Can You Recommend Any Moving Companies?

[Phillabuster 5]

Hello everyone! Hopefully I am posting to the correct thread!

I am a United States citizen hoping to bring my beautiful partner to my homestate of Arizona from Brisbane, Australia. So far, we are having some difficulty researching good moving companies, and were hoping someone could recommend a few to look at, and maybe give us a look as to what to expect!

She is looking to move her bedroom, so mainly some books and things, some of her vintage gaming systems, a desktop (she needs this to work!), and a scattering of larger stuff like her beloved electric guitar. Thankfully, I have been blessed with all the kitchen gadgets and other stuff, so she doesn't need to bring that sort of thing. Lucked out there!!

Researching online has so far been a fruitless endeavor and quite scary. We are a young couple and I am the only one with a steady job, so I am financing the venture alone right now. (She wants to help, but the nature of freelancing is fickle and often means her income goes directly to survival.) We need the moving of her things to be as economically viable as possible while still getting her stuff here safely and in a timely manner. Many sites are quoting us at upwards of 5k to move a single bedroom of stuff and, understandably, we are a little concerned.

Anyway, can anyone recommend a good moving company? Again, she is based in Brisbane Australia. I'd love to hear about anyone's experience too, moving their things, and how much it cost you if you're comfortable sharing that information.

Much appreciated!!!!

[Lynkali 163]

You'd probably be better off asking in a regional forum, as it's pretty specific to the area you're moving FROM as to prices. However, $5000 seems slightly high but not outrageous to me. When my husband moved from Finland, he hired an international shipping company. He had NO furniture, but a large amount of books, vinyl records, and other miscellaneous items. The company boxed up for him and cleaned his empty apartment, then shipped the boxes to the USA, for $3000. If your fiance has bulkier or heavier items, I could imagine the total coming to $5000. (For comparison, when I moved across the USA with a moving company, it also cost $3000 for a one-room apartment worth of stuff.)

[Phillabuster 5]

Thank you so much! That does sort of put my mind at ease a bit. I'll look around on the regional forums- sorry, I just signed up today so I'm learning my way around the site! Your story gives me hope though. My fiancee only has one room to move and I believe a lot of it can be sorted through and donated/sold. It's just that difficult-to-find stuff like her vintage gaming consoles and those things I couldn't possibly ask her to leave behind like some of her childhood toys. If it's 3k to move an entire apartment of little things, I imagine her costs might not be so much, so thank you.

If I may ask, the moving process is by boat, yes? How long did it take to reach your door? We're not so concerned about time limit really since she can probably bring her favorite clothing and laptop with her on the plane ride over, but she may start to miss her guitar and desktop after a while, and it may help to know so she knows if she would miss her favorite doll. I've read a lot of advisories about stuff like be aware your stuff may be thrown overboard as ballast and it's all pretty scary. Does the moving company also handle stuff like customs for you? Are there hidden fees you encountered? Some sites have talked about " be prepared to pay a lot of unforseen costs" where I was just imagining like a cross-country type move where you pay everything up front...

Again, thank you so much, and for such a quick reply!

[Lynkali 163]

If I remember right, it took almost exactly two months for his boxes to arrive. We knew it would take a while, but it did seem quite slow and long -- but yes, it was by boat. He had to sign release forms and a customs inventory form, but the company had everything processed through customs with just his signature, so they arrived on a truck to our house in California, after leaving Finland exactly two months earlier. There was absolutely no damage to anything -- the boxes were really pristine and had no signs of tampering or even being tossed around.

He brought a suitcase when he flew to the USA, full of clothes and his laptop. Then we just went shopping for some extra clothes and he settled in. He missed his vinyl records more than anything, but two months when you're busy getting married, getting all the new IDs and bank accounts and everything else done in between normal life, it flew by pretty fast.

I believe there WAS a $150 surcharge when the items cleared customs. I can't remember how they explained it and I was like "huh, ok" but it was so little compared to the overall cost, that I wasn't too worried. It had something to do with customs agent fees I believe. Nothing else -- he did pay up front and there were no surcharges from the actual shipping company, just that US agent fee whatever it was.

[Phillabuster 5]

Oh that's not too bad at all! My fiancee has made several extended visits here with me that have lasted about two months so I'm sure it wouldn't be that strenuous. This is all great information, thank you so very much! I was expecting something much worse from US customs. I'm very glad his stuff got there okay!

[TBoneTX 43,020]

Welcome to the forum.

Going ahead and moving your thread from General Immigration Discussion to the Australia/New Zealand regional forum, where helpful answers might be forthcoming.

[Phillabuster 5]

Ah, thank you so much!!! Should I be posting all questions I have to the regional forum seeing as my fiancee is Aussie? That would make it so easy and I don't want to accidentally make more work for the mods having to switch my threads around. c:

[MADDEN 40]

HEY! I used a great company called Grace Removals, I have used them in the past for a move from Australia to the UK and back again and once again for my move from Australia to the USA. I didn't have much to move mainly small items and a child's toys. books and games ect, i shipped 6 large boxes at a cost of $700 AUD that included having my goods professionally packed, shipped, all custom costs and delivery.

[Amanda4964 202]

Last year, we used King and Wilson. It cost about $1500 (including insurance) to ship 3 cubic meters from Melbourne to Olympia, Washington. It took 5 months due to some delays in customs, but that was not the fault of the moving company and we were very happy with their service overall including packing everything and delivery door to door.

[Phillabuster 5]

Thank you everyone! My gosh, what a great array of responses! We will look into these companies- you have all given us a lot of hope that our dreams can come true. Being young and poor is hard, lol!

Thank you everyone for your kindness! If anyone else has any recommendations we would still love to hear them!

[Snag 57]

Hi mate,

We ended up just loading up four suitcases to the brim with my books and clothes, and checking them in when we traveled back to the US. Of course, we had a trip planned to come back to Australia, but we figured if it were going to cost $5,000 to ship a small array of items of mine, we might as well come out and do it ourselves. I had no furniture, or bulky items. Just a ton of books. The suitcases were just under. Just a thought!