[Mels]

In an attempt to distract my brain, I am making a list of docuents that I think I need to take in hand-luggage.
Hopefully these will be just one sheet per item:

Pension policy
life assurance
certified copies of passports originally done for ITA
bank required paper work (to open ASB on arrival)
car insurance no claims letter
house insurance no claims letter
bank credit ref (ie that I'm wonderful and will pay the rent)


plus a book that I've been doodling in with lots of stuff life e-mail addresses, schools and stuff.
Hard drive with back-ups for all computers.

This is just a start list so please add or take away any other things I have missed.

Mels

[zardell]

We carried the originals of things that we thought would have been difficult to replace.

Basically the same list as you, but also:

Birth/marriage certs.

Various credit refs.

C.V. (if job hunting) Ours were on disc.

Back-up discs.

Address book.

Shippers paperwork including contact details for NZ agent.


HTH.

Julie

xx

[zardell]

Oh and we also bought a 'Man Bag' to put them in, which my OH carried and guarded with his life.....LOL!!

Julie

xx

[Mels]

Oh and we also bought a 'Man Bag' to put them in, which my OH carried and guarded with his life.....LOL!!

Julie

xx

I tried that but OH decided that was my job :roll So I splashed out and bought a big bright red one!

Mels

[zardell]

I suppose that the plane tickets, passports and a bit of spare cash goes without saying.....:laugh

:exit

Julie

xx

[Mels]

Mustn't forget the kids bear and floppy bunny either :exit

I lost 'Patch' (little brown bear) in Auckland once, didn't notice it was missing 'till we were at home. Fortunately a friend was visiting her father at the time so she dropped into the apartment where he had been sat in the office for a week, and brought him home - pheww that bear goes everywhere and I was in deep trouble.

Mels

[Pebbles]

My list also includes:
- original diplomas / certificates / reference letters (former employers)
- photos (from way back when there was no digital)

Phew ... me thinks me bag is not big enough! :p

[IanW99]

Here's a couple more:-

Driving license.
Travel insurance policy
Address of accomodation.

Ian

[BaldyBeardyBloke]

As we were coming without jobs we also brought written, signed references from previous employer(s).

[nippa&pippa]

Kids' red books (if you got kids)

A list of prescriptions from old Dr for new Dr (for easy and straight forward)

Copies of medical notes if you manage to get it from GP without pay for it but if they ask for money, forgot it! (did charged us £50 per person in 2006 but we opted for not have medical notes, other forumees managed to get medical notes without pay for it, so try)

[shakyle2906]

I agree with everyone, i carried whatever i could.........

Sharon

Nothing to add to list, covered everything i think!

x

[Mels]

Just put this into one list to make it easier to print - thanks for your help everyone.

Mels


plane tickets,
passports/visas
NZ currency

birth/marriage certificates
shippers paperwork including contact details for NZ agent.
driving license.
travel insurance policy
address of accommodation.
original diplomas/certificates
reference letters (former employers)
photos (from way back when there was no digital)
C.V. (if job hunting)

address book
pension policy
life assurance
certified copies of passports etc. originally done for ITA
bank required paper work (to open ASB on arrival)
car insurance no claims letter
house insurance no claims letter
credit references from bank etc

list of prescriptions from old Dr for new Dr (for easy and straight forward)
medical notes
opticians prescription
Kids' red books

plus a book that I've been doodling in with lots of stuff life e-mail addresses, schools and stuff.

Hard drive with back-ups for all computers.

[benandclare]

We took everything we couldnt manage without if the tin box fell off the ship :p

As an aside to activate an ASB bank account all we did was stroll into the branch and show our passports :nice1

[napiers]

This thread is fab!! :clap Although we're not going for a while, I'd already thought about the fact I would want to take important stuff with us on the plane, but hadn't got as far as working out what the important stuff was! Thanks to you Mels I don't need to. :nice1 Will definitely using this list to help me - at the moment I don't think I can see what I could add. Thanks to all of you for this.

[zardell]

Just put this into one list to make it easier to print - thanks for your help everyone.

Mels


plane tickets,
passports/visas
NZ currency

birth/marriage certificates
shippers paperwork including contact details for NZ agent.
driving license.
travel insurance policy
address of accommodation.
original diplomas/certificates
reference letters (former employers)
photos (from way back when there was no digital)
C.V. (if job hunting)

address book
pension policy
life assurance
certified copies of passports etc. originally done for ITA
bank required paper work (to open ASB on arrival)
car insurance no claims letter
house insurance no claims letter
credit references from bank etc

list of prescriptions from old Dr for new Dr (for easy and straight forward)
medical notes
opticians prescription
Kids' red books

plus a book that I've been doodling in with lots of stuff life e-mail addresses, schools and stuff.

Hard drive with back-ups for all computers.



Spot on....:clap

Forgot to tell you Mels - we bought a biiiiig Man Bag!!!!

:laugh

Julie

xx

[cappuccino]

all the above plus don't forget to keep your jewellery and any medication in your hand luggage.

[Genie]

This is so handy, thanks for this guys. I can see I'm definitely going to have to go and get a bigger bag!

[dilanium]

I've got one of those folders with partitions in it that I will take on the plane.

I've got our birth/marriage certs, Social security cards, box inventories, diplomas, certificates, all of the paperwork form Massey, medical paperwork, important financial paperwork, paperwork on our credit, and I'm sure I'll be adding more as time goes on.

We'll also have our laptops with us, and our driver licenses and passports and all the fun stuff we need for the plane.

[Mels]

No probs glad to be of help - it was also a way of distracting me from constantly looking at the NZIS website and feeling helpless.

