Which shipping company to use?

[pocheros 101]

So, when I get my visa I'll be moving from the greater Toronto area to Las Vegas. I'm trying to figure out which company would be best to mail my stuff, because I honestly don't have that many things I want to bring along. I live in an apartment that I share with two roommates and have no furniture and very few household goods that I want to actually have in the states.

Also, I don't know how to drive, and it's costly for my fiance to fly here to simply drive a truck to the states, especially with time off work, etc., so a truck is not an option. I looked into pods/cubes that they move for you and it's still really expensive (around $2k).

What I'm bringing basically amounts to:

1. clothing- which is a lot... I don't think I could even shove it into two pieces of luggage for POE. I definitely couldn't fit all my shoes and jackets and purses into it. Then there's all my jewellery... I don't want to leave any of my clothing behind!

2. books- about 100 or so, BUT these are not paperbacks- they are very big, hardcover, heavy books. Think textbooks. They were expensive and some of them would be difficult to find/replace and they're important to me as I use them as references for my hobbies, etc. I don't want to give them up.

3. My computer + monitor and printer.

4. If it's feasible, there's a few household goods I want to bring because my fiance is a caveman and doesn't have the common sense to buy dishes and kitchen appliances. This is optional, even if I'm attached to my food processor and coffee maker and pots I know I could still replace all that stuff.

Sooo... many of the things I'm mailing won't fit into nice little boxes. I could probably fit everything I want to bring in 10 large or medium sized moving boxes, although they would be kinda heavy.

I tried to get a quote on the UPS website but it was some ridiculous amount like $1k per box.

So, does anyone have experience with this? Any particular companies that will mail huge and heavy boxes and charge under $2k?

[Inky 1,111]

What about sharing part of an ABF ?

[pocheros 101]

What about sharing part of an ABF ?

What's an ABF?

[Inky 1,111]

a shipping company? http://www.abfs.com/

[Colleens 40]

What about shipping with Greyhound? I have shipped some stuff across Canada with greyhound and it was fairly reasonable (mind you this was several years ago). I am not sure how they would handle the customs end...I would assume that it would be similar to shipping with a moving company.

I had a 3bedroom house to move and I used ABF. It was fairly reasonable.

[jkelly07 120]

ABF is a trucking, arkansas best freight company.up put all your house hold goods in a 20 foot container in front of your house you load it you call thay will come and pick it up and deliver it your destenation.

[pocheros 101]

I will check with greyhound. ABF doesn't seem to offer anything other than trucks and pods for residential moving. I just don't have that much stuff- I sleep on the couch in my friend's living room; I don't even have my own room, or even a room's worth of stuff to move. Also I live in a high rise apartment building and I don't even know if they could drop off a pod in front of it. Even so the quote was $3K :S That's why I just want to mail my stuff. I guess I should've been more specific in my original post, i.e. purolator vs. UPS vs. canada post* or something, but thanks for the ideas anyways guys

*which is slow even when they're not on strike so I doubt I'll use them haha.

Edited June 24, 2011 by pocheros

[Krikit 1,165]

You may also want to check out this thread.

[pocheros 101]

You may also want to check out this thread.

This is pretty useful! Thanks!

Also, a question... Do "they" know/care if you mail/ship your belongings before you get your K1 visa and cross? I saw something like that mentioned in the thread you linked. :S I'd rather mail out my stuff throughout the next couple of months rather than wait till my POE in September. Again, I'll be using something like UPS or purolator, and it'll just be big/medium sized boxes of clothing and books...

[Inky 1,111]

This is pretty useful! Thanks!

Also, a question... Do "they" know/care if you mail/ship your belongings before you get your K1 visa and cross? I saw something like that mentioned in the thread you linked. :S I'd rather mail out my stuff throughout the next couple of months rather than wait till my POE in September. Again, I'll be using something like UPS or purolator, and it'll just be big/medium sized boxes of clothing and books...

They know because you have to list all contents on the duty forms when you mail to the USA. They will likely stop all boxes and go through them and charge duty for home/personal goods. You cant ship belongings ahead of you moving because you have to provide the documents to the company before they can pass it through the customs.

[Andy and Kayla 45]

They know because you have to list all contents on the duty forms when you mail to the USA. They will likely stop all boxes and go through them and charge duty for home/personal goods. You cant ship belongings ahead of you moving because you have to provide the documents to the company before they can pass it through the customs.

Hmm... We were kind of thinking something similar and this concerns me. We weren't going to ship it ahead of time, but our plan was to have my fiance drive up, stay with me for about a week and if I don't have my visa in hand by a certain date, he will go back without me but with some of my belongings, and I would fly down when I do get the visa. Obviously if I'm very lucky and have the K1 in hand by the time he leaves we have no problem, but I would hate for there to be problems should he go across with my things but without me.

We were planning on making copies of all of our documents, showing that we filed and interviewed and that I've been approved, and that we're just waiting on the actual visa to be delivered to me. Couldn't that work? I don't have a HUGE amount of things but there is about a car full.

[Krikit 1,165]

Hmm... We were kind of thinking something similar and this concerns me. We weren't going to ship it ahead of time, but our plan was to have my fiance drive up, stay with me for about a week and if I don't have my visa in hand by a certain date, he will go back without me but with some of my belongings, and I would fly down when I do get the visa. Obviously if I'm very lucky and have the K1 in hand by the time he leaves we have no problem, but I would hate for there to be problems should he go across with my things but without me.

We were planning on making copies of all of our documents, showing that we filed and interviewed and that I've been approved, and that we're just waiting on the actual visa to be delivered to me. Couldn't that work? I don't have a HUGE amount of things but there is about a car full.

Please see this thread.

[Andy and Kayla 45]

Please see this thread.

Thanks.

[Andy and Kayla 45]

Could we not just pay the damn tariffs? Seriously.

It's half his stuff, anyway, since a lot of the kitchen items were gifts to both of us. It makes me really mad that he can't bring thins like our f#*%ing electric skillet or waffle iron over without problems.

[pocheros 101]

Could we not just pay the damn tariffs? Seriously.

It's half his stuff, anyway, since a lot of the kitchen items were gifts to both of us. It makes me really mad that he can't bring thins like our f#*%ing electric skillet or waffle iron over without problems.

This is how I feel. Bleh.

I haven't had a lot of time to do research lately so I need to do some more reading. I wonder if it would look suspicious if I mailed a large box of books as a "gift" to my fiance in my roommate's name? Or heck, if I mailed some of my stuff to my fiance's sister's place, in my roommate's name. I wouldn't want to pay exorbitant fees though, but I'm sure I could get a quote... Besides the books, all I really need to mail is my clothing. That can't look terribly suspicious, but I won't underestimate customs...

Then again, it might be easier to simply pack everything in boxes and get my roommate to mail it for me after I've crossed the border.

Edited June 25, 2011 by pocheros