111648315 What to do before you move to Stavanger

If you are reading this, you are either thinking about relocating to Stavanger via your company or have already made that momentous decision. Congratulations! You will find Stavanger to be an incredibly multicultural, beautiful, and friendly city. But before you can get here and enjoy all that this city and country has to offer, you will have lots to do. Making cross-continental, inter-country moves can be exciting, overwhelming and stressful at the same time, especially if you have never done it before. It requires a lot of planning, organization, and research, and there is much that can be easily overlooked or missed. Here are some tips that can help you make your move to Stavanger easier and stress-free.

1. More than a month before the move

    • If you haven’t done it yet, sign up for the Stavanger Expats forum and our Facebook page. You will soon realize that this will be your go to place to get any kind of information – from where to find a particular food product, to what to do over a weekend to reviews of doctors. The search function on the Facebook page and website is your friend, and chances are if you have a question, someone else has already asked it and received answers.

 

    • Get the Google Translate extension for your web browser so that you can translate Norwegian websites in to a language that you understand.

 

    • Start your visa/ immigration paperwork early. Every government, including the Norwegian government has strict rules about who can apply for what kind of visas, and what paperwork is needed for each. Read the rules carefully at the Norwegian Directorate of Immigration. We have put together a lot of information about the required travel documents here. It is more than likely that an employer can help you with this information as well.

 

    • Get your personal belongings organized! I can’t emphasize enough to start early. We made the mistake of waiting and then had to liquidate all our belongings, pack and ship everything in a matter of a few days. It was a very stressful time – we lost a lot of our possessions in the confusion, packed the wrong things and gave away things we should not have. We also made a hasty and bad decision about our shipping company, which of course led to a lot of our stuff being lost while being shipped (more on this later). All of this could have been avoided had we started early.

 

    • Sort through your stuff and decide on what things to bring with you, and what you can sell, give away or store (if your move is going to be a temporary one). If your move is temporary, and you would like to save on storage costs, ask your friends and family if they can take in your furniture/ stuff for a little while until you are in Stavanger. Start with taking a walk around your house. Look at things that you own and then decide whether you want to bring them with you to Stavanger. Use colored post its if necessary. Also see this article about what to bring and what not to bring. (Article coming soon!)

 

    • Start selling/ giving away things that you will not be bringing with you. Be very practical about it – there is nothing more annoying than bringing something with you all the way here, and then finding out or realizing that you do not need it/ or can’t use it. Nothing works better for downsizing like an international move.

 

    • Start shopping for moving companies. The biggest mistake most people make is waiting to decide on movers. Do not do that – you want to vet the company and make sure that you are getting the best service for the price you are paying. The one thing that I have learned is that most good moving companies will send an agent to your house to do a site check i.e. see how much volume your belongings will take. If your company is paying for a container, then this might be a moot point. But if you have stuff that will not fill up a container, you will want someone to look at it and give you an estimate. Also, word of advice from someone who made this mistake – DO NOT do your own packing. Let the packers do it for you – it may cost you a little more, but it will be worth it. The packers are professionals, and know how to best pack different items.

 

  • Visit your GP, dentist, eye doctor, and get prescriptions for a few months, if you can. While the health care system in Norway is more than generous, you have to register for it, which can take a while depending on the kind of visa you are on. So, if you are due for routine checkups, it is advisable to get them done before you get here. Of course, there are private clinics that you can go to before you are registered for a fee. Also, keep in mind that a lot of drugs and medicines that are over the counter in other countries are prescription only in Norway. For more information go here. Also get copies of any medical records that you might have. (Admin Note: Do your homework if you plan to stock up on any supplements or medicines – however everything you need you can get here. Many are not allowed to be brought into the country in ‘bulk’, even if just a few bottles. Check out Toll.no for more information.)

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2. A month to three weeks before you move:

    • Decide on a moving company. If you know the date of your departure, then try to schedule the pick up a few days before you leave for Stavanger. Again, do not wait till the last day – it will just add to the stress and confusion.

 

    •  Talk to the moving company about insurance. And GET insurance. Your shipment/ container will be one of tens of thousands, if not more, and no matter how good your company is, there is always a chance that some of your stuff will not make it intact, or not make it to your new home in Stavanger at all. You want to be compensated adequately for any such loss. More importantly, make a detailed list of every item in every box with an associated price/ amount it is worth. Yes, it is hard and time consuming and you rather not do it. But take it from someone who did not do it, and had to suffer the consequences; you will be glad you did it. Not only will it help you to keep track of all your possessions – it is amazing how easily one can forget what they own if they haven’t seen their stuff in a few months – but it will also help you make insurance claims, in the unfortunate event of your stuff getting lost.

 

    • Talk to your bank about keeping / moving bank accounts and credit cards. From what I have seen, credit cards are extremely rare for foreigners here – most banks don’t even give you a credit card until after a year. If you prefer using credit cards then I would suggest that you hold on to a credit card from your home country. Also, keep a bank account open with enough money to cover any balance on your credit card. Transferring money back and forth from your Norwegian bank account to any other foreign account can get prohibitively expensive, depending on how often you are doing it.

