Timeline for an International Move
What to do and when, from the first decision to your first week abroad, and how to build the version that actually fits your move.
From here to there, with a plan.
Jump to the timelineThe catch
No single timeline fits every move
Search for a timeline for an international move, or a timeline for relocation abroad, and the answer is always the same: start twelve months out. It is good advice, and the countdown below gives you that backbone. But no fixed timeline knows your destination or what your move involves, and a visa-free EU move is not the same schedule as one that needs a permit, an apostille, and a consulate appointment. So read it as the shape of a move, then let your own situation set the real dates, which is one of the things that Plarelo does: it builds the timeline around your move and suggests when to start each step.
The countdown
Your international move, month by month
The single most useful thing you can do is put every large task on one timeline and work backwards from your move date. The reason is simple: the tasks that matter most, visas, school places, and shipping, take the longest and are the hardest to rush, so they have to start first.
What follows is a general backbone, roughly a year out to your first weeks abroad. Your own dates will differ, since a visa might take three weeks or six months, but the order holds for most moves.
- 12+ months out
Decide, tell your people, and research the hard parts
Confirm where and roughly when. Once the decision feels real, tell the people you care about, family and close friends, and give them time to take it in; shared early, the news makes them part of your support rather than a late surprise. Then look up two things that quietly set the whole schedule: your immigration route and how long it really takes, and your passport (renew now if it has under six months on it). This is also when many schools open enrolment for the following year. Everything downstream counts back from this date, even while it is still approximate.
- 9 months out
Understand your visa route, and get tax advice
Get to know the visa or residence routes that fit your situation, and prepare what you can before the move: the documents each route needs, the order of the steps, and where you would apply. It is the single longest and least controllable part of the move, and other items rely on this being put in motion, so the earlier you understand the path, the more of the timeline holds together. This is also when to get advice on tax residency, pensions, and anything you hold that a move complicates.
- 6 months out
Lock schools and start on housing
If children are moving, look now: many schools take applications in winter or spring for the following September, so applying early gives you the widest choice of places. Research neighbourhoods and rental requirements, and decide how you will handle housing: either arrange temporary housing for your first weeks and find a long-term home once you have arrived, or commit to a place before you move, ideally after seeing it on a pre-move visit. School windows and housing searches do not bend to your schedule, so they cannot wait for the last months.
- 4 months out
Money, movers, and documents
Arrange banking at the destination and plan how you will move funds across currencies. Get quotes from movers or shippers now: sea freight books up months ahead and runs six to twelve weeks door to door. If a pet is moving with you, start their journey now too: the vaccinations, microchip, and health certificates most countries require run on a fixed schedule, and some rabies tests or quarantine arrangements have to begin well in advance. And gather every document your destination requires, marking the ones that need an apostille or a sworn translation, since those two-step items run on government offices and certified translators, not on you.
- 3 months out
Lay the groundwork for settling in
A move is not only logistics, and the part that decides how it feels, whether the new place becomes home, is worth a little preparation too. Start finding your people: expat and community groups for your destination, and anyone who has made the same move from where you are, are warm sources of honest advice, and a network already waiting when you land. Look into the life beyond work as well, the clubs, sports, classes, and activities you and your family would genuinely enjoy, so there is something to step into rather than a blank calendar to fill from scratch. None of it has to be arranged yet. A few threads started now make the first months feel like arriving somewhere, not starting over.
- 2 months out
Sort health cover and appointments
Sort out how you will be covered from the day you land. There is usually a gap between arriving and being enrolled in the destination’s public or private health system, so arrange interim cover, travel or international health insurance, to carry you through those first few weeks, and check what the local system will need from you once you qualify. This is also the time for the health admin that is simpler to do at home: routine check-ups and dental work, repeat prescriptions and how you will refill them abroad, any vaccinations your destination asks for, and a copy of everyone’s medical records to carry with you.
- 1 month out
Confirm everything and close things down
Reconfirm every booking. Change your address, redirect your mail, and cancel or transfer utilities and subscriptions. Exchange some currency for the first days, and settle the final bills. This is the month you start living out of less.
- Move week
Pack, hand over, and travel
Carry the things that should never go in a shipping container: passports and documents, medication, chargers, valuables and jewellery, and enough clothing and light personal items to live on until your shipment arrives. Match what you pack to two things, the destination’s weather over the coming weeks and when your shipped boxes are actually expected to land, which can be several weeks after you do. Then do the final home handover, take meter readings and photos, and travel with those essentials never out of reach.
