Greece Unpacked

In this video we are going to unpack the timeline of moving our belongings from the United States to Greece. When we decided to move we chose to take most of our household belongings and our car with us. For that reason we hired an international moving company to help us with the move. We had to use a 40-foot container to fit all our belongings including our car. Our shipment would start its journey in Washington state and finish it in Athens.

  

To talk about the timeline of our move, let's use the day of the move as the date of reference. This is the day that the packing work finished and all our stuff got loaded into a moving truck and left our home.

   

Going back in time, 3 months before the moving day is when we started reaching out to moving companies to get quotes and figure out which one is more appropriate for us. During these months a few companies asked to visit our home to get a better idea of what needs to get shipped while other companies requested a list of items we wanted to ship or pictures of them. During the same period of time, we worked with the greek consulate to get our household effects certificate or repatriation certificate issued. We needed that in order to avoid paying import tax for our shipment. However, bear in mind that not everybody is eligible for such a certificate. For more details check the website of the Greek consulate in the country you live in or reach out to them.

   

Going back to the timeline, the day before our moving day is when packing of our household goods started. It did take two full days for a medium-sized house and at the end of the second day everything was loaded into a truck. However, we had to drive our car to a drop off location.

   

Moving forward,  our shipment arrived in Greece 4 months after our moving day. It got cleared through customs 8 business days later. Afterwards it was placed into storage except for our vehicle that got delivered to our temporary home 4 days later.

   

We were allowed to drive our car with foreign license plates for about a month but then we had to go through the process of getting Greek license plates. It took one more month until we got our plates and we were officially allowed to drive in Greece.

   

But what happened to our remaining belongings that were in storage? In the meantime we closed on our new place and our belongings got safely delivered to our new home. This was 4 months after they arrived in Greece.

   

And that was the end of our move - at least of the part related to transporting our stuff. In retrospect, the move was complicated and required gathering and filling out a lot of documents. However, the moving company guided us fully through the process and everything went smoothly. I hope you found this video helpful and you now have a better understanding of how long it might take to move your stuff. Good luck with your move!