LogFAQs > #968348275

For funsies I put in how much it cost to move to another country...

So what it cost.
- Visa (3 years) = ~$2500
---- this was entirely paid for by my company, other people might pay for this themselves
---- will need to renew this in 3 years time, so this will be a cost again in 3 years
---- healthcare surcharge 624/year = 1872
---- 479 shortage occupation list application cost
- flight = ~$800
- luggage = ~$1300
---- 4 suitcases, 2 duffel bags = ~$1000
---- stuff I cared about most or didn't want to wait 5-7 months shipping
---- van rental for Airbnb hopping = $300
- pet relocation service = ~$5500
---- cat arriving after me since I had a lot of luggage and timeframe was last minute for figuring out her stuff
---- health certificates, vet appointment, flights, picking her up and travel to airport for departure but picking her up at airport on arrival
- AirBnB for two months that's pet friendly = $7000
- finding a flat = $12,000
---- having to pay 6 months rent upfront being from abroad without credit here = $9k
---- also having to pay double the deposit for the same reason = $3k
- sea shipping other stuff = ~$4000
---- still figuring this out but these are quotes I'm getting
---- 18 boxes, not furniture
---- probably could have cut back on some of this...but sea shipping is by container so wouldn't have saved much

So that's roughly $30.5k out of pocket (plus $2.5k paid by employer), not including having to buy a bunch of stuff soon (furniture, necessities I didn't pack, etc).

Potential savings:
- having gone for a bigger company that would pay for relocation costs (typically cover up 10k from what I've seen)
- moving with less
--- save probably a couple thousand with less airport luggage + sea shipping costs
--- but also it's a container size for sea shipping so not sure how much I could actually save here
--- but also would have had to rebuy things
- not using a pet relocation service
---- if I had to fly back to the USA and into Paris, pay for a Chunnel pet service, and then train I would have saved $2k but would have been 30+ hours work
---- if I brought my cat with me immediately I could have saved 10 hours and $1k ish from the above, so $3k saved (but this was difficult with timing unknown and traveling with a lot of luggage). Would have been max savings here though
- AirBnB
--- I did places "entirely to myself" because I have so much luggage and also I don't want to live in a hostel for two months (plus with a cat not even an option)
--- I'd have to leave the city to find cheaper places that's over an hour commute. This doesn't work well when I was given a couple hours notice for some flat viewing, and was flat viewing multiple times a day. plus work.
--- could have saved if I knew ahead of time when I would have a flat, there's 2/3 month I didn't need
--- but booking things for a month at a time (I booked two) gives a monthly discount, and I didn't want to risk not being able to find a pet friendly place last minute so..
--- hotels could have saved a couple grand here for the same time but that's another meh situation to be in for a couple months with cooking, laundry additional costs, etc.

With those savings it still would have been over $20k out of pocket (without relocation being paid by employer)

anyway don't have to pay rent until April now so I guess that's nice

edit: oh didn't include some visa services (document processing and some extra stuff) and travel for that that was around $1k too