Challenge: Accepted...But Why So Many?

We knew moving to Denmark wasn't going to be easy exactly, but we were kind of unprepared for the sheer number of roadblocks we'd encounter in this process. I mean, I got the job, we were basically handed a beautiful place to live, and I made a checklist for everything else. What could go wrong?

I will tell you in four categories: Immigration, Getting to Denmark, Personal Property, and Miscellaneous.

Immigration

We made contact with our immigration consultant soon after I was offered the job, and she sent me a link to fill out my own application and one for each member of the family. I was required to upload a color PDF of all pages in my passport, a Power of Attorney, and my marriage license, in addition to some other very basic information. For Zac, we filled out the information, uploaded his Power of Attorney, and a provided a color PDF of his passport.

Challenge 1A: Zac's passport expires in January 2024 and they will not proceed with the application process for him until he gets it renewed (something about a 3-month expiry buffer?).

Challenge 1B: We discovered that even by expediting the application, it will not be returned before we leave for Denmark. He needs to go to Seattle (the closest passport processing center) to have it renewed instantly.

Challenge 1C: They won't give him an appointment to renew his passport instantly unless he is traveling within the next two weeks. (Although that's getting closer...)

Status: We have a tentative plan to get his passport renewed in Seattle the day before we fly out. (This will make more sense when you read the section about getting to Denmark.) We need to clear this with our immigration consultant.

When your spouse comes along on your international move as an accompanying family member, they are also free to work in Denmark or own a business there. We thought that was pretty cool, and we knew there was a good chance Zac could get a job in his same department at the headquarters in Denmark as well.

Challenge 2A: There's a recently-enacted exception to the spouse rule - if the spouse plans to work at the same company as the person who is applying for the resident work visa, they have to apply for their own resident work visa. (Read: Zac can't work on my visa alone or apply as an accompanying family member since we both want to work for ALK.)

Challenge 2B: To apply for a resident work visa, Zac needs his renewed passport. Circle back to Challenge 1.

Status: No application has been submitted for Zac yet. We need to ask our immigration consultant if it's OK for him to apply for his resident work visa after we arrive in Denmark since he won't start his job until later this fall.

For the kids to come with us as accompanying family members, we just need to fill out the information page for each of them, sign Powers of Attorney for each of them, scan in their birth certificates, and upload color PDFs of their passports.

Challenge 3A: We applied for the kids' passports and paid to expedite everything two days after I accepted the job offer, but that still means their passports won't arrive until mid-July or late July. We had to send their birth certificates off with the passport applications, so we have neither document to upload.

Status: We are (somewhat) patiently waiting on passports and birth certificates to arrive. As long as we get them before we leave, we can submit the kids' immigration applications once we arrive in Denmark. They can travel there on a visitor visa and when their applications are submitted, they'll be granted a 90-day processing stay, BUT...

Challenge 3B: Sometimes the birth certificates are returned up to a month after the passports arrive, so in theory, their birth certificates may arrive to this address after we've already left and/or sold our home.

All these initial issues meant we could only submit my own immigration application, which our consultant did on my behalf. The next step for me was to go to a Danish consulate general location in the U.S. for a biometrics appointment within 14 days. The closest one is in San Francisco, and colleagues who have had temporary assignments in Denmark said it was an easy day trip down and back with a 15-minute appointment at the consulate.

Challenge 4A: San Francisco didn't have an appointment available within the 14-day timeframe. Neither did L.A., Chicago, or Boston. I had to fly to Houston, TX. The flight takes so much longer than the flight to San Francisco and there are so few options for flight times that I could not fly down and have my appointment same-day. I had to stay overnight at the airport Mariott and take an Uber to the consulate in the morning. (The hotel, food, and transportation were my own financial burden; ALK generously paid for the flight.) Also, Texas was having an excessive heat wave, so it was 104℉ with very high humidity.

