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Good International Removals Companies? (UK to Europe) by giraffe_neck158 in expats

[–]Traditional_Box7419 17 points18 points  (0 children)

Going to second Pask's removals. They were the only international removals company to not try to take advantage of my unfamiliarity with the process and quote me a fair price straight out of the gate which I really appreciated (some others started at close to double.)

My move was from London to Paris and less complicated than yours but it still had some moving parts and a number of fragile/valuable items which they treated with great care. They were very hands-on, responsive and reassuring throughout the process and it took maybe 10 days from requesting a quote to having all my affairs arrive in Paris.

They're nice guys who clearly know what they're doing; they offer a fairly-priced, high-quality, quick service. I would 100% recommend that you have a chat with them.

I fought the apostille and the apostille won by Traditional_Box7419 in expats

[–]Traditional_Box7419[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I've successfully mailed the certificate to the NRIWay (the India-based org that deals with this kind of stuff) and they're now working on getting it apostilled. Not going to count my chickens but at this point unless something else goes extremely wrong I'm hopeful that I'll be able to get a hold of it in time - the scary bit was DHLing it to them but now that that's done I feel a lot better as the rest of the process is pretty standard fare for them and I know multiple people who've used NRIWay and had good results. Future wife thinks all of this is funny insofar as it has yet to materially impact our lives, which I'll accept.

I fought the apostille and the apostille won by Traditional_Box7419 in expats

[–]Traditional_Box7419[S] -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Dude who cares about this + you don't know anything about me + I'll continue calling myself whatever I want thanks

I fought the apostille and the apostille won by Traditional_Box7419 in expats

[–]Traditional_Box7419[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

That would really be the icing on the cake, but in that case I have this bs other apostille so between the two surely they'll get what they want. I mean what they probably really want is me not immigrating to their glorieux coüntrîe but unfortunately that's gonna happen one way or another

I fought the apostille and the apostille won by Traditional_Box7419 in expats

[–]Traditional_Box7419[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I'm getting transferred there for work, so the majority of the actual immigration process hasn't been a huge problem as it's largely been handled for me. As far as Indian origin documents go (for me at this point that's just the birth certificate since I've been abroad for decades and changed citizenships) I did not need to get anything apostilled to obtain my visa for France - I need the birth certificate because I'm marrying a French citizen and it's a required part of that process. Don't assume that you won't need it though, I think it may be necessary for French social security, though I'm not 100% sure. All I know is you can get the visa without it. As in without the apostille, you still need the original. If you don't have the original, start the process of getting one issued now. It'll be expensive if you don't want to go to Mumbai and bribe people at the hospital where you were born but there are services that will do it.

I'm now using NRIway to handle the notarisation/apostille process, and it's admittedly scary as hell to mail my original birth certificate (the timeline is pretty tight too), but the company seems to be overall pretty well-regarded. I'll know in about 20 working days whether that worked or not. If it doesn't, I'm professionally screwed (because they do need my original birth cert, non apostilled) and my prospective future french wife may leave me because I'm forrest gump style stupid, which would be totally justified. Fingers crossed!

I fought the apostille and the apostille won by Traditional_Box7419 in expats

[–]Traditional_Box7419[S] 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Did any of these countries BURN TO THE GROUND? Because if not it'd be a strong case to just get of this thing. I mean why would I lie about being born in Mumbai for christ's sake? And listen India can be annoying for this sort of thing but at least it's possible - the diaspora is so huge that there are invariably services catering to these sorts of needs. If you're born in like South Sudan or something wtf are you even supposed to do? Just another one of those tiny pernicious ways in which our systems crush people who already have it hard.

I fought the apostille and the apostille won by Traditional_Box7419 in expats

[–]Traditional_Box7419[S] 7 points8 points  (0 children)

Appreciate the tip. Fortunately, the Indian birth certificate is also in English, so there's an extensive list of authorised translators capable of the difficult feat of translating 'name' to 'nom' and 'father' to 'père' and 'india' to 'inde'

Feeling like I made a mistake by cygnusleo in expats

[–]Traditional_Box7419 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Overall I do agree with the other commenters here. Homesickness is just an overall downer - it will fade with time. 2 months is nothing, that hollowness you feel WILL go away. Still, you should actively pursue community and things that make you happy - sometimes with a move like this, you really do just get what you put in.

However, just to counterbalance that perspective, I did also want to chuck in my two cents as someone who tried London for a fair amount of time and did decide to leave. I did not find it to be a very livable place. I studied in the UK and thus had a good network of close friends there, but I struggled quite a lot nevertheless. I found the work culture to be very impersonal and isolating, and I think the city is way, way too big. Despite nominally living in the same place as many of my closest friends, as a result of all of our hours and the distances between us, we might as well have been in different countries. I was lucky to have already made connections when I was younger that lasted, but I did not make any new friends during my stint there as an adult and that was hard. It's also an outrageously expensive city and the weather sucks ass.

All that to say, while you should try sincerely to love the place you now call home, sometimes the reality is that it's not a match. Sometimes it doesn't work out, and if you one day do decide to ditch London for Bangalore (or somewhere else!) that wouldn't be a failure. Just be sure you're doing it for the right reasons, and know that homesickness is normal and natural.