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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.

Hi everyone, I'm applying for K1 visa in the UK, so this may sound like a topic for United Kingdom regional forum, but I guess I have a better chance to get comments from those who are applying for US visas not from home countries here in the general K1 forum. I am a Russian citizen, and I'm applying for K1 visa in London. I'm in the UK on a 3-year work visa. For my K1 visa, I need to provide two police certificates as since I was 16 I resided for more then 6 months in two countries: the UK and Russia (my country of nationality). UK police certificate (ACRO certificate) is not an issue, I got it. But I got a few questions on the Russian police certificate. So, first of all, the "mother of all" list of K1 visa documents on the London US embassy site says: Police Certificates for Other Cuntries (if applicable) Required for all countries where you have lived for more than 6 months since the age of 16 and any country where you have been arrested, even if you were not resident there. U.S. police certificates are not required. Police certificates from certain countries (http://travel.state.gov/content/visas/en/fees/reciprocity-by-country.html) are unavailable or are obtained directly by this office. Fingerprints are required for certain countries. A list of UK police stations who can provide fingerprinting services is available from the Embassy website, here. (PDF – 337kb) Foreign police certificates are valid indefinitely, unless you have returned to reside in that country or has been arrested since the issuance of the certificate On June 21, 2019 I got from Russia the exact document («Police Clearance») described on the above mentioned Reciprocity by Country site for Russian Federation (aka Russia): Russian Federation Reciprocity Schedule Police Certificates / Prison Records Available … Document Name: СПРАВКА (Police Clearance) Issuing Authority: Ministry of the Interior Special Seal(s) / Color / Format: Original police certificate will have the stamp of the issuing MVD office and the signature of the official Issuing Authority Personnel Title: There is no issuing authority personnel title Registration Criteria: There are no registration criteria … Comments: Send a copy of the police certificate to the National Visa Center. ... I also had this document translated into English and certified by the translator in the UK. My question #1: Can I be sure just from this Reciprocity by Country site text that I do not need fingerprints in the UK, and do not need my Russian police certificate to be "obtained directly by this office" (as mentioned on the London US embassy site)? Can I be sure that all I need is to bring the original Russian police certificate and the translation of this document to my K1 interview? My question #2: The Reciprocity by Country site states: Send a copy of the police certificate to the National Visa Center Does this mean I really need to go ahead and send the copy of the Russian police certificate to the NVC in the US before my K1 visa interview (not to the London US embassy that is conducting my interview)? My question #3: Travel.state.gov site says: Important: Police certificates expire after one year, unless the certificate was issued from your country of previous residence and you have not returned there since the police certificate was issued. London UK embassy site says: Foreign police certificates are valid indefinitely, unless you have returned to reside in that country or has been arrested since the issuance of the certificate. The matter is that site 1 above says «you have not returned there since» and site 2 says «unless you have returned to reside». My Russian police certificate was issued on June 21, 2019, I visited Russia for four days on July 4-7, 2019. I did not come back to live there, just visited. Does this mean that my Russian police certificate has gone invalid? Or since I only visited Russia for 4 days after my certificate was issued (did not go back to reside), I have nothing to worry about and my certificate is still valid? Thoughts and personal experience are very, very welcome.