The car story continues

It happened on October 30th. I got the car. It was in a relatively good shape, no scratches or other damage. The battery was dead, but it recovered after a jump start and 15 minutes idling. There were some minor problems – the front registration table and a pair of spare wipers were missing. The shipment from Foxborough, MA to Wroclaw, Poland took  3 months and cost $1660 plus 7056zl ($2520).

The container arrives

So, finally the container arrived, two weeks after the first estimate. It was first processed in Gdynia by the customs, but the real processing took place in Wrocław. We didn’t have to be personally  present at the customs office as it was handled by the DTA customs services agency  and  we just waited for the stuff to arrive at our apartment. It took about four hours in Wrocław to process the shipment, then some three hours to unload it. The only problem with the customs was the wording on our declaration where we stated that the things had been our property for more than six months. They wanted us to correct that so that we also state that we used the stuff for more than six months. My wife provided them with the corrected declaration the next day. I have a fealing that the customs officers just felt obliged to find some problem.

The moving company that served us on this side of the ocean was the Polish branch of ABC Ricard  Worldwide Moving. The truck that brought our container was unable to go through the gate of our apartment complex. I thought this might be a serious problem, but they just parked some 300 meters away and brought the boxes on a small van. An hour later another van with additional two people joined them to speed things up. There was no extra charge for this additional work. I can definitely say that I recommend this company.

I couple minor things went missing in the whole ordeal – my sons soccer ball,  two kids sledges and the table legs. While I didn’t care about the ball and the sledges, the missing table legs were quite annoying. Fortunately two days later the ABC Ricard branch manager called me that they found the legs and will be shipping them overnight. They had been put in some corner of one of the vans and forgotten. We should get them today.

Container is about to arrive to port

The container with the household is to arrive to Gdynia during the weekend September 12-13. It is supposed to be processed in Gdynia  for transit and then transported to Wrocław where the real processing will take place. The documents I had to prepare were as follows:

1. A document certifying that I am registered at an address in Poland. This has to be a permanent address. Registering a permanent address may be a problem if you don’t own an apartment or a house in Poland.
2. A copy of the National ID card. I got it at the last moment on Friday. This required a trip from Wrocław to Lublin as the card has be applied for and received in person.
3. Documents that confirm that I was staying in the US for 12 months before moving to Poland. I provided electricity bills for last 12 months.
4. Documents that confirm my intent of permanently moving to Poland. I provided the work contract and the rental agreement. The customs also require having a permanent registered address, which should be in the city you intend to live. In my case it is not the same: I plan on living in Wrocław, while my permanent registered address is in Lublin. The requirement of having a permanent registered address makes no sense for people who are relocating and has no basis in regulations. The customs officials still require that though.  We will see if my address in Lublin is sufficient to avoid problems.
5. A list of stuff you want to claim as immigrant’s personal and household effects (mienie przesiedlencze). This should not be too sketchy or too detailed. I got an example from a friend that I followed.
6. The authorization for the customs agency handling the case to represent me.

One can find information on the web that any documents submitted to to the customs need to be translated by a sworn translator and any copies should be notarized. Translating the bills from point 3 above cost me about $200, but it turned out this was not needed. You may want to check before spending money.

The customs in Gdynia needed only scans of the documents, while the originals were provided to the agency in Wrocław.

The car problem

I got an e-mail from Krzysztof Jucewicz from “FIZ” Sp. z o. o. (the company that is the back end of usaautosystems.pl site and handles the car shipment) that told me that because of lack of a car to fill up the container  I need to pay for for ROR (Roll on -Roll off, outside of a container) transport which costs additional $400. Another solution he suggested is to use another company’s service that would bring the container to Chojnice (about 100 miles from Gdynia) and then pay 780 PLN ($280) for transporting it to Gdynia to the workshop to have it modified. This smells bad – the cost of ROR is typically less than half of the container for which I have paid. I am trying to hope that this is not the beginning of the standard moving fraud where the moving company demands more and more money using the fact that they have the stuff. In response to the news I suggested that I will pick the car in Chojnice and arrange the modifications by myself. This is entirely possible as I can drive the car on Massachussets registration in Poland for 30 days. The only problem is to get some insurance agent to come to the customs office to get the liability insurance which may be a little bit more difficult in Chojnice than in Gdynia. We will see his response.

Update 09/09/2009: I got the answer from Jucewicz that he is OK that I pick the car in Chojnice and pay smaller comission. So it looks that my fears were unfounded for now.

Shipping the household

I shipped the car on Tuesday. The usaautosystems.pl representative could not guarantee a specific date for pickup, so I gave them a range between Monday 03 and Friday 07. They called me on Monday that someone will show up on Tuesday around noon. I got another call at 11 on Tuesday and at 12 the guy knocked at the door. What was susprising was the he didn’t know where he should he take the car to exactly. He also didn’t know what documents he should take from me. After a call or two the destination was cleared up, and I was pretty sure that only the title was needed.  He didn’t give me any official receipt, just wrote a couple of words on a sheet of paper. I checked his driver’s license if it agreed with what he wrote and gave him the keys. He loaded the car on a trailer with two other ones that were already there. All that was in a typical Polish improvisation style – the guy was Polish. He was even planning to make a similar move later this year, so we chatted a little bit why one would want to do something like that. I felt less crazy after that.