Challenge 4B: The night before I left for my consulate appointment, I was carefully ensuring that I had all of my documents, that I had paid my embassy fee, and that I was prepared for a quick trip. I found a notice from the VSF consulate processing center that said no laptops or backpacks were allowed to enter or be stored at the VSF center. My planned luggage was a backpack and two laptops (so I could get some ALK work done and make some progress on my moving checklist while I sat in the hotel for hours). I decided I'd have to check out of the hotel in the morning, check my bag with the front desk, and make a quick stop at the hotel before heading to the airport after my appointment.

When I arrived for my appointment, they checked me in and indicated the Danish processing associate was running behind; they told me I should be patient with her. My appointment was scheduled for 09:45, my hotel and the airport were approximately 30 minutes from the VSF center, and my flight was supposed to depart at 12:00. (Bonus frustration: There were four people in the processing center carrying backpacks.)

Challenge 4C: I didn't get out of the processing center and get in an Uber until 11:13.

Me: Can you please take me to the hotel to grab my bag from the front desk and then rush me to terminal A at the airport? My flight leaves at noon.

Uber Driver: You're not going to make that.

Me: I know, but I'd sure like to try.

That Uber driver did his best. (Also, he was getting ready to move to Blanchard, Idaho - how random!) We pulled up to the hotel, I ran in, and the person at the front desk retrieved my bag incredibly quickly. I shouted all of my thanks to her and bolted out the door into my idling Uber. We rolled up to the Delta gate, I leapt from the car, and I ran to the TSA Pre-✓ line (I do have TSA Pre-✓ just to be clear). All 10 or so people in line ahead of me let me cut. I yanked my bag from the belt on the other end and ran for all I was worth. I knew where I was going. I had a full 7 minutes before the flight was supposed to take off. As I approached the gate agent, panting, dripping sweat, and trying not to die, she looked up and yelled, "Lindsey?" I nodded, and she just said, "Sorry." I laid down on the floor in front of her for a few minutes and that was that.

I spent a very long 7.5 hours in the Houston airport waiting for the next flight. I got home just after midnight and had to rally for a 07:00 work meeting. It's exhausting pulling double-duty!

Status: My immigration application and biometrics were accepted and I'm the proud owner of a resident work visa. Yay!

Getting to Denmark

ALK generously agreed to fly our family and animals to Denmark. All I had to do was book the trip. Haha. It should be so easy.

Challenge 1A: We aren't sure which day to arrive. We can't take over our rental until 05 August, but we'd love to meet with the homeowners ahead of time so we can get to know them and learn about their home/property before they leave for the U.S. We have a dog and a cat though, so it's tricky (and expensive) to find a place to stay nearby for a few days so we can do that. Also, the homeowners don't know exactly which day they are leaving yet either.

Challenge 1B: To transport the animals, we had to figure out the airline requirements. I had made a list of requirements based on some in-depth Googling and thought I had it pretty figured out. I called Delta to find out how I would go about buying my tickets with the animals and learned that domestic animals are no longer allowed in the cargo hold of planes on domestic flights. They suspended this service indefinitely during the pandemic. We can only fly with the animals in the cargo hold if we are on an international flight. (Read: Flying from Spokane to an international hub like Minneapolis or SLC would be a domestic flight and the animals could not be in the cargo hold. They could be in the cargo hold out of those places since we'd fly right to Europe from there.)

Status: We have to drive to Seattle to fly out on an international flight instead of flying out of Spokane. At least maybe we can renew Zac's passport when we get there!

We downloaded the IATA transport requirements for cats and dogs and measured Han. He was 30" tall and 40" long. To transport an animal in a crate, you have to add 4" to both of those measurements and select a crate with at least those dimensions. I never think of Han as a big dog, but based on his length and height, he needs a crate at least 44" long and 34" high. The standard crate sizes vary slightly, but basically, Han needs the largest standard size they make - 48" long - because the next size down is only 40" long and 30" high.

Challenge 2A: There are no IATA-approved crates in that size available for sale online from any retailer. They are all currently out of stock. There are none in-store locally either. I checked everywhere from pet stores to hardware stores, farm stores to Cabela's, Target to the co-op. I found a few on Marketplace and Craigslist near Seattle and Portland for $500 (they are exploiting the shortage hard), and one on eBay for $600. The retailer with the most appropriate carrier (SportPet) isn't getting a new shipment in until mid-August (after we are in Denmark).

