A Checklist for Moving Abroad: 6 Nagging Details to Take Care of

While I applaud the guts of anyone who says, “That’s it I’m outta here!” and lands in another country a week later, most people are going to want to do a little more planning and tidying up than that. If you want to travel long-term, work as a digital nomad, or move overseas for good, you probably can’t just grab your passport and go. There are some details you have to take care of first to make sure you don’t leave a trail of errands, financial fiascos, and stress in your former homeland. 

You could download some 49-point checklist for moving abroad, with boxes to check off, but it doesn’t have to be that complicated. This article is going to concentrate on the big ones, the categories that most of the other tasks fall into. 

I’ve looked at many of those long checklists and they give me a headache. They inevitably have a lot of items that you can ignore. Like “Hire a moving company”–on the website of a moving company of course. Or “Stop all your magazine and newspaper subscriptions.” Really? Who is under 60 and still getting those? Those lists make me stressed out and I’ve already moved! 

Some people do look at the idea of moving abroad as an impossible goal though, mostly because they’re so tied down to where they are now. They’ve got so many possessions, obligations, and bills piled up that they can’t fathom the thought of being free. If this is your situation, then it is probably going to take you a long time—maybe years—to unwind the prison of your own making.

If you’re in your 20s and don’t own much, however, or have any kids, it’s a whole lot easier. You may be able to rent a storage locker, toss everything in after stuffing the backpack, and you’re good to go. Or maybe leave it all in your parents’ basement. 

I’ve heard of people selling the house, the cars, and most of their possessions in three months and taking off. But that’s a monumental project. You are probably in the middle somewhere and are just looking at the steps you need to take eventually, where to start and what comes next. Especially if you’re still working full-time while making preparations. 

Consider the list you would have for moving to another state or province in your own country, then double it. If you’re a couple and one of you is more organized than the other, designate that person as the moving abroad checklist maker and document gatherer. Otherwise, you may never get on that plane.

Here are the broad categories of steps you’ll need to take to prepare before you move to another country or start a long period of roaming as a digital nomad.

Mail, Taxes, and a Permanent Address

Yes, we can do most of what we need to do online, like paying credit card bills, getting back statements, and even paying quarterly taxes if you’re a self-employed American. The post office may not be bringing you much besides junk mail. You’ll almost surely still need to maintain a permanent address in your own country though, both to have a place for lingering mail to go and to maintain accounts with your financial institutions.

If you have credit cards, you’ll need a place for the replacement ones to come. Some companies still send tax documents by mail. You might even get a letter about a driver’s license renewal or a summons for jury duty.

You can have a mail address that forwards to you overseas, but a more practical approach is to use a relative’s address so they can alert you when something fishy or urgent comes in. Or if you’re hanging onto a house and renting it out, you could use that and have someone collect the mail for you. 

There are also services that will receive your mail for you and some will scan it so you can see what you got online. You can then have them trash or forward the physical copies. I have some friends who have set up residency in South Dakota, for example, using a service there specifically meant for people roaming the USA in a recreational vehicle or roaming the world without a fixed address.

Some people where I live in Mexico use a service where they have a United States mailing address in Laredo, Texas and a guy actually drives up there twice a week to bring everyone’s mail down to San Miguel de Allende. See all the options here. 

Don’t forget to alert everyone you get mail from of the new address as your forwarding order will only last 6-12 months depending on the items. This is especially essential for tax documents and credit cards. You’ll need to update your address for credit cards, banks, online subscription services, business services, anyone who has to send you a 1099 form, and on and on. Keep a running list before it’s time.

Banking and Finances When Moving Abroad

There are things you need that you probably haven’t even thought about when it comes to financial instruments. Do you have a credit card that doesn’t charge a foreign transaction fee? Hopefully several that earn you rewards? You’ll pay a lot more if you don’t.

Do you have a bank account that will allow you to withdraw your money from an ATM without getting dinged for $4-$5 every time? Over a year, this can make a huge difference. (In general, credit unions and the cash accounts of brokerage companies are the best bet for this. Capital One 360 is second best.) Don’t forget bank alliances that can save you money: your current bank may be connected to another one in your destination country that will allow you to withdraw money at no cost.

Don’t wait until you’re halfway across the world to figure this out. If you need to open a new bank account, you often can’t do it without signing something. Do it while you’re still physically in the country where your money is. 

You want financial backup plans too. If one debit card gets eaten by a machine or lost, you will be glad you had a second one, preferably to a different account. If one credit card gets denied, which happens all the time for no good reason, you want to be able to pull out a second one. In some places Visa is not common but MasterCard is, so you want both. Amex works fine in some places, not at all in others—sometimes whole countries. 

Ideally, you want to have several bank accounts (easier if you’re with a spouse) and you want to be able to transfer money between them. Unless you have six figures sitting around in cash accounts, you’re probably going to need to move money around now and then. You could open a local bank account, but sometimes you’re not allowed to do that until you have official residency and other times there’s just no real incentive to put money in a local bank.

