Shipping personal things to US

[MikeinAZ 0]

My Fiance is going to be leaving Singapore in June to come to the US... What is the cheapest/easiest way to ship all of her belongings?

[eric_and_teresa 10]

I suggest you tell your fiance to do some research locally. She can look online or yellow pages in her City. There are companies that provide international moving services in every country, but I will tell you that it wont be cheap.

[StoryAngel 4]

I'm in that position right now (I'm the beneficiary) coming from Europe. Eric_and_teresa is right - it's not cheap and it's actually quite a hassle! I've got estimates from several companies and I'm weighing up my options. It's cheaper to ship by sea than by air. One of the estimates I have gives me a huge discount if I collect the items from the port myself rather than have them shipped door-to-door. If that's an option for you (depends on how close you live to the port!) then maybe investigate.

[redkitty 0]

I'll be shipping all my stuff back home (boxes only) using the same company that shipped them over here. UPakWeShip, but I'm not sure what other countries they ship from.

Definitely do your research as some companies over-charge and don't deliver on time.

[ausqueen 0]

My Fiance is going to be leaving Singapore in June to come to the US... What is the cheapest/easiest way to ship all of her belongings?

Depends how much she's got.

Check with the airline she is flying. It might be least expensive to pay excess baggage fee. Again, depends on how much stuff there is.

I came from Sydney to SF on United. I am United Mileage Club member. They let me check in FIVE (5) suitcases at no charge at all... ask and you will find out!

Good luck!

[mateo 0]

I shipped everything in the post office, about 50% lost or damaged. The Brazilian postal workers certainly kicked and stomped on my boxes. I am sure out of jealousy... Was expensive but most of my stuff got here.

m.

[Dan J 277]

You have alot of options. Most of them will either be fast and expensive or cheap and take several weeks or maybe months.

I would suggest trying to minimize what you need to move. Much stuff can be replaced cheaply here and/or may not be compatible with US broadcast/electrical standards.

Start with seeing how much you can take with your airline. You may be able to pay for an extra bags at a relatively low cost.

Shipping with standard carriers, like fedex and ups is usually pretty fast, but expensive. They may have some freight options that you could use.

Most ocean shipping is done by container load, but you can find companies that will do less than a container load shipments for you. This is usualy the cheapest option, but depending where you are shipping to and from, it can take several weeks to a couple months.

[Ephesia 0]

Mike,

When I moved here from Singapore, I used SingPost to ship all my non-important stuff via sea mail. Sea mail is the cheapest. It cost me about S$110 (I think) to ship 5 boxes of stuff.

I shipped this stuff about 5 weeks before my move because I knew sea mail would take between 8 and 12 weeks. I was in the US for a month before the first of the boxes arrived. It was pretty exciting because it almost felt like an early Christmas.

Several tips that may help your fiancee:

1) Throw out all CD jewel boxes and put all the discs into a CD bible.

2) Organize stuff by categories into plastic storage boxes and then put these boxes into the SingPost boxes. For example, books and photo albums can go into one plastic box, while non-important documents into another. When all my boxes arrived, I simply took out the plastic storage boxes that contained momentos and/or non-essential stuff and moved them up into the attic.

3) Be cold and heartless in packing, no matter how hard it gets to leave stuff behind. I threw out 20 black garbage bags of stuff before I finally packed everything else into the 5 boxes. It was mentally and emotionally painful, but I have no regrets. I can't even remember now what I threw away. LOL.

4) Schedule a pick-up time. SingPost will personally pick up all her boxes from her home.

5) Print a copy of her passport page with her info and a copy of her K1 visa for every box she intends to ship. Write your home address below the K1 visa. Put these right at the top of her things before she seals the boxes.

6) All important and critical documents should be packed in her carry-on bag. Everything else goes into her check-in luggage. On the day of my departure, I had only 1 large suitcase, 1 carry-on bag, and my wedding dress. My brother thought that was a small miracle in itself because I had been a pack rat for a long time.

Hope this helps. Let your fiancee know I hope she has a wonderful journey here.

My Fiance is going to be leaving Singapore in June to come to the US... What is the cheapest/easiest way to ship all of her belongings?