For anyone considering relocating/returning to South Africa, here is our story. :o)
If you have been gone from South Africa for more than 10 years, your entire credit history will be wiped out. As though you had never existed. My husband had been gone 10 years and 4 months. Yay, US! This made everything so much more painful! If you are at all able to, fly to South Africa ahead of your move, and open a bank account. Open a GAME card. (SA's Walmart.) If you can do this 6 months prior to your move, all the better. By the time you arrive (perhaps with family in tow) you will have some credit history. If this isn't possible, just make it the first thing you do upon arrival.
If you are an American Citizen (or other?) the SA embassy in DC can NOT help you with your Permanent Residency paperwork. They informed me that they could, that I should send all THAT paperwork along with my Temporary Residency paperwork. After spending over $100 on over-night shipping, pictures, copies of notarized, important documents, return postage envelopes... they returned my certified check and a letter stating I needed to file IN South Africa. Since none of my paperwork was returned, I assumed they were keeping it on file.
1. The computers are in NO WAY linked. All that paperwork was lost.
2. Go to the Government offices as soon as you can once you arrive. We waited 7 months, only to find out that my Police Clearance was only good for 6 months. Now, they expect me to fly home to get an updated paper, saying that WHILE LIVING IN SA, I have committed no crime in the USA. Even better, the same person who I was trying to explain the absurdity of this to, is the same agent who will be approving my application. Save yourself this headache. (Only applicable if you are NOT a SA Citizen.)
We had an excellent shipping company. For reference, it cost us about $10,000 to have a 10x20 container shipped to SA, (From Georgia) Taxes, and transport to our Storage Unit. We had lots of help from friends, so we didn't hire a moving company to pack or load. But Please Note: Ask for the interior dimensions of the Container. It matters. I marked off segments in my house, 2 feet deep, by 8' wide, and since our ceilings were 8' tall, I lined up our storage containers and stacked them in zones. It helped us to know ahead of time if our belongings were going to fit. We weren't going to order a larger container, so I needed to make sure the stuff I wanted most was definitely packed, and I kept things that could be given away or donated for last.
You won't be seeing your stuff for a couple months. I chose to buy all plastic containers at Target. This was where I could most easily find the HEFTY containers that have snap and seal lids. I tried to color code the bins for which part of the house they belonged to... Clear for Household, Blue for kitchen, Purple for my daughter, Green for my son, Navy for my husband... I needed a LOT of containers. But still, for about $400 in containers (you could probably save a bundle by buying in bulk from walmart.com) my belongings were waterproof, organized, and much easier to handle. The bulk of our stuff went into storage for an additional 6 months, and this further protected them against any rodents/bugs/moisture. :o)
Label like crazy! You will also need this for customs, and it saved me so much headache having already done it! Each bin was labeled. I'm Jenny, so mine were J1, J2, J3... and so on. I had a sheet in my file that then said J1-winter clothes, brown boots, winter coat... In the long run, this was MUCH better than just writing "clothes." When you need to find something, you don't want to have to dig through a ton of bins you packed months and months ago!!
If you are coming from the US, do yourself a favor and buy some clothes and shoes for your kids for the next size up. I'm not saying to buy new. I'm saying, if you are already a Consignment Store/Goodwill shopper, hit THOSE racks! Anything under $2 a pop is worth it to just set aside and pack away. There is no shortage of cute clothes to buy over here, but you will pay full price for everything, and even sales rarely dip below 20%. Also, I shopped Naartjie online in the US for their off-season sales. I had bought some really cool pants for my son for $10 online, and t-shirts for $5 and since that is a name brand over here, he looked all spiffy and I had saved a LOT of money. Also, if you are American, like me, you may have ideas about how many clothes your kids need... and mine did need that many... in the US. :o) I would never have brought my kids to Church in their play clothes! But here... they do. (Which sort of makes sense since they play on the playground.. :o).) I still dress the kids for Church, but I realized I didn't need 10 dresses hanging in her closet. 2 were plenty for the season, rotated in with other outfits more casual and therefore also fitting for wear during the week. I had about 10 pairs of shoes for my girly to coordinate with her outfits. Here, most kids are barefoot in the summer. I only need 1 pair of white sandels, a pair of crocks and a pair of tennis shoes to see her through the summer. What's the point of all this? I'm just sayin'... when planning ahead, pack extra of the basics you know you'll need. Jeans, Tennis Shoes, shorts, t-shirts, leggings... If you are already shopping the boutiques and you know for a fact your income here will be the same as your income there.. you can skip this step.
Speaking of income. Without getting too personal, I would like to say a couple things. We had dear friends that were willing to let us into their personal finances quite a LOT, that gave us a better real-world perspective. TV, electricity, Health Care Costs, fuel, rent/mortgage.... and so on. To give you an idea, here are some costs:
Rent/Mortgage: For every R100,000 you mortgage, you pay R1000 per month. (close enough.) Rent is close to that. So if you plan to rent a R1M home, rent will range from R9K per month, to R10K per month. (Although larger homes, say R3M, can still be rented for about R18K-R20K per month.)
Elecricity: For a 1400 square foot home, about R1000 per month.
Health Insurance: For a Hospital plan (including GAP) for a family of 4, R2700 per month. For a full coverage plan, R4500 per month.
Fuel: For my husband's car, R2000 per month, For my car (stay-at-home-mom) R1200 per month.
TV: R300pm
Internet: R400pm
Security: R300pm
Food: R1000 per week (including toiletries and household)
Housekeeper: R150-R200 per day
Cell Phone: Unlimited usage (if you have your own phone) R500. BUY or BRING a phone before you come! We owned our I-phones (no longer under contract) so AT&T unlocked them for us, (get the codes before you move) and we've been using them here. My hubby's was lost/stolen, so we've been in the market, and it's much more expensive to buy here.
Anyway, If you are considering a big move, I hope these numbers help you to come up with a realistic budget for your family, so you can job hunt with a realistic number in mind. One last note on this... We have made some BIG CHANGES to our budget since moving here, especially in discretionary spending. However, living in the Western Cape, we have had so much free entertainment at our disposal! Driving 5 minutes to the beach, playing in the sand and water, and then grabbing an ice cream costs about R50. If I get the cheap ice pops, it costs R10. :o) And in that sense, it's paradise! Driving into the mountains and seeing the sights is a day full of adventure! Fuel is expensive, but within 15 minutes we are in the mountains, so if we explore from that point, it's cheap. I just say this to acknowledge that for many of us, moving back to SA is a sacrifice in income. But the life we are living here is RICH in experience, especially for our kids. :o) You have to have some facts to get started with, but after a year of adjustment, we are feeling quite good about the trade off.
Keep all your documents in one place for easy access. Get extra notarized, official copies of all your important documents, just in case. I've already gone through a number of mine. Save getting your pictures taken (for passports, driver's licences, etc.) until you get here. The savings is 80%. :o) Lastly, any labor you need, wait until you get here. If you want a chair recovered, draperies sewn... much cheaper here! But if you have a favorite fabric back home, just get it before you come. There are gorgeous fabrics here, but it takes a bit longer to find who sells them (especially when not familiar with an area) and the prices are about the same.
If you are a South African coming back... Welcome Home. If you are an American Relocating, call me. :o)
And I wish you all the best!!