Doing something constructive helped - for a while.

The dates on our 'medical status' thingy have changed so I'm really on tenterhooks now:roll

Mels

PS- now trying to work out how to carry all this when carry on luggage is limited to 7kg/ bag :uhoh

[benandclare]

PS- now trying to work out how to carry all this when carry on luggage is limited to 7kg/ bag :uhoh


Clare did a fantastic sleight oh hand at the "chicken desk" and placed it on the shelf where the girl couldn't see it, phew it was 6 kgs and we were on on our limit :exit

[mgbridges]

Don't forget to put both bits of your driving licence in assuming you are coming from the UK and have one of the new style ones.

In terms of weight I wouldn't panic too much as I've never had my hand luggage weighed. However, be aware of the dimensions of your bag as I think they look out for that more. My backpack was full to bursting and weighed a TON but I just had it on my back and showed it to them when they asked and it was fine but boy was it great to get it off my back (well out of sight of the check in desk)!

Anneliese

[Mels]

I'm at the point of putting this heap of paper together :clap and have added my most recent utility bills to the list. This way I have all the details to hand if needed rather than being stuck in the Pacific somewhere.

Mels

[Red Devil]

Great post Mels, just added it to our HUGE 'spreadsheet' and we're only at 'Selected' stage of our EOI... dread to think how long it'll be come October... Ooh! phnar, phnar!!! ;) :laugh

[JandM]

In terms of weight I wouldn't panic too much as I've never had my hand luggage weighed.I've been in and out of NZ twice, LHR to AKL, once via LAX and once via HK. My hand luggage was weighed twice at LHR, twice at AKL, and once at HK (on the way home). On the first trip, it was a bog-standard strap over the shoulder flight bag, and on the second, it was an equally bog-standard thingy on wheels with a pull-up handle.

[Croft]

I've been in and out of NZ twice, LHR to AKL, once via LAX and once via HK. My hand luggage was weighed twice at LHR, twice at AKL, and once at HK (on the way home). On the first trip, it was a bog-standard strap over the shoulder flight bag, and on the second, it was an equally bog-standard thingy on wheels with a pull-up handle.

I've had hand luggage weighed several times, mainly on budget carriers but also on Emirates. Air NZ asked if it was under 7kg while on an internal flight, but didn't weigh it.

Had a thought while I was away - if you can't carry all your paperwork in your cabin luggage, and you have access to a high speed scanner, try scanning all your important documents and putting them on a memory stick. You can carry copies of hundreds of documents in your pocket then.

[Mels]

I've had hand luggage weighed several times, mainly on budget carriers but also on Emirates. Air NZ asked if it was under 7kg while on an internal flight, but didn't weigh it.

Had a thought while I was away - if you can't carry all your paperwork in your cabin luggage, and you have access to a high speed scanner, try scanning all your important documents and putting them on a memory stick. You can carry copies of hundreds of documents in your pocket then.

Now that's a good idea, not sure if our little old scanner is up to it but I'll try. Giving rep for that one :clap

[JandM]

Yes, great idea!

I've had hand luggage weighed several times, mainly on budget carriers but also on Emirates. Air NZ asked if it was under 7kg while on an internal flight, but didn't weigh it.My travels were all on Air NZ. Well, you can see from the avatar I look as if I'm bound to be trying to cheat the system.:(

[Rabbit]

I thought I would add my thread to this having come the other way (UK-NZ-UK-?).
http://www.emigratenz.org/forum/showthread.php?t=19233
Interestingly, now, I am back the UK, I have been asked to provide a police certificate from NZ for a UK government job, so it works both ways in terms of the process. The form in NZ asks for the last two addresses which in our case where rentals, each rental had its own address and collection of paperwork.

Needless to say, whilst I never forgot the first winter in NZ (the worst in 30 years) and living in our first rental (a very leaky and damp home 80% humidity), the mould spores sent our beloved dog on his way through allergy. I could not remember the address, hence my need for a system. When did I live there, for how long, who where the providers in terms of services etc.

Luckily, we eventually moved to a second rental, recently built, that had central heating. Though we still needed to keep track of all the info.
I have yet to insure a car in the UK, but I expect I will need to demonstrate no-claims etc from NZ.

In terms of managing all the info, it is probably, best to eat the elephant a little piece at time, e.g. 10-15 mins per week just capturing information as it emerges, this can pay back in spades over time and reduce the stress.
Just like my garden in the UK, 1 hour a week and in a few months time it will be under control (please note, after living in NZ I now have a professional Gardner back in the UK).

Information management is certainly a modern disease and a bit like weeds, it needs to be kept under control – good luck with it.

Rabbit

[Rabbit]

As an addendum, when we moved out of the first rental, I rang Telstra clear and said we were moving. I left all the equipment in the house thinking it was of value to the new tenant. With the challenge of moving and transferring suppliers e.g. Elec, gas, TV etc to a non-Telstra clear area.
Because I did not remember the agreement, and having left the equipment, I was charged $5000 by Telstra clear, another example of the cost of myself being disorganised (and a bit naive) – not to mention the costs of moving internally in NZ.
Also, after we moved (we were bumped out our first rental – thank god) we noticed that direct debits from the first property continued to hit our account – another mistake, due to not being organised.
That reminds me, now that we are back in the UK; I need to close-down some direct debits on my remaining NZ account.

In summary, what I am trying to say, is that people should be as organised as possible, and that immigration places extra demands. Hopefully others who have made the journey can add to that.

[Rabbit]

And finally, do not forget to write down your UK credit/debit card PIN numbers if/when you return, as I am sure after a year or two you will like me forget them (oh and the alarm code for the UK house!) :roll