Relocation

disgruntledgoat

Hi all, long time no post, but as I know you're a cosmopolitan bunch I thought I'd ask your advice.

I've been offered a job in Belgium and I'm told the HR stuff will come to me on monday, including the offer of a relocation package

So... As a man who's biggest move ever has been Cumbria to Scotland, I'm wondering what the heck I should be looking for for a mid level job with a global company. My thoughts were something like assistance with finding somewhere to live, bank accounts etc, pay my rent for 3 months or so until my wife can move over when her degree finishes in March, moving costs, a couple of flights, a trip to look at houses and possibly an allowance for buying new furniture etc.


Does that sound likely/reasonable?

Any help or advice will be much appreciated, I also understand people may want to PM rather than discuss on here.

Thanks in advance!

daviesee

Having worked abroad, the 2 most most important pieces of advice I can give is;
Learn the language.
Socialise with the locals outside of work.

disgruntledgoat

daviesee wrote:

Having worked abroad, the 2 most most important pieces of advice I can give is;
Learn the language.
Socialise with the locals outside of work.

Thanks fella, I've been taking Dutch lessons for 6 months now... Ik sprek een klein bitje Nederlands! Badly

redjeepǃ

I've moved a few times with my job and basically you should be looking to get everything covered so that you're not out of pocket. When I moved to the US I was given an allowance (think it was about $8,000) to buy new electrical goods. They should also be paying for you to stay somewhere whilst you're looking and probably a few days over there beforehand with the missus to have a look around.

You'll need to think about cars. When I went over I had a car allowance as part of my job anyway, but we had to sell my wife's car and buy another ( not covered).

I didn't ever get anything for furniture, but I think there was another lump sum to cover incidentals, but can't remember how much it was.

The full cost of selling and buying a house should be covered if necessary.

I'd say if they do this regularly then there'll be set guidelines that probably won't be bent too much.

Another handy thing is to have a designated person who will deal with any problems. When I went to the US it was harder to buy a mobile phone than it was a house and it was good to have somebody to help. They also set up the bank transfers etc.

You might want to check that things like your car insurance NCD will be valid ( in the US I was told it wasn't valid as "in the UK they drive much better and don't crash as often as in the USA" so they couldn't possibly transfer my NCD. A quick call by my helper who pointed out the (literally) millions of dollars of business we gave them, sorted it.

MountainMonster

How long are your moving over there for? When my parents and I moved over to the UK from the States back in 2008 they loaded all our furniture into a container and sent it over with us. I believe it was a 2 month process to get everything over here and into the house but this was covered by the organization my Dad was going to be working at.

pease

You love Belgium beer, you've been offered a job in belgi and you've not even mentioned setting up a westerlaven reselling business on the side to fund your habit ?!?

disgruntledgoat

Cheers guys, that's a help. I just want to know that, as Redjeep states I won't be out of pocket. I think if we're going to struggle to get by for the 3 months of us living in 2 seperate places it's probably not a goer.

There's the slight complication of 2 dogs as well, but thanks to pet passport that's not the hurdle it once was.

Pease: I'll have to look into that, on the QT!

ddraver

Erm, well as a guide...

1st Job (home to N Wales - 10% Salary which was GBP2100 - but expensed

2nd Job, N Wales to NL - 20% Salary = EUR4800 lump sum

New job, NL to London - GBP8000 which is the max HMRC will allow - again expensed

I ve been recommended Pickfords to move with, They come and pack everything up, move it, store it and move it back to the new flat...but I ve not got a final quote from them yet! Shell use Team Relocation to move their people around...

Good work on the Dutch, better than I ever managed!

disgruntledgoat

ddraver wrote:

Erm, well as a guide...

1st Job (home to N Wales - 10% Salary which was GBP2100 - but expensed

2nd Job, N Wales to NL - 20% Salary = EUR4800 lump sum

New job, NL to London - GBP8000 which is the max HMRC will allow - again expensed

I ve been recommended Pickfords to move with, They come and pack everything up, move it, store it and move it back to the new flat...but I ve not got a final quote from them yet! Shell use Team Relocation to move their people around...

Good work on the Dutch, better than I ever managed!

THis is the thing that worries me... we put all our meagre savings into my wife's MA earlier in the year, so I have very little capital to work with. If I have to expense it, rather than have it managed by a company-appointed reloactor or as a lumpsum, I'd be scunnered. I'm not borrowing money to change jobs either!

However, they are one of the worlds biggest companies and the position is reasonably senior, so I'm hoping that errs on the side of generosity. That said, they still haven't paid me my interview expenses 8 weeks on!

ddraver

I'd try and find out who the HR person is at the place your moving to and try and get hold of them. Work out what it will cost and then ask for something up front to cover it.

disgruntledgoat

ddraver wrote:

I'd try and find out who the HR person is at the place your moving to and try and get hold of them. Work out what it will cost and then ask for something up front to cover it.

From my laymans point of view, I can't see an issue. They're prepared to pay up to a certain amount, it's there to meet my needs. I may as well ask.

me-109

I'm not sure I'd trust the HR people at your place if they've had you learning Dutch for six months but are sending you to Belgium. :?

ddraver

erm...taxi for Me-109...

Anyway, the other trouble I had is that I had no bank account to put the lump sum into so had to swap it into a UK one which means I lost a shed load of it in bank fees. I don't know what the belgians are like with bank accounts but if they re anything like the Dutch prepare for a heck of a lot of paperwork and frankly and intolerable amount of rudeness.

disgruntledgoat

ddraver wrote:

erm...taxi for Me-109...

er... yeah. Moving on.

Anyway, the other trouble I had is that I had no bank account to put the lump sum into so had to swap it into a UK one which means I lost a shed load of it in bank fees. I don't know what the belgians are like with bank accounts but if they re anything like the Dutch prepare for a heck of a lot of paperwork and frankly and intolerable amount of rudeness.

I'm hopeful they'll put it all through a relocation firm who'll do all that jazz for me. The old catch 22 is you can't get a bank account without a house and you can't get a house without a bank account!

ddraver

Thats the one...

disgruntledgoat

Just got a heads up from the recruiter and Jebus, it looks poor!

1 months free accommodation in a flat near to the workplace, I'd have to pay 50% of the costs for up to 2 months after that then that's me. 1 lot of shipping of stuff and storage up to the 3 months of temporary accommodation and a small lump sum that they "sometimes" offer.

Ouch.

ddraver

That sounds pretty crap! Can you get hold of the HR person yourself maybe?

disgruntledgoat

ddraver wrote:

That sounds pretty crap! Can you get hold of the HR person yourself maybe?

I've got a couple of e-mail addresses for the recruitment side in HR so will try to pick it up with them if that is, indeed, the offer I'm not signing for that. Especially since it seems they won't even pay to get me to Belgium in the first place! :shock:

essjaydee

Can't help with relocating overseas, but I relocated from the east midlands to north west in 2011, and total costs was just shy of £25k :shock:
This included house sale/purchase and all fees etc. My company was superb on this, but it was on the back of an HR1 site closure, so don't know if this makes any difference. They have a set policy on relocation and what you are entitled to, so maybe your (prospective) new company may have a similar thing on new starters and relocation expenses.

1 months free accommodation in a flat near to the workplace, I'd have to pay 50% of the costs for up to 2 months after that then that's me. 1 lot of shipping of stuff and storage up to the 3 months of temporary accommodation and a small lump sum that they "sometimes" offer

That sounds very poor as a 'package', but guess you have to weigh it up against the other benefits of taking the job, and only you can decide on that one!

Good luck