carried in suitcases and purchased here, and we just took our shipment from a relative's storage to our new residence this week to put into another storage room. We asked around the Thai population at the local university in the US to find a Thai shipper who gave us a cheap rate for door-to-door service... it has been a while but I think it only cost a few hundred dollars. We had no issues w/ customs, shipping in my wife's name as a "returning Thai."

We keep using a family address in the US for US banks and credit cards as a permanent mailing address and have found that online banking w/ PDF statements is very crucial to my peace of mind. The mailed statements are kept at the US address just for posterity, or in case I lose my computer data and backups somehow. If you want to vote absentee, you are instructed on the forms to register using your "last US address" and to that county registrar well before the election. You might want to look into google to find how to stop junk mail and unsolicited offers of credit. I delayed this and someone tried to open a new credit card based on an offer sent to my old apartment block in the US. Luckily, my relatives received the notification sent to my new permanent address and it was all resolved after a few phonecalls to the credit company.

I decided to stop using my CA drivers license and actually drive in the US on my Thai license when on visits. This might be overkill but I do not want any confusion as to whether I have moved permanently, for tax purposes. I could not, however, find any CA DMV form to actually surrender a license for moving overseas... I never got around to trying to figure that one out.

If you are the type to use professional services, you might want to look up and establish a relationship with an expat-specialist tax preparer in Seattle before you leave.

[dutch]

Ask a big international moving company for an offer.

They will gladly come to your place and have a look at what you like to ship and... they will inform you in written about all the regulations.

Further they will give you a checklist of what to do: 1 year before;6 month's before etc. till 1 week before.

I moved with a full loaded 40ft container in my wife's name (as returning thai),with umongst it more than 2500 books.

However it is at a price!!

I kept a non-resident account in my home country and the paperwork will follow where ever I will go,without problems

[Thaiquila]

I kept a non-resident account in my home country and the paperwork will follow where ever I will go,without problems

Dutch, are the a USAer or something else, because things about financial services in the USA are getting trickier and trickier because of policy changes of Homeland Security, so many problems USA people have are totally specific to Americans.

Another question, to AUTO ..., were you able to RENT a car in the US with a Thai driver's license? You are wise to divorce yourself from California, they are an aggresive state in collecting state tax. I have heard if you ever move back to Cali after living abroad and if you have not payed taxes, they will charge all back taxes and penalties as if you never left.

[Prakanong2005]

Hi. Aren't the technical books you refer to available on disk? Also, could you get the blueprints digitized and transfered to disk that you can take with you and then simply store the real ones in the US?

Hope it all works out for you. Hua Hun is a lovely place and there are some cracking condos on the shore.

About the books: we literately have THOUSANDS of them(not kidding) and only a few of them available on the disk. We have them lined up in our 22'x22' library full on all 3 walls - that's how many books we have. We can let go of everything else...but not our books!

About the blueprints: It's difficult to scan them all because most of the jobs usually come with many additional attachments and addendums from the city and county, plus too many revisions and other things too. As for many gas stations and churches....each one of them can be a few inches thick and it would be quite expensive to scan them all. It's not entirely impossible....will just have to check out the cost first.

What would the cost of the blueprints be in secure storage in the USA?

If its not prohibitive then maybe an idea?

My move to Singapore from Europe came that little bit closer yesterday - just need to agree the top end of the salary range HR has proposed (do they think I would accept the bottom once I had seen what they are prepared to give?)

I too would like my book to follow me (nowhere near as many as you) - when I moved to Thailand 7 years ago for work I left my books in the UK and lets just say most of them went. I will have to look at shipping costs - low cost sea freight would do me.

Edited April 12, 2006 by Prakanong2005

[autonomous_unit]

Yes, I have rented cars from Hertz and Enterprise at major US airports, using a 1-year and a 5-year Thai license and no international permit. I research the state motor laws before I drive in a new state. For CA and IL, they recognize the license of your country of residence and do not even want to see an international permit. (The permit is just a sort of "notarized" translation, after all.)

My experience is that it helps to join the rental "club" with a company. The first time, when they look over your ID and account, it may take a long time. They have to drag out their Big Picture Book of Foreign Licenses and decide that your license is valid... this may entail calling their manager over to help. Once they enter it in the system, it is no big deal to leave the premises with the car... the contract says "license issued by Thailand" on it or something like that, and the guard just looks at it peculiarly and opens the gate. BTW, I am a large germanic looking guy so they are definitely coming to grips with my expat status.

I imagine this would be much more amusing and slow if attempted at some small satellite rental office.

Also, you have to figure out insurance very carefully. Since you presumably do not own a car that is insured in the US, you have no coverage that follows you as a driver. Call your credit card company and explain your situation very carefully to determine what coverage, if any, you would have. Then, make sure you purchase appropriate coverage for your rental...

I have yet to be stopped by a cop to sample the other half of this experience of using a Thai license in the US.