- First weeks after arrival
Register, and switch your new life on
The part most timelines skip. Many countries expect you to register your address and residence within days to weeks of landing. Get a local ID or tax number, open a bank account, activate healthcare, enrol children, and start the process of exchanging your driving licence. Arrival is not the finish line; it is the start of a second, shorter checklist with its own real deadlines.
This is the shape, not your schedule. The real dates are yours, since only you know how long your visa will take, or your notice period. Plarelo turns the shape into your schedule: it works through your situation to surface the decisions, paperwork, and tasks your move actually involves, and for the ones that need a head start it suggests when to begin, so the slow items are on your radar from the first week rather than surfacing at the last minute.
Rather than map this by hand? Plarelo builds the timeline around your actual move, with suggested start times, free.
Build your timeline, freeWorth starting early
Two things worth an early start
Most of a move has some give in it. Two things have a little less, so they are the ones worth looking into early, well before the move feels close. Neither is urgent today; both are simply easier, and leave you more choice, the sooner you begin.
School places. Many international and local schools take applications in the winter or spring for the following September, earlier than most families expect. Starting the search early mainly gives you more options to choose from; there is no penalty for looking sooner. If children are moving, it is a gentle one to begin ahead of the rest, even while the move is still taking shape.
Visa and permit processing. Immigration timelines are set by governments rather than by you, and they vary widely: an appointment might be a few weeks out, a decision might take a few months. Since so much of the rest of the move follows from your status being settled, this is the piece it helps most to give plenty of time. Start it early and the rest of the timeline has room to breathe.
A generic list mentions these in passing; a good plan gives them the attention they deserve. Plarelo flags them with suggested start times, so the steps that benefit from a head start are on your radar in good time, calmly, rather than at the last minute.
After you land
The part most timelines skip: your first weeks abroad
Almost every moving timeline ends at “moving day,” as if arriving were the finish. It is not. The first few weeks in a new country are their own phase, with their own deadlines, and they are the ones people are least prepared for because no checklist told them what came next.
Many countries expect you to register your address and residence within days of arriving, and a chain of everyday essentials, a local ID or tax number, a bank account, healthcare, a school place, a driving licence, tends to depend on that registration and on each other, in a particular order. Knowing that order before you land is what makes the first weeks flow, each step quietly opening the next, instead of doubling back.
This is why Plarelo splits every plan into a pre-move and a post-move phase: so the part waiting on the other side of the flight is already mapped, in order, before you land, rather than worked out on the spot while you are jet-lagged and still finding your feet.
Questions
International move timing, answered
How far in advance should you plan an international move?
Twelve months is the comfortable window for most independent moves: enough time to secure a visa, catch school-enrolment deadlines, prepare documents, and handle the emotional side without a constant scramble. Six months is workable but tight, and usually only realistic when an employer is handling visas and logistics. Three months is possible for simple, visa-light moves, but rarely for a complex one.
How long does an international move take?
From first decision to fully unpacked, most international moves span three to twelve months. The physical shipping is only part of it: by sea, household goods typically take six to twelve weeks door to door; by air, closer to one to two weeks at a higher cost. The part that takes longest is almost always the visa or residence permit, not the shipping.
Can you move abroad in three months?
Sometimes. If your destination is visa-free or the visa is fast, or your employer sponsors and handles the paperwork, three months can be enough. The two things that most often make it impossible are how long the visa takes and how long shipping takes, both of which run on other people’s calendars, not yours. If either is slow for your destination, the move takes longer no matter how organised you are.
When should I apply for a visa or residence permit?
As early as you realistically can, typically six to nine months before your move. It is the slowest, least flexible part of the timeline, and much of the rest, from shipping bookings to school confirmations, depends on it being underway. Applying early also leaves room for the appointment backlogs and document requests that routinely add weeks.
What should you do in the first weeks after arriving?
Register your address and residence (many countries require this within days), get a local ID, social, or tax number, open a bank account, activate healthcare, enrol any children in school, and begin exchanging your driving licence. These post-arrival steps have their own deadlines and unlock everyday life, so treat the first weeks abroad as their own phase of the plan rather than an afterthought.
Turn this into your own timeline
Tell Plarelo about your move and it builds the decisions, paperwork, and tasks around your situation, with suggested start times for the steps that need a head start, split into pre-move and post-move. Free.
Build your international move timeline, freePrefer to look around first? See what the planner does.
The decisions behind the dates: what to weigh, and how to order the whole move.
When the move is on: the step-by-step of what to actually do, gather, and submit.