When you hire an international moving company, you are either moving your household or your business overseas. While it may seem like there are not that many differences in the process, there are more differences than you might think. The following shows just how different moving a residence versus moving a business to another country really is.
Moving Your Residence to Another Country
There is a pretty good chance that a move to another country is not permanent. You may return in six months, or you may return in six years. Anywhere in between is fair game unless you apply for dual citizenship with the country where you relocated.
Still, it means that at some point, you may be returning to the U.S. for a visit or to return permanently. Given all these considerations, most people opt to move just a few important things to the other country and store everything else in a storage unit here. If you think that you are leaving the U.S. and never coming back here to live, you can pack everything into a cargo container and ship it to the country to which you are headed. Otherwise, the moving company can store all of your stuff for you until you come home to the states again.
Moving Your Business to Another Country
A business moving to another country is almost always a permanent move. The move might come on the heels of a merger, or it might be an executive decision to relocate the company to another country where operating costs are lower. Whatever the reason, packing up an entire office building to ship overseas is a major task. Some furniture items may be left behind if new furniture items may be provided in the new office building overseas, but most everything else may be packaged and shipped. This includes computers, computer equipment, remaining office supplies in the storage closets, etc.
The moving company's employees are willing to pack just about anything and everything your company wants to send and ship. It all goes into several large cargo shipping containers and placed on ocean freighters to get to its destination. Rarely is anything stored, and anything the company wishes to leave behind may either be auctioned off or left intact as part of the sale of the office building itself. The company is not returning, and therefore storage is not necessary for the company's moving plans.
When I first moved off to college, I was lucky to have parents who helped me plan the move. They recruited help from a local moving company and helped me pack my belongings well so they arrived at my dorm in good condition. Our family made a lot of moves while I was a young child, so they learned many creative tips for making the moving process easier. Later in life when I approached a move all on my own, I was grateful for their tips that made the process easier than I heard it can be for other people. I decided to help others by sharing my moving tips on a blog to "pay it back" for the great tips my parents taught me!