Almost ready to move from Cape Town to Auckland

[KoosPetoors]

Our family received PR without a job offer earlier this year.  I'm leaving for Auckland on July 29 and my wife and children will follow later.   The plan is that I will find a job and and rential home before they come over.   At least I already had a good telephonic interview and it sounds like there is a very good I might get a job with this company on the North Shore soon after arriving.  I will be staying with people in Browns Bay initially.  At the moment its very much mixed feeling of excitement, sadness and nerves that dominates my sentiments.   And there is still so much to sort out before I leave.   At the moment my current worry is to transfer some money to New Zealand bank account so I can buy a car as soon as I arrive there.

[dievissers]

Congrats!  and  with your plans.  There is a lot of ups and downs but the fact that you already have someone here makes the transition easier.  Don't stress too much - enjoy and have fun.  Your new life starts when you board the plane!   

[frodo/maya]

Congrats on the PR,  to the forum and  with everything, I know excatley how you feel, you are terrified, happy, sad, excited etc etc all at the same time!

[groenlemoen]

Our family received PR without a job offer earlier this year.  I'm leaving for Auckland on July 29 and my wife and children will follow later.   The plan is that I will find a job and and rential home before they come over.   At least I already had a good telephonic interview and it sounds like there is a very good I might get a job with this company on the North Shore soon after arriving.  I will be staying with people in Browns Bay initially.  At the moment its very much mixed feeling of excitement, sadness and nerves that dominates my sentiments.   And there is still so much to sort out before I leave.   At the moment my current worry is to transfer some money to New Zealand bank account so I can buy a car as soon as I arrive there.

Congrats.... North Shore is great.

Don't do the transfer thing. Rather bring travellers cheques over, its easier. Then you can cash them here for free at many places. Your other alternative is to open a bank from SA, you can do it online. Westpac has a facility I seem to recall. You get your account number etc which you still in SA, then when you get here you go and fetch your card etc.. And deposit your travelers cheques. But walking into a bank here is so easy to open an account. I would stick with the travelers cheques.

[Chan in Wellington]

Good luck with the move - this is the same we are planning to go!

[Nolan]

to the family KoosP and congrats on the PR.

You can take out a whole heap of money as part of your travel allowance. We just stashed our cash (converted to NZD) in our pockets and boarded the plane  and I nearly forgot it all at the check-in counter at Jan Smuts 

[KoosPetoors]

Thank you everybody for the welcoming.  It sure is quite a reassurance to know there are other people going through the same thing all the time.

I'm still a bit puzzled about taking the money over.   The previous time I asked my bank about transferring money they told me that I need a tax clearance certificate before they can help me.   Now that in itself should not be a problem since I always paid my tax and have already done my efiling for this  tax year as well and the tax man actually owes ME a few rands.   However when I submitted the forms at SARS they requested all kinds of things like proof of where the money came from and a three month bank statement and a declaration of assets and liabilities.  Which makes me think it might not all be a formality.   And to top it all they told me it can anything between 1 to 4 weeks to get it (if they even approve it).  I only have two weeks before I fly.     I think the big question is, do I really need to give the bank the tax clearance certificate in order to get a travellers check for about $50K?

[dievissers]

I can honestly not answer that legally - but we brought more than that without a tax clearance!

[mandyh]

http://www.sagoingtonz.co.nz/business.php?cat=currency&show=directfx

Why don't you try asking our latest sponsor on the site - Directfx.  Not sure if the link above is correct but you can find it on the site by going to Find at the top of the page and then Currency Transfers.

[KoosPetoors]

Thanks again for the new advise.  I think I'll go and visit Standard bank again tomorrow and this time try to speak with someone that knows a bit more.  As far as I can tell as well you are allowed to take R750K per person for travelling expenses. The travellers checks sounds like a good idea.         

[thombatt]

Sounds like they got mixed up with someone officially emmigrating

[Rockhopper]

Welcome to the site and we hope you tell us more about yourselves.

Good luck with the travels and move over.  I am sure you will enjoy every moment of your journey - even if it seems very scary at the moment.  Just remember it is normal to feel scared and unsure!  We have all been there.

We opened an account with Westpac and transferred most of our money from FNB in one go.  We only paid a little amount for transferring the money over.  Once here, it took us about half and hour in the bank and we walked out with cards and everything organised (and they are open on Sundays too!).  We traveled with the bare minimum of money as we felt that was safer.  But that is just us!  Everyone has his own taste and opinion.

Whichever way you decide to go - good luck and keep us updated with your travels and experience!

[Savayla]

Just a thought.  When we left, we told our bank we were going overseas for 2 years, but would be returning.  We did travellers cheques through them. 

We have just been through a lengthy process of trying to get our bank account in SA reactivated.  Apparently, according to the 5th person whom I had spoken to , my account was deactivated as I had not touched it in 3 months.   I have had to send a letter to them, asking them to reactivate it.  What is so annoying, is that the lady told me that my bank was meant to get me to sign a letter stating that we would be overseas, and we wanted our account to remain open.  Even more annoying, is that during my phonecalls from one person to the next, it took this lady to let me know that my account had been deactivated.  No one else told me that and I was tearing my hair out.

So make sure to tell them that.  It is none of their business if you are planning to immigrate or not.  Just say you are going overseas.

[KoosPetoors]

I can confirm that today I had much more success when I attempted to transfer money.  Walked into the bank, told them I want to transfer money and half an our later I was in the sunshine again... money on its way to NZ.  No one even asked about the tax clearance certificate this time.  (Same bank, different person behind the counter this time).

So now its all systems go...   If only I can finally get through this uncluttering process.  It is so difficult to decide what to get rid of what to keep.  Shame, my poor wife will be left with most of these decisions once I've left.  And as things stand now also to sell our cars, home etc and arrange the contained.   Until now it was me that had to fill in all the forms and stuff, but I think this last remaining bits will be a quite a daunting task for her to handle on her own.  She and our two kids join me later this year.

[dievissers]

We are happy for you guys.  One less thing to worry about and one more tick on the list of "to do's...."