Status: I finally found one for $250 in Post Falls on Marketplace and bought it...

Challenge 2B: The crate weighs about 40 lbs and I think Iceland Air has a requirement that the crate and animal can't weight over 88 lbs. We are exceeding that by about 20 lbs at this point.

Challenge 2C: The crate is not IATA-compliant - it needs to have ventilation on all sides and currently, there are no holes in the back. The grate also has openings >1" so we have to put smaller mesh over it to make sure it can't be penetrated by nose or paw. I also still need to get bowls that clip into the mesh for food and water.

Status: I don't know. I'm working on it. [huge sigh]

Personal Property

We had originally agreed to rent out our house in Post Falls for the first two years. This would give us some passive income and was financially smart because we have a low mortgage and low interest rate. It would also give us a little safety net in case we couldn't hack it as a family of immigrants.

Challenge 1: We will be fully tax liable in Denmark (which I knew), and that means we pay U.S. federal and Danish taxes on our foreign income (which I did not know). Essentially, we took that to mean all of our rental income would be taxed twice and we'd basically net nothing from our rental income. Further, if we loved our lives in Denmark and decided to sell our house after a couple of years, we'd be taxed twice on the earnings from the sale.

Status: We decided to put our house up for sale. I'm fighting my anxiety over calling to try to talk to the Danish tax authorities to find out if our assumptions are correct and at what point we become liable. What if we don't close on the sale before we leave?! I don't know. I'll find out.

We had also agreed to ship our really important stuff via UPS or FedEx and then put all of the other things we owned in storage for a couple of years. We could either ship it over slowly each year, or it would be waiting for us in the event we moved home after a couple of years. After some discussion, we decided paying for the storage unit wasn't a smart idea, as it wasn't environmentally controlled, it would probably get broken into, and we weren't sure we could protect all of our belongings from things like water damage.

Zac and I made a spreadsheet of everything we own and decided for each if we would sell it, ship it, or give it away. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos from people (mostly diplomats) who have shipped their things internationally, and the consensus seemed to be that you could fill a 20' shipping container for under $3000 and insure it for a minimal cost. I started filling out estimator worksheets for different companies (I was advised in these videos to get quotes from multiple places) and waited for the quotes.

Challenge 2: The first quote came back at $16,600. Another rough estimate was over $10,000. I asked our relocation consultant if that was right, and she set me up with Aspire's relocation company. They did a video tour of my home during which I pointed out the items we were taking and some optional items for a separate quote. The quote came back at over $16,000 for the items we knew we were taking and was only about $1100 more to add the optional items. I think the higher initial cost comes down to the fact we are not located in a port city so they'll have to truck the container to a port, and also that the company is going to provide packing materials, pack our things, transport them, deliver them to our door (also not in a port city), and then reassemble them in our new home. This is a huge financial challenge. The cost doesn't even include the insurance we'll have to purchase in case the boat capsizes or something, which I think will be another $2000.

Status: We are eating the cost of it and moving forward with scheduling the shipment. In the long run, it would be way more costly to re-purchase some of this stuff, and it will be good for the kids to have some familiar items around them as everything else they know gets left behind. It's also nice that we won't have to worry about the packing or loading on top of the other things we're trying to sort out.

We clearly aren't taking all of our things. We had to agree to sell a lot of our belongings, both small and large. We held a moving sale and got rid of couches, beds, dressers, tables, games, holiday decorations, shelves, electronics, appliances, movies, tools, outdoor play things, dog beds, and so much more. What didn't sell, I've been posting on Facebook Marketplace.

Challenge 3: Selling stuff takes a ton of time and effort. The number of messages I have to respond to daily is exhausting. It's a huge physical/mental challenge. I also put a lot of effort into pricing things fairly, but I guess everyone on Marketplace assumes all items are overpriced and hardly anyone will just come pay what you asked.

"Is this available?" "Yes, would you like to come look at it this evening?" [crickets]

"Will you take $200 for [this $3000 table]?"

"What's the lowest you'll go on this [totally fairly priced item]?"

"Will you take precious metals as payment?"

