Moving - General

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Well we moved to Penang 2 weeks ago now, in advance of receiving the MM2H, bought the car, have found place to live, set up bank accounts, insurances etc, kids booked in to schools etc. All fine, now awaiting our shipment of household goods.  Had come to the conclusion that MM2H was not the be all, could live here anyhow, just have to pop out of country from time to time to renew. ...

Hi Tombo, (my excuses if this is of topic)

I see that you shipped the household goods. Got a question if you don't mind, the international shipper I contacted here in Belgium told me we need a valid work visa or a MM2H visa, otherwise we would have to pay import duties on our personal belongings!?!? Did they give you any hassle on this, or is our shipper just too cautious? (We used them before when we moved from the UK to the USA and then from the USA back to Belgium, so it's not that I don't trust them)

Thanks, Stephan

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Hi Stephan,

I moved my stuff from Singapore without a work visa or MM2H visa. The movers there told me no problem if I sent it by sea but could not do it by road. A bit more expensive but no problems. Still waiting
for MM2H visa.

A bit of advice unless your electrics are brand new ( i.e. tv, fridge etc) buy here . So cheap compared to Euprope. A 40 inch LCD TV branded as low as 1200 euros. Plasmas even cheaper.

Cheers

Brian

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Thanks for that info Brian! I'll inform the shippers. We'll have to ship by sea anyway.
As far as electrical stuff goes, most will be sold here with the house. So we planned to buy new anyway. Finally a good excuse to buy a new computer!

Anyway, back on topic as soon as the house here is sold, we will apply for the Visa. Looks like we will go the Fixed Deposit way. Don't know yet if we will do it from here in Belgium or move first to Malaysia and then apply. All depends on our 4 cats.

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Hi Stephen

Yes I asked the same question of my shippers in Australia (OSS), and their Malaysian agent then called me (an expat english guy) and also said no problem.   I will find out soon enough as our goods arrive this week.

We were told not to bring in DVDs, sometimes books can be a problem (the censors may want to check them for religious/porno content), also alcohol will attract duty, best no to bring (even tho that Belgian beer is tempting to bring).  Lately scouring Tesco here there's a surprisingly good selection of wines (from Aust, South Africa, Chile, and europe) now in Malaysia, and prices are not bad.   

Electrics are cheap here (except dishwashers which are not in high demand as everyone uses maids), furniture is a bit suspect tho, if your taste is not for the 'tacky' then may be advisable to bring, even tho it costs.   

Hope the 4 cats agree

cheers

Tombo

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Indeed Tombo, the shippers told me to have a list of titles ready of all the DVD's and books, just in case. Is going to be quite a task as we have over a thousand books and DVDs ... groan. Non religious or offensive (I hope, do they consider art-books offensive?)

Stephan

Yeah, those 4 cats ... it's the timing of the vacinations and the reservation for quarantaine at the centre in Penang.

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stephen

Our shipping company advised not to label boxes: books, DVDs.  Use some generic term instead, also in the packing list if you can.  We didnt bring any DVDs, they're much cheaper in Malaysia (pirate copies are readily available for a couple of dollars), books are not so cheap tho.  We were warned they can take books etc away for further investigation, this delays things and I believe can cost storage.

Tombo

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Stephen is correct.......Books/magazines/DVD's Videos etc are subjected to censorship in Malaysia. Labelling your boxes or shipping list as such will surely attract attention and mean a rigorous check at a cost of time and perhaps money

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Recently my husband ordered a CD and DVD online from the US. CD is music scores of Italian arias and DVD is an opera sung in German.
The CD arrived without problem, but we received a notice in Malay for the DVD.
Our neighbor helped us with the translation of the notice - well, we have to collect it from the P.O. in Butterworth and a 41% tax to be paid!! I'm glad our helpful neighbor called the PO to arrange for them to transfer the DVD over to a PO on the island where we can go and pay/collect. He's following up on this for us and in the meantime we just have to wait....

Update: Aug22/07
Yesterday, neighbor told us the DVD would be redirected to the main PO in Georgetown. Hubby went this afternoon to collect it.
Cost of DVD US$20. The supposed tax was 41% which should be about Rm30.
But at collection he had to pay Rm60 ...maybe that's how much they evaluate the cost of the DVD here!! Now we know not to order such DVDs and have them sent here