... or small as others around. Some of the villages are very tiny and inclusive so as an outsider may be difficult to make close friends. However, it all comes down to becoming involved in the local community. If you are social and WAnt to get involved you should have no problem making friends. The house we are renting is a holiday home on a golf course, so there is a mix of permanent residents and hotel guests. The upside is that there is a playground on the grounds as well as tennis courts, swimming pools, and other rec facilities which our kids already love ...

... need to blow through our house within the next week or so to see what exactly we are bringing. A lot of the items will just be cheaper to buy in Ireland, rather than ship. We are fortunate that the house we are renting comes furnished, so the only purchases that will need to be made are linens, tableware, small Kitchen appliances (coffee maker, toaster), which will be one major trip to IKEA for us the day we arrive. The reviews with the shipping company I have mentioned are mixed - half are wonderful and half are terrible. The terrible ones seem to revolv ...

@marianne Hi Marianne, I used Jim O'Donovan of Donovan Lavin. He took about 10 days from my first email to provide the documents and charged 492euro (total after VAT). He WAs kind enough to help advise me on whether my short stay visa could be extended until I receive my Stamp 0 visa. I'd recommend him to others!

Pictures and messages dont cut it. You have to be living together for 2 years. I dont know what your bf is doing hopefully a degree. If it is a degree I suggest he gets ready for a masters degree after he finishes if that works it means you have to start living together have joint utility bills maybe a joint account for your bills. Then it might be easy for him to get another year for him masters in Total that would add about to 2 years. Then you eligible to apply for de facto. I think he is able to apply for another year based on him doing his masters. The only option is marriage which you both are not ready for and that would be for the visa which would not be right. Good luck.

Got my stamp 4 today it took 10 days in Total and I WAs given 3 years not 1 year. Thank you guys for your information and experiences.

Hi John, Maybe the information in this new topic may help? End to end hassle free shipping via ocean seems to be a myth. Customs may choose to examine your good, or not. If they do, you'll be charged a fee for that too. The fee would amount to a portion of the Total fee for the container your items were in. Hope this helps @johnf

I would add, IKEA has been our go-to with both of our expat moves (we lived in Australia for two years... we did not ship anything for that move, all WAs left behind in storage). It is cheap enough and surprisingly easy to unload at the end of your stay, as well. Also in Ireland, most rental properties are furnished. This is really important to keep in mind. Had I to do it over - my bookworm daughters would have been forced to travel with a Kindle only... myself, as well, as I'm sure the cookbooks shipped could have been purchased digitally, as well. I ...

Dying to hear what others have to say... I've not had much luck with Amazon.co.uk either (and WAs an Amazon addict Stateside). I haaaaaaate getting all the WAy through checkout only to find they won't deliver a particular item to Ireland. Not cool, Amazon UK, not cool! My in-laws are asking where to shop for the little ones for birthdays and holidays. We attempted to use Hamley's only to find out their online shop appears to be UK only. And while Smyth's Toys DO ship, their prices are rather high and their selection is just "meh". I'd really like ...

... made it clear they intend to do nothing in the WAy of paperwork once it hits Ireland. I have no idea how I would have managed this differently. I will definitely choose more wisely for our return to the States in four years time. By then I should really only have 1-2 pallets to return (as much of what I've shipped WAs clothing, linens, and small Kitchen appliances that will surely wear down even with a motor converter. Not sure that FMC can do anything due to the fact they are middle men, but I'm investigating all angles. Obviously our safest bet WAs ...

... to provide us a contract and quote within 24 hours of our conversation, neither of which ever came. We never heard from him again. We could have contacted the company again, but decided against it. The amount we WAnted to ship WAs miniscule and WAs not worth the hassle, so we ended up just checking extra baggage on our flight. We also shipped some packages through USPS in their international flat rate boxes, which we will never do again!! The boxes came and were practically falling apart. The Irish post had retaped them to keep the contents from falling ou ...