Moving to Amman 101

So the word is "there are allot of people moving to Amman this summer"! I would like to shed a light on the process of my move, so those who are interested in relocating to Amman might benefit. School: The most crucial issue for me personally was finding the right school for my kids; I don't want it to be too western nor too strict. After researching plenty of schools, I found out no two people can agree or disagree on the right school for "your" kids, that is one decision you need to research on your own, because different people have different experience with any school around here. My pick was Bunatolghad school in Jbaiha, the reason I picked this school is because it is American based system and most of their staff, they have E-learning, Swimming pools, new school (2 years old), they give discounts for kids who memorized the Quran, they have healthy cafeteria, they keep kids 30 minutes after school to do their homework and so on.. The bus fees are hefty, but they do have DVD & GPS! Apartment: I have looked for apartments all over and I was lucky because my search started back in March so the rent were not as bad as they would be in the summer, I rented a 3-bedroom flat a block away from school. Here are my tips when looking for a flat in Jordan; Real Estate Agents take 10JD to show you around and 1/2 month rent when you sign the lease, the only issue I had with them is their ads in the newspaper are not real, they are baits to get you to call them and they will end up showing you other apartments. I found mine by deciding which area I want to live in and I just drove around looking for apartments for rents. Building guard is a great resource for finding rentals, he knows where are those for rent in his area (not only his building) offer them tips if you found what you are looking for. I wanted a certain price on 4 payments and he got me that and the tip was 50JD. If they don’t do much other than connect you to the owner then it should be around 10JD. The Car: My advice is to get a small car from the dealership, for 2009 small Toyota payments should be around 280JD for 5 years. Personally, I shipped my car cause I couldn’t sell it, and now I'm getting a free stay up to 8 months only, then I have to take it out for good. The Move: I had to ship my whole furniture from Kuwait to Amman, I looked for Transport offices and they usually differ in prices tremendously, so you have to shop around. The law says any Jordanian citizen can bring furniture to Jordan every 5 years, but it never mentions anything about being new or used. And I can tell you from now, THEY MEAN USED FURNITURE. All new furniture will be TAXED!! You would need to show prove of residency in Jordan, mine was a notarized Rental contract. A guy brought all new leather furniture from the US paid about 6000JD. I was lucky to get away with paying only 30JD. Here is my Tip of the Day for those moving furniture to Jordan: Get the custom release agent guy to hook you up, they know their way around. When picking a moving crew, my advice is to pick some from outside the Custom building as those are pro in squeezing money out of you. The average pay for each should be around 12 to 15JD, they would ask for more after they are done saying that they were really tired and it was not worth it for them. My advice is to pick an Egyptian crew from outside the compound. That’s all I can come up with; feel free to drop me a line if you have any questions. Khaled