"Do you want to trade me this for a 3D printer?"

I'm literally just on the verge of falling asleep at all times, but we need to get what we can for these items so we have some money to re-purchase some of it in Denmark. Ugh.

Status: I have 38 items left on Marketplace and about 10-15 more I haven't listed. Getting closer every day!

Miscellaneous

Paying Rent

We made up a simple contract with the homeowners of the place we are going to rent in Denmark. It was based on the standard rental contracts and included a requirement to pay a deposit equal to three months of rent a month prior to taking over the property. As the date approached, I called our credit union to figure out how to transfer money to a Danish bank account.

Challenge 1A: The credit union only does domestic wire transfers. I needed to go through an international wire transfer service.

I chose MoneyGram after reading some things on NerdWallet. I made an account and started entering the information for the transfer (still not knowing how much it was going to cost on top of the transfer amount). It asked for the IBAN, which I did not know or have. I emailed the homeowner and she was able to send me the number from her bank statement. I started over and submitted the transfer.

Challenge 1B: My transfer was declined and I didn't get a reason. Attempts to resubmit it were met with an unclear error message. Further, I got an automated call from the credit union about the fraud alert because they froze my account thinking someone had stolen my card.

I called the credit union the next day and they told me the charge exceeded my maximum daily debit allowance. They were able to raise it, then sat on the phone with me while I tried the transfer again.

Status: Our deposit was paid successfully. We still have a place to live when we get there.

***

Registering for School

A good international school near work was recommended to us for the kids. I filled out the application for Harrison and paid the $260-ish registration fee. I proceeded to do the same for Khloe, and then again for Kaden.

Challenge 2A: The application software wouldn't let me submit Kaden's application. It indicated there was no place for him at the school based on his date of birth. The kids would have to be split across two different schools. After a series of emails with the school administrator, I found out that for the grade he was being placed in due to his birthdate, there were no spots available, and also that he was being placed a grade too high because the birthdate cut-off in the U.S. and Europe is different.

Status: I changed his birth year on the application (as recommended by the administrator) and Kaden is now registered for school with his brother and sister.

I got an email from the school indicating each kid needed to have a learning assessment uploaded. I had no idea what that was, so I asked the administrator. She said it was a questionnaire to be answered by someone who was in class with the kids every day. I would enter the person's contact information and it would be sent directly to them.

Challenge 2B: I got this information on the last day of the school year, so I was frantically emailing teachers to first, ask if they'd be willing to fill it out, and second, find out if I should send it to their school email address or to a separate one they'd check over the summer. Kaden's selected teacher responded immediately and gave his personal phone and email. Khloe's teacher didn't respond at all. Harrison's teacher didn't respond, but I went to talk to her in person and she completed it quickly.

Challenge 2C: Kaden's teacher contacted me and said there were questions on there he couldn't possible know the answers to. He recommended I send it to the school counselor instead. This was the week after school ended, so I was in quite a panic about how to contact this person during the summer, and of course, I still hadn't heard from Khloe's teacher.

Status: I called the school, talked to the principal, and he put me in contact with the counselor. She quickly filled out the questionnaires for both Kaden and Khloe and now, we just need to upload the kids' birth certificates (circle back to the immigration issues) and for the kids to take their entrance exams the Tuesday after we arrive. The school also needs their CPR numbers, but we won't have those until their immigration goes through, so hopefully that won't be a problem later...

***

I don't want this post to come off as one huge complaint about the struggles we've encountered thus far because, at the end of the day, it will all work out and we'll be off on our grand Danish adventure. My hope is that this record will be fun for us to look back on someday, and also that if anyone else stumbles across the blog during their attempts to change countries, they'll find something useful in the struggle (or at least comfort in knowing they aren't alone when it all seems impossible).

As I said at the beginning, we knew it wouldn't be easy, but I also thought it would be no big deal to keep working at my normal job, raising kids, taking care of my house, etc. during the process, and honestly, I now have two very full-time jobs that I can barely handle. Zac and I are exhausted, we're not eating well, we are both experiencing physical symptoms of anxiety. It's only short-term though, and it will be well worth it when we're on the other side.