shipping personal effects

Kia ora kiwiswithwings

Your original post is about a year old now. Have you made the move?

If yes, it would really bee great if you can tell us about your experience. I am moving to Doha mid June and my family will follow when school year finish. Did you have any problems with schools in atar. I have a sone in yr 12 and we are thinking to let him do correspondance school for L3 NCE.

Any ideas or suggestions will be appreciated.

Cheers

I am moving into Qatar by 1st week of June. Is it possible to have my personal effects moved into Qatar and have them cleared by customs (of course by agents) with my entry visa and a sponsorship letter from my company who will apply for my work permit/resident permits, before I get my resident visa?. I am looking for this info as I have to wind up my establishment in Singapore once my personal effets are shipped from here.

Can any body advise me on this from your own experience on the same, if any?

Computers, other than voltage, are pretty much compatible globally. I love the newer power supplies that work either 110 or 220 volt. Cost seems to be fairly reasonable, but they don't have much in the way of computer parts and components if you like to tinker with building or modifying your PC.

Video stuff: They do both PAL and NTSC here, just depends on what you buy. Just make sure you confirm which format it's in before buying a TV, DVD player, camcorder... Make sure you check your DVDs or DVD players to ensure they're in the same region. Otherwise they may not play.

Voltage: If coming from North America, the 110/220 voltage thing is a real problem. You have to have voltage converters for every 110v appliance. Those can be expensive. Might be worth just buying new appliances (I did).

LOL.

I so love my Ilea.

Looks like I'll have to head straight there.

So should I buy a laptop in Australia and bring it?

What about a PC and printer?

Are they cheaper here?

(My printer here has just died!!! Typical...)

I will be bringing a really good Brother Embroidery sewing machine with me. Are there any dealers that could service it if I need it serviced?

What about craft supplies?

Dress patterns?

Embroidery threads?

Hi azzpaz...I sent you a pm to your inbox.

cheers!

hi! just wondering if your hubby has been employed by HAMAD, as my hubby has been and myself and our 2 girls will join him a month or so after he arrives in doha approx mid august. i ask this bcoz i've heard that there are 2 NZ couples that are coming with us all from melbourne and the XS luggage allowance sounds like what we've been offered too!!! happy packing! regards azzpaz

Wow!!! Thanks everyone for such great info.

I must admit I've been feeling a little overwhelmed with organising everything but your posts have clarified so much! My hubby's contract allows for 250kg of excess baggage but I'm not sure how heavy all our stuff will be.

Might be better to just ship it cause we're going to be there for 3 years!

Thanks again

also, as other posts have recommended, bring kitchen items, crockery etc too. We did not bring our everyday dinner set and spent ages trying to find something that was dishwasher and microwave safe. We gave up as everything was too patterned and was one or the other or neither! It is the simple, basic things that are hard to come by here.

we are constantly having to order and ship things over from NZ, the UK, the US as they are not available here. We end up paying way too much in shipping charges but you just cannot get the products here of the appropriate quality and any time you are looking for something specific you can never find it as the choice is extremely limited. Just recently it was toddler car seats and only today we have ordered a wooden playpen online from NZ to ship here as we cannot find a lightweight one in Qatar. We are constantly getting our family to buy and send us baby products from NZ which we cannot get here. So definitely bring whatever you can including medicines, homeopathic remedies if you use them (as they are not available at all here), skin care treatments etc. You can always sell old toys/things once the kids grow out of them or before you leave again - particularly if they are good quality items!

Yes - bring as much stuff as you can for the kids. Bring shoes for yourself - sandals - shoe shopping no that great here. Go to Briscoes for super king sheets and king size single sheets. One of the most important things to get, unless you actually enjoy sleeping on a concrete slab, is a mattress topper - like a foam/latex pad to go directly on top of your matresses. I suffered for a few months before managing to find one here but it took a bit of hassle and homework first. Bring one if you can so that you have it straight away. We didn't bring a vacuum cleaner and find we don't need one, the tiled floors get swept and mopped.Lots of my daughter's dvds don;t work here - wrong zone. Our tv worked here - bring yours if want to.

