How I shipped my personal belongings from UK to US
Part 0. Introduction
In this topic, I'm describing my experience with shipping 11 boxes with all my “personal effects” by air from the UK to the USA as I was relocating on K1 visa. I hope this information may be helpful for those who are considering doing something similar.
Short resume:
My boxes were picked up from my UK apartment on Nov 11.
The boxes left the UK on Nov 15 (delay that I requested to travel to the US myself first) and were delivered to my US house on Nov 19.
The shipping itself took 5 calendar days, including customs clearance.
I used Transglobal Express (https://www.transglobalexpress.co.uk/) for this door-to-door service, they seem to have piggybacked UPS and then DHL services for this shipment.
The entire project cost me £749.16 that I paid to Transglobal during booking, and I did not pay any extra unexpected costs to any of the parties at any time.
I have divided this thread into a few posts:
Part 0. Introduction
Part 1. Packing materials that I used (with links to Amazon.co.uk)
Part 2. Packing and sealing boxes (with pictures)
Part 3. Labeling
Part 4. What items CANNOT be put in the boxes due to air transportation or US customs rules
Part 5. Shipping companies quotes
Part 6. Insurance
Part 7. US customs paperwork
Part 8. Shipping process step by step
Just a couple preliminary comments:
First of all, I was leaving the UK for good, I don’t have any friends or relatives that I could leave my things with and expect them to travel to my new US location and bring my things in suitcases. So I had to make sure that I clear my flat entirely: sell/give away everything I don’t need and ship to the US everything that I do need.
Some people say “Shipping is expensive, c’mon, just leave everything behind, you will buy new things in the US, start fresh”. Well, I was curious and actually put every single item in an Excel spreadsheet and specified approximate value of it. When I summed everything up, my 11 boxes contents appeared to be worth £16K while I only paid £750 for shipping them to the US. I think it’s a pretty good deal.
Note that “personal effects” cannot arrive earlier than the owner crosses the US border, or the shipment won’t clear customs. My travel date was Nov 16, 2019, and the shipping by air via DHL would just take 1-2 work days so I had to arrange the pickup on Nov 15, 2019 to make sure the boxes do not arrive earlier than myself. At the same time, there was only me who could hand them over to the carrier, so I had to have them picked up right before I leave for the US. It was a bit of a quest. Shipping by sea takes longer so it may be easier to arrange the arrival of boxes after you get to the US yourself.
