Game Moving

For the past two and a half years I've been playing a secondary character on my daughter's 3DS game of Animal Crossing New Leaf, which is basically a simulation where the primary player manages a town as its mayor.  Lately she has become rather possessive of the game and doesn't want me to play it as much, so I've been considering the purchase of my own 3DS and copy of New Leaf.

Fortunately New Leaf has the option of moving a non-mayor character to another game cartridge via wireless connection, and that character becomes the mayor of the new town.  There are online guides for character moving but many are not complete, so after doing a lot of searching I'm consolidating the information here.

When moving to become mayor of a new town, the new game cartridge must not have an already existing save file.  The player can choose the layout of the new town but the appearance of their avatar stays the same as before.

The following information is transferred:

1. The character's existing house with all upgrades.
2. Items in pockets and inventory, locker storage, and inside character's home.
3. Saved custom designs and saved letters in the post office.
4. Bells (game money), both on hand and deposited in the ATM.
5. Character's encyclopedia of caught bugs/fish/sea creatures.

The character loses:

1. Unlocked public works projects from town of origin.
2. Letters in the character's mailbox.
3. Items in Re-Tail store and museum display rooms in old town.
4. Item catalog, badges, joke book are all reset.

So moving to a new town has its advantages if one is willing to work at re-gaining the achievements.