The Pain of MOviNg (part 4)
About to do a BIG move? Read on…
Part 4 of 4 moving from NY to SF. I’ve moved so many times (within a city, down the block, from east coast to west coast, from one side of the earth to the other) in the last 10 years, I thought I document a bit about my latest move from NY to San Jose which was the most painful of all my moves.
Getting Settled
I scripted the first week upon arrival. Landing in a new environment, it’s tough enough getting acclimated to the surroundings, there will be no mental power to think about where to go and what to do. Again, this script cannot be written in one sitting, there will be things you didn’t think of or places that are not open according to your liking. The key is to plan ahead. I started to put this list together way back when I first started to pack.
The important things to have scripted and not worry about are:
- where you will stay — If it’s your new permanent place then think about can you live there right away or will you need some kind of airbnb or hotel until the place is ready.
- transportation — Car rental or how you will get around if driving is not an option.
- appointments for getting your new drivers license
- appointments for registering the kids for school
- list of all the address of the place you will stay at, car rental places
- followup calls — List all the info of things you need to followup on. For example, moving company, car transportation, etc.
Applying for Drivers License
Despite the many horror stories of the DMV, this is relatively simple if you have all the paperwork ready. Look online for the list of things, here’s what we prepared:
- Application form — Every state is different. For California, you can only fill an online form, there’s no more pdf to download. The online form is relatively easy, takes about 5 minutes.
- Social Security Card — You need the actual one and there’s no substitute for this. Go to the social security office to get it first if you don’t have it.
- Proof of residency — Usually the contract to your new place. Deed if you are buying or lease agreement if you are renting. Make sure everything is signed. Alternatively, DMV takes bank statement. Bank statement are no longer generated in the branches, so if you want to go this route, need to change the bank address at least a month ahead of time for the banks to send you a new statement.
- Written test — Assuming you have a previous US drivers license, then depending on the state, you may need to take a written test. For NY, it was not needed. For CA, I had to take a simple 15 questions written exam. Relatively simple common sense questions. You get 3 chances nowadays.
- Payment — DMV only accepts cash, check or debit card.
Applying for School
If you have kids and need to get them into school asap, it’s just like the DMV, a bunch of paperwork to prepare for but a lot less daunting. The people at the unified school district are relatively nice and helpful. Look online to see what your target school district needs. From my experience, it’s all along the same path of these items:
- Application form — Depending on your school district, they may or may not have this available online. In addition, always a good idea to give the school district office a call.
- Proof of property address: Deed if you are buying or lease agreement if you are renting.
- Utility bill — You probably won’t have this until a month after moving in. However, since so many institutions are going paperless nowadays, some places will take car insurance paperwork as an alternative.
- Driver License or Bank statement: Proof of I don’t know what but you need it. So take care of the DMV thing first if you can.
- Proof of Age- this is the green card or passport or birth certificate of your child.
- Immunization Record: Immunization record and TB test form. You may or may not have the most updated record for these. The school district is understanding if you need a bit more time to find a doctor especially if new to the area.
- Previous transcript — They will all say you don’t need this as the new school need to get it officially through the old school. Print a copy of your child’s transcript and such, it’s always a good reference for the new school.
Your child will need to take a couple of placement tests, mainly Math and English. English if your household speaks an additional language in addition to English. Even if the school is cooperative to your schedule, this will take a couple of days for appointment and results. Then it’s just picking classes or placing your child in the appropriate classes.
Don’t worry about school supplies and rush to make a Target run. Wait till either the school gives you a list or for your child to attend all the classes and brings home a list.
Each school, even within a district, has a different lunch and after school program, this you will need to ask up front at the school.
A final word about schools. The way we picked school was going according to school scores. My friend who is a real estate agent basically said anything 7 or under don’t consider. We focused on school with 9 or 10 when looking for a place on Zillow. That helped guide the home search as well.
Transferring car registration
For this one, it is back to the lovely DMV we go. I originally wanted to do this at the same time as my drivers license but couldn’t because my car was stil in transit. I did ask the DMV lady when applying for my drivers license what I need to prepare to get my car transferred over. LUCKILY I asked because you can’t find this info on the DMV website anywhere. Mine was a leased car so it was a bit more complicated, and I’ll mark it as such for leased car only. If you have everything prepared, it’s a pretty painless ordeal, all done in about a hour. This does not take into the account getting to DMV an hour earlier to get in line for the doors to open. Prepare the following list of documents:
- Car’s current registration paper.
- Leasing agreement leased car only
- Power of attorney leased car only — Call the institution that leased you the car and ask them for this to register the car in another state, they will know what it is. This takes a while, anywhere from 1–3 weeks.
- Application for Title or Registration — This form is pretty straight forward unless you have a leased car. For a leased car, section 2 would be your info. For section 3 call the same institution who will give you the power of attorney. Section 6 purchase price is the price that the vehicle was selling for at the time you signed the lease.
- A California Smog Check — Just Yelp a local smog check place and pay someone $40 to do it. They will give you a printed page for verification and also send to DMV’s system as well.
- Vehicle Verification Paperwork — This is done at the dmv at the same time. You can either do this first or after you go to the desk and get all the paperwork done.
- Payment — I had to pay $480 for a bunch of stuff. Whatever. DMV only accepts cash, check or debit card.
Good luck! You will definitely need it!
Part I: Preparing for the Move
