" Mechanics " of spending a year in China. . . ?

[ken88]

If you are an ESL teacher in China for a year, How do you handle the " mechanics " ? What do you do with the house, the mortgage, the car, car registration, car insurance, the bills, the mail, your job, health insurance, your investments, your bank accounts, etc., etc., ?

 

Would you like to share as to how you managed these ?

[Chinese Wife!!!]

If you are an ESL teacher in China for a year, How do you handle the " mechanics " ? What do you do with the house, the mortgage, the car, car registration, car insurance, the bills, the mail, your job, health insurance, your investments, your bank accounts, etc., etc., ?

 

Would you like to share as to how you managed these ?

Ken, I spent virtually a full year in Shanghai 2004/05. The financial end of bill paying was mostly done online thru either my B of A or WAMU accounts. At that time it was not quite so easy to set-up payment for some smaller concerns (i.e., the local rural utility, tv cable and garbage companys) so I went to them in advance and signed up for their automatic debit/credit card payment programs. Nowadays I can pay almost anybody online thru B of A.

 

I found I could manage the mortgage, auto/house insurance and even DMV online at their respective sites also.

 

I also put my son on one of my checking accounts and left him a full set of checks for incidentals (i.e., smog test on the car, gas, a little allowance for taking care of my stuff and paying someone to cut down the growth on my 1+ acre lot).

 

Left my car with my son for the following reasons:

Was happy with the vechicle and had paid it off- planned to keep it.

He drove it the 110 miles between Las Vegas and here to check my house- keeping it from getting a dead battery or flat spots on the tires. Was still registered in a smog area and needed smog test for DMV renewal.

 

Kept my house empty but had the neighbors and son watching it (got both a calling card and used email to keep in contact). Personally, I did not want to rent it out as I had already repaired damage, repainted and carpeted the place- house was rented out before I bought it. Left the utilities on (and the refrig in operation) for extreme heat/cold protection. Son would run the facets, dishwasher and flush the toilets monthly to prevent seals form drying out or taking a set.

 

One thing that did go wrong was USPS. The local PO said that I could simply have my mail forwarded to my son's address. WRONG! Anything from the US Government (USCIS, my US Gov. retirement and health ins. paperwork) got returned to Sender. I had to fly back here to get a replacement NOA I-797C from my I-130 petition so that I could then file the K-3 petition.

Richard