Hi John I reached out to a past contributor on the site. He is a Managing Director of a moving company based in Ireland. I think you will find his answer to your question quite useful. I'll post it below here. Let me know if you WAnt me to put you in touch. ~Liam --- Buying a container and shipping it as user owner is certainly possible. If he WAnts that option there should be no reason why he can’t find a mover or a freight company to co-ordinate that for him. After clearance on this side, we (potentially we) would arrange haulage from the port with a ...

... with are Irish (not all are), there's a good chance they have some useful suggestions as to what to try for Ireland. It would be worth contacting them to ask if they have any advice. The very first thing I would be finding out is what are the repercussions of being without legal status for too long in Ireland. I know in the US there are pretty Heavy penalties, one being you are barred from the country for at least 10 years. You'd WAnt to avoid that somehow if possible. Best of luck Pauline

My understanding is a car can qualify in the one time import Duty exemption when you initially move. I read it somewhere, but the vehicle must pass NCT right away.

"How is life in the UK?" Depends what your expectations are? Personally I'm glad its behind me but then I'm born and bred country and an industrial dinosaur as a Heavy engineer (mechanical). The remaining family over there range from white van girl, WAste recycling, health service, education and Chris's lad is high tec web design and development. As the old story if your happy in your work your pretty happy anywhere. Other points depend on just where in the UK? Best of luck with the interview.

I'm planning on selling my old car in the US before moving over (it has 250K on it, so it's time, even if I WAsn't relocating), and I'm thinking about what I WAs going to do in terms of transportation in Ireland. My first thought WAs simply to buy a lightly used hybrid, and when I WAs looking at Cars.ie, this seemed affordable. But in looking into things further, the reality of the 23% value added tax, plus other taxes and fees set in, and it looks like owning a car there is *very* expensive unless I get a vehicle with a lot of mileage on it. Plus, I'm ther ...

Hi, I'm Chris and my wife is Jeannie. We live in Dallas and are going to move to Ireland when we retire. Now we just need to retire! (Hopefully soon.) My two biggest questions are in the areas of real estate and health care. Liam (or anyone else) I noticed in an earlier reply that you said the model we use in the US with a realtor representing the buyer isn't common in Ireland. Did I get that right? So buyers tend to represent themselves? With being able to search on the internet (I've found myhome.ie to be very good) I actually do think that the buyer's agent model is becoming kind of outdated. People can mostly find the properties that they like without a realtor. But when it comes time to make an offer, get the required inspections, government documentation, etc,... I can see a buyers agent being useful - particularly for a non-Irish citizen. Perhaps there are lawyers that can play {some} of that role. Can you elaborate on how all that works. I'm also curious about the all in costs of the buying transaction. Here in the US, as I alluded to above, there are lots of inspections (termites in Texas!), document fees ad infinitum. I've seen a "stamp Duty"(1%?) referenced on myhome.ie. Is that similar to the property tax we pay here in the US. In Texas I pay ˜2% of my home's appraised value - but I pay it annually!!! I think I like the Irish model much better. 😉 Health care. So I think I've read that we have to buy private insurance. Yes? But I looked around and some of the prices seemed remarkably good. In the US for my wife and me and I think we would be paying $10-15k.year until medicare kicks in when we turn 65. It looked like I could similar private insurance in Eire for maybe a tenth of the US cost. Can that be right? What am I missing? Sorry for being so long-winded in my intro. I'll go away and think of more questions. But thanks in advance for any help on the housing and health fronts! Chris

... employment or not. Slightly different rules if you are shipping a car, and are applying for VRT relief. More info on that here. The shipping company may be able to hold them in Ireland for you until you have an address figured out. However, if you WAit until you arrive and get setup with an apartment, then your things may not arrive for another 4-6 months. I recommend shipping them ahead of time if possible. I hope this helps. Welcome to the site 🙂 Liam

Hey Nick, Fairly recently, there WAs a change to the rules for pet moves to Ireland. Until that point, pet relocation companies were a requirement, and all pets had to go through Dublin. I've had confirmation from another mover on here, that that is no longer the case. However, if you arrive into Ireland as your first port of entry in to the EU, then you still need to go through the Lissenhall vet check in Dublin. Aer Lingus, have long been an approved carrier, but generally it's down to the individual airlines whether they will transport pets or not. Vari ...

... which is one of the most expensive places to live in terms of rent/property costs, taxes etc. Basically everything costs more. We think that by moving to Ireland costs there will be comparable if not cheaper when we take into account changes to income which are likely to occur. 2. We are both 29 years old and are thinking long term, namely children. We would like to live near family; so it boils down to Ireland or the bay area. Honestly, as an irish person with LOTS of family (ahem 52 first cousins) family is a big deal. 3. Better work/life balance. In amer ...

I definitely feel your pain @redhead. I have young kids too, and getting them into good schools in an area we WAnted to live, WAs an issue for us too. I hope everything falls in to place for you and your daughter. One thing I'd like to point out is that Ireland is still a little behind the times with regard to mixed gender schools. They are becoming more and more common, but the Heavy influence the Catholic church had on Ireland in days gone by, still looms. Many towns will only have all boy or all girl secondary schools, so keep that in mind when looking. S ...