 

    • Cancel subscriptions or activate forwarding for any subscriptions. If you have a credit card in your home country, you will probably have a permanent address there. If not, there are several paid services that assign you an address in the country. They collect all your mail, and then forward it to you in Stavanger.

 

  • By now you should have given away or sold most things that you will not be bringing with you. Now is the time to start making a list of things that you may need to buy/ get for your move to Stavanger. You can find a handy list of what to bring and what not to bring here (coming soon!). Keep in mind that you will find almost everything that you need here.

3.  Two to three weeks before departure

    • Start packing your bags. Do not put papers and certificates in your shipment. Carry them with you.

 

    • Have a garage / car boot sale for all the items you haven’t yet had buyers for.

 

  • Set shut down dates for utilities and other services.

4.  A week before departure

    •  Ideally, you should have sold / given away everything you wanted to, and accounted for everything you are bringing with you by now. Now is the time to start meeting your friends and family and saying your goodbyes. There will be an urge to accomplish a lot – visit your favorite spots in the city, meet all your friends etc – each day. But pace yourself. You do not want to get exhausted before you move to a new country and city.

 

    • Start looking at finn.no for apartments/ houses. This is the main place that rentals are advertised in Norway. Do not expect to see (a) large rental apartment complexes, where you can walk in and get an apartment the very same day – they do not exist, (b) rental signs on front of properties. If your company is going to get a relocation agent for you or has already arranged accommodation, then you don’t have to do a lot except relax and wait till you get here. Otherwise, you will have to go through finn.no to find places. A week before you leave is a good time to start looking through the website and emailing/ calling the contact person setting up appointments to view the property a few days after you get to Stavanger. Do keep in mind that the demand for rental properties is pretty high in Stavanger, and apartments get rented out very fast – sometimes over night. So you have to move fast if you like a place. But don’t despair if you do not get the place you have set your heart on. It also helps to find out if your company can provide a guarantee on your behalf to landlords. Having a guarantee can help you bolster your rental application – landlords tend to look for renters who will pay their rent on time, and will not leave town without proper notice and shortchange them. Sometimes, landlords will also accept a guarantee in lieu of the deposit. Ask the landlord / agent if they will be willing to accept a company guarantee. See here for a great article on renting in Stavanger.

 

    • I would also suggest that you come to Stavanger and then start looking at apartments. Unless you or a significant other is physically here in Stavanger and can look at apartments first hand, do not decide to rent an apartment. Also, we found that we got to discover and explore a lot of the city when we were looking for apartments. So that is an added bonus.

 

  • A lot of companies will accommodate you in a hotel for the first few weeks / months in Stavanger, before you find your own place. Keep in mind, that hotel rooms here are very small and compact. Additionally you must be prepared to eat out for as long as you are in the hotel. An alternative to hotel accommodations are short term rental apartments. We found that they were much more comfortable, and not much more expensive than staying at a hotel. Most such apartments have kitchens stocked with basic dishes and utensils that you can use to cook meals.

5.   The day you are shipping your stuff

    • Try not to schedule anything else for the day. Most movers tend to be on schedule, but sometimes they are not, and it can get frustrating waiting around for the movers to come, especially if you have other things to do that day.

 

  • Let the packers and movers do the packing. If it helps, use post its to indicate what goes in what box and how they need to be handled and packed. Again, make sure you document, and list every item in your shipment along with it’s value.

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6.  The day before your departure

    • Relax, and pamper yourself. Ladies, go get a manicure and a pedicure, because it will take a few days / weeks / months for you to settle in and find a salon that you like.

 

  • Get enough cash to tide you over for at least a few weeks. Most banks here tend not to open bank accounts for new arrivals until they have a D number – the Norwegian equivalent of the social security number. Getting one can take anywhere from a week to a month or more. And because Norway doesn’t use checks nor has payday loan establishments, you cannot get paid unless you have a bank account. So account for this. You can exchange your currency in to Kroners when you get here or just use an ATM card to withdraw cash.
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About Aparna Kher

Ms. Sunshine, A.K.A Aparna in real life, is a self professed part nerd, part geek, and a professional student - she has always been in school, except for the first two years of her life. Right now, she is finishing up a doctorate in Political Science though the move to Stavanger in October 2011 from Houston with her partner has temporarily slowed down her writing. She enjoys reading, collecting cookbooks and stationary, origami, jazz music, listening to NPR, dancing, movies, traveling, and trying out new cuisines and wines. When she is not staring at a computer screen, you can find her day-dreaming about opening a bakery-cafe that is also a florist's shop, an indie concert venue, a bookstore, and a home goods and paper boutique, when she grows up. That, or becoming the dictator of the world. She hasn't decided yet. You can find her musings here. .