I totally agree with EmmaS and Intlxpatr. I'm sooo glad we brought a huge stock of kids' books and toys - it was definitely worth it.

If you have a generous shipping allowance, ship everything that matters to you and especially to your children. If you have special hobbies, ship any tools or items specific to that hobby - for example, quilters cannot buy batting in Qatar, or only rarely.

Many children's toys are available very cheaply in Qatar, made in China, many break quickly or don't work properly. If you will live on a compound, a bike is a fun thing to have, but biking on the streets in Qatar is a hair-raising and life-threatening experience.

Bring books. Bring anything that will make your life more homey and that will bring you comfort. Bring things you love but can leave behind or sell when leaving Qatar, knowing you can replace them back home.

As Emma said, you can buy just about anything, but you may not like your choices. There is a lot of cheap - and ugly - stuff available, but quality is rare and may be priced two or three times higher than at home. On the other hand, there are European appliances which sell cheaper than in Europe, due to the VAT they charge their which is not charged (yet) in Qatar.

I wish we'd brought more stuff with us when we came from NZ last year, don't have any advice re kids stuff but here's what I wish I'd known.

*Bring cushion covers, knick-knacks, throws, and art, the furniture selection here is dismal but even worse is trying to find the little things. Depending on your taste you may be ok but if for example you like really simple contemporary things you're out of luck. We struggled to find things like a plain shower curtain, or a plain white dinner set. definitely bring cutlery!

*Don't bring Duvet covers, the duvets here are sized differently and won't fit them. You probably won't need to bring sheets either (you'll end up with a king or super king bed)

*Bring books (incl kids books) there are no good bookshops here

*Bring a box of bits and pieces, things like craft knife, quick-unpick, tape, tapemeasure, vivids...etc you can buy all these things here but not necc at the same shop, I bought a box of random office stuff and I'm so glad i did!

*If you bring a printer bring extra printer ink.

*If you bring a vacc cleaner bring like a years supply of vacc cleaner bags (they don't sell them at the supermarket and its a mission to find them)

*Bring togs (unless you want to buy a pair with diamantes, likewise sunglasses)

Do bring some WARM clothes, its actually quite cold in the malls.

Get your hair cut a few days before you leave (this applys to whole family), a good hairdresser is hard to find.

You can buy pretty much all food, toiletries makeup etc here, although supplies can be sporadic. vegemite isn't that hard to find but is a little expensive if you eat lots.

I'm late for an appointment otherwis ethis list would be much longer, also try posting on the expat women forum as you may get more responses

(google expat women doha)

and you'll probably want to koin the doha mums forum when you get here

google doha mums or DEMK.

Take care, good to see another Kiwi that can fly!

basically the kids (12 and 8) brought a few special toys etc with them and we purchased other items ie bikes etc once we arrived. We purchased a Wii here for less than it would've cost in NZ but you have to be careful that if you bring your own PS and buy disks here that they are compatible. Likewise if you buy a new PS here that it is compatible with what is sold back in NZ, Virgin sells PAL. We didn't ship anything as we didn't know how long we would be here for and only came with suitcases and paid the excess baggage charges. Looks like we may be heading out sometime this year anyway and I'm so pleased that we didn't go the full hog and ship everything over.

It largely depends where you will live. If you are on a compound, many kids ride their bikes & skateboards inside the compounds. The electronic items, I would definitely bring because they will be much more expensive here.

Good Luck with your move.

My suggestion is that if you can fit toys in with your other effects without huge expense then anything you can bring that will keep them entertained here is a good thing - and will save you time and effort trying to duplicate it all after you arrive. Actually your children probably won't want to spend much time on their bikes and skateboards during the hot summer months here, and depending on where you will be living, it might be difficult to find somewhere in your neighbourhood for them to ride around safely too.

By the way, while you're packing, I would be tucking a big jar of vegemite into a spare corner (if your kids like it) as it is very hard to find here and the few 150gm jars I have ever seen here cost a bomb! Hope this helps.

No worries,

All you need to do is assess how much it would cost to bring your stuff down. Then compare it with purchasing the same from Qatar.