Getting ready for the move

With my flight booked for March 11th (original date), I began making final plans on the actual relocation. It was now November 2020 and there were only three months left to finalize everything, and we all know how fast time flies when you need to get a lot done.

I won't bore you with all of the details, but here's a summary list of things I had to deal with:

• Business wise:
• Set up office to be fully remote
• Set up Voip phone system
• Set up fax, mail, courier services
• Personal items:
• Rent a place in Taipei
• Arrange for home office set up in Taipei, including internet
• Arrange for basic household necessities in Taipei
• Prepare cat and necessary paperwork 
• Decide whether to sell or rent my home
• Sell household items and furniture that was not going to be placed in storage
• Arrange storage
• Arrange shipping for personal items I was planning to take to Taiwan
• Get all paperwork in order

Part of getting all of the paperwork in order was to have my degrees and designations authenticated. This is quite the process as well, and speaks volumes on how things work in Taiwan. 

University degrees - two options:

• Take the degree and a sealed transcript to the Taiwan Economic and Cultural Office ("TEICO"). They will use the transcript to validate the degree
• Have the degree notarized, and then have the notarization authenticated by a government body in my case using the Ontario document services

All other documents:

• Have the document notarized, and then have the notarization authenticated by a government body in my case using the Ontario document services

You will then need to take your passport, Taiwan document, and the documents you have had authenticated to TEICO, where they will verify everything. You can also choose to mail everything. You will need to bring all of the original documents and a prepaid return envelope. I had to include a prepaid return envelope even though I chose to pick up my documents in person.

TEICO requirements are listed here

Ontario document services are found here

Covid added extra complexity to the plan, as I was required to quarantine for 14 days at home with another 7 days of self health management. As I work remotely, and I would not have been able to get everything set up on my own for a minimum of 21 days, I was lucky enough to know a local Taiwanese that was willing to set everything up for me in Taipei. I would not have been able to make the move on my own with Covid restrictions in place.

They say hindsight is 20/20 and so the following are things I learned with hindsight, in case this is helpful to someone:

• I chose to ship my personal items using Seven Seas shipping via ship. My items were picked up on January 7th , 2021, and did not arrive until April 17th. This took much longer than I thought, as the boxes were supposed to be delivered around the time I landed which was March 5th. 
• Prices here for household items such as coffee makers, toasters, pots and pans, towels, utensils, bed sheets etc etc in Taiwan are the same or higher than they are in Canada. Had I realized this before I left, I would have shipped all of these items over as well. In addition the brands and items available here are extremely limited in comparison as well.
• The savings to ship by boat versus by air was not worth it due to Covid delays. What is a 16 hour flight became a nearly 4 months boat voyage.
• Do not come to Taiwan with Canadian cash. The only bank that will exchange Canadian currency in Taipei is the Bank of Taiwan and not at all locations. Luckily if you end up at the wrong branch, they will find the closest branch to you that will exchange the cash. I will cover banking in a separate post, but this was worthwhile mentioning. Come with USD. Every bank will take USD.

I shipped 4 boxes sized 41 X 51 X 41 cm and weighing under 25 lbs each (max weight per box of this size is 30Kg) at a cost of $643.28 Canadian.