Naturally you want to be able to access your account online and pay bills with it. I highly recommend having a Paypal account plus a Wise account as well if you’ll be doing any kind of regular transactions with people in other countries. The latter has much lower fees. You can connect either to a bank account to transfer in and out. There are also services Venmo, Revolut, and Xoom that might be better depending on where you’re headed.

Keeping in Touch From Overseas

The expatriate life is far easier than it used to be. With Wi-Fi calling, you can talk for hours with your relatives via any internet connection. Via video even if you want by using Zoom, Google Meet, or Facetime. You can set up a phone number in your own country that will ring to your laptop or smart phone abroad. You can share files by Dropbox, Google Drive, or OneDrive and share photos on social media.

None of these services costs much or is difficult. But it’s one more thing to put on your to-do list. You need to get the number and you need to send it out.

Your local mobile service might work abroad as well at little or no extra cost. T-Mobile lets you talk to people in Mexico (or Canada) for free, for example, and the two main Mexican cell carriers have the same deal back in the other direction. If you have T-Mobile you get free roaming in most countries too. 

In most cases you’ll want to get a new SIM card in the local country, but then that means you’ve got a new number to give out or to hook up to something like WhatsApp. A relatively recent development is the eSim option. With one of those plans you can switch back and forth as needed with your regular number and a local data plan when you’re out and about. Check rates here for GigSky or Airalo. 

To protect yourself from hackers on public Wi-FI, you might want to set up a proxy service/ VPN as well. This allows you to tap into an ISP in your home country so it still looks like you’re there. This may or may not help you access subscription services or log into sites in your home country’s version. None of the proxy services are perfect, but the Tunnel Bear one I’ve been using for years works well enough. If you’re a remote worker for a company though, you might need something more robust like ExpressVPN or NordVPN.

Voting From Another Country

The political climate where you live now may be a big reason you’re moving abroad, but you still care what happens where you came from, right? You don’t have to stop voting just because you’re not living where you grew up.

If you are registered to vote, you can keep doing it by absentee ballot. You will want to re-register where your mailing address is though. Then proactively keep up with election dates: there are mid-terms, special ballots, and local elections that may have a big impact on your friends and relatives back home. The redder your state, the more voter suppression you’ll run into, so you need to stay on top of it to avoid getting purged by the old white guys trying to hold onto power. 

Travel or Medical Insurance Before You Move Abroad

One of the huge advantages of moving to a cheaper country is that your medical costs will probably plummet. Unless you’re from a country with truly free medical care for all, you’ll find doctor and dentist bills that present a very minor hit to your household budget.

It’s always going to be a different story though if you have a major accident or need open-heart surgery, so this aspect needs to go onto your checklist for moving abroad. One expat I interviewed in Nicaragua held up his credit card and said, “This is my insurance policy,” but most of us want some kind of real backup for a major catastrophe.

There are several companies that specialize in medical insurance for expats. One I have used in the past is the generic-sounding HealthCare International Group but now I use one called BMI. Compare policies with Seven Corners, Aetna, Cigna, and Allianz too or find a local broker where you’ll be living and let them sort it out.

If you leave out the USA it’s far cheaper everywhere for health coverage, but if you are going to travel back to the USA regularly, you need to be covered while you are there. Even a sprained ankle could set you back thousands otherwise! If you’re only going back for two weeks or so you could probably get a short-term policy from a company like SafetyWing or Travelex, but if you’ll regularly stay for longer you need something more lasting. 

I also have an annual policy from Allianz for the rest of the world and to have compensation in my pocket if my luggage gets lost or my flight gets majorly delayed. They also have a great health app for the road. 

Storing Your Things

If you can get rid of most of what you have, you will make a cleaner break. I always advise people to buy big and heavy things locally after arrival, as well as anything that’s not special you’ll need around the house. Only bring the things that are truly unique or have an emotional attraction.

Going shopping locally is always a fun cultural activity anyway, plus in cheap countries you can get custom furniture made by a craftsman for less than you’d pay for what comes from a factory. Or you may rent a place that’s already furnished, at least at first.

For whatever is left at home, sell or give away what you can. Then store the rest at a relative’s house if you’ve got a generous one or in a public storage facility if not. You might need a climate-controlled one, depending on what you have to store.

I just have one recommendation on this: avoid the conglomerate Public Storage at all costs. They have a terrible reputation for gouging and poor customer service. Unfortunately I saw that first hand when my private storage facility sold out to them halfway through our last stint of living abroad.

After you get everything on this moving abroad checklist done, or at least planned out, then you can move on to worries about visas, outfitting your new place, and finding people to have fun with. Because the hard work in the old place is all done. 

Anything you neglected to take care of beforehand that came back to bite you later while moving or circling the globe? Let me know in the comments.

Parts of this article starting a new life in another country were excerpted from the moving abroad bookA Better Life for Half the Price: How to prosper on less money in the cheapest places to live. Flickr cc photo at top by Kenneth Hagemeyer. Yes this post contains affiliate links that may earn a commission. That’s how websites can offer free content; thanks for your support.