Anyone have household MOVING experience from Russia?
Question:
Does anyone have any personal and household goods moving experience or information that might be helpful in moving my fiance from Russia to the US? Any reliable contacts? Recommendations? SCARY stories? Anything would be helpful!
Answer:
I went through yellow pages in the UK and shopped around the
few that looked promising (they have an equivalent in Russia ?)
Anyway.. Here's the advice my shipping agent gave me.. He deals with
household intercontinental removals all the time so he knows his
stuff ? He warned me that I should be there in the States at the
port your belongings get shipped to. IE: The person that shipped them
should be the person that signs for them at the other end.
The reason he gave was this.... Thousands of people per year ship
their personal belongings in and out of the States. Students,
immigrants and the like. Tax and duty dodgers have increasingly taken
advantage of this relatively unsearched heavy traffic to im/export
goods for sale. And of course, illegal substances.. Mostly set up via
trading over the Internet. So now the port officials are very wary of
batches of boxes coming into the US that aren't met by their senders.
Aparently they are sick of having to search through so many !!! As I
understand it, the short version is that they can give you a very hard
time.
Mark each box with a brief general contents list. Not item by item !
The port officials have to copy it ALL down. They get shirty when
writer's cramp sets in.
Now for info I know from my job. I was the supervisor in a steel
products factory in Sheffield UK. They exported worldwide every day..
So know my stuff :-) Saltwater on steel makes a big mess.
Wrap your things watertight. The bulk containers aboard ship are NOT
completely waterproof. Especially the older ones with worn door seals
and holes in the sides. And seawater is very corrosive. You know the
type.. 8ft x 8ft x 20 or 40 ft ribbed steel containers with doors at
one end. They sit on the back of trucks for overland, and get craned
off onto ships' decks. These containers are stacked ABOVE decks
and not inside the vessel as some think. I had to inspect incoming
empty containers before my guys filled them and believe me.. I had to
reject as many as I gave the OK for.
Unless you are in a hurry and/or have money to burn.. Forget
airfreight. It's currently about $2.00 per kilo (2.2lbs) Send by sea.
Ocean freight is charged by cubic volume and not weight. Forget
furniture items unless they are valuable.
Port and clearance fees are to be remembered, (call where you expect
it to land for details) plus overland transport to your door. From my
research it's a whole lot cheaper for you to rent a UHaul truck.
90% of my stuff has been packed in strong half cubic metre cardboard
boxes, ready to go, apart from daily essentials. As soon as I get my
visa I'll be giving the shipping agent the go-ahead to book them on a
vessel. I'll have roughly 10 to 12 days (he said) to be there at NY
sea port to collect. He also advised waving my visa at them when I
pick them up as added validity.
Please bear in mind I'm from the UK and shipping agents may have
different arrangements with carriers etc..
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