Timeline For Overseas Relocation ☆ How To Prepare For A Move Abroad

MOVING ABRAOD

Congratulations! You’re moving overseas!

Some people find out the assignment months and months ahead of time. Some others might only have less than a month notice. Wherever you are, everyone starts the journey of life overseas from the same place: Preparation.

Warning: I’d like to prepare waaaaay ahead with 3 kids. Don’t worry if you don’t have as much time as written here. You’ll be fine.

The preparation does not start when movers come to your home to pack out. It starts way before that. If you want to avoid having some stressful panicky moments, it is vital that you start planning and organizing ahead of time. The key to a smooth transition is to give yourself a plenty of time to prepare and not to wait.

This is just a suggested timeline. Everyone has his/her own pace to do things and that’s totally fine. My husband and I like to give a lot of time to work on each task. I used this timeline for our last move, the hardest relocation thus far, and it worked well for us. I came up with this timeline based on all of our experiences of moving internationally in the last 20 years. I hope this will be helpful for many who will embark on the journey of expat life.

 

4 TO 6 MONTHS BEFORE LEAVING

Many people don’t find out this far in advance. If so, you can skip this part.

Many people start getting some signs of a potential international relocation 5 or 6 months before it actually happens while some others find out with a much shorter notice. If you happen to know the assignment in advance, that is great. Even if it is not the case for you, you just have to find your priorities and start working on one thing at a time.

For the most part, the preparation for 5 or 6 months prior to the big move applies mostly for home owners.

1. CHECK PASSPORT VALIDATION

If you have passports already, this should be the first thing you do. Check your and your family members’ passport expiration dates.

2. RESEARCH SCHOOLS FOR KIDS

Do you have school age kids? If so, start researching school options online. If you have older kids, you might have to look into an IB program or non-IB program depending on schools. If you have announced to your kids that you are moving, have your children involved in the research. Make it a fun activity for them. That will get them excited about the move.

FOR HOME OWNERS

RENTING OUT?

FIND A PROPERTY MANAGEMENT COMPANY

If you plan on renting your home, finding a property manager who can manage your property while you stay overseas. If you find one, contact or meet with a property manager to learn what you need to do to prepare. It is possible to rent your home without a mediation. However, if you are moving overseas, hiring a property manager is advised and will give you a peace of mind. It is easier for renters to have a property management company to go through as well in case of any urgent issues because there is no delay in communication due to a time difference. I know some people who manage their rental properties from overseas. This will save you money, but in case something goes wrong, you could end up with a bigger headache. Also, it is very important that you select a good property management company that you can trust.

REPAIR & CLEAN UP YOUR HOME

SELLING YOUR PROPERTY?

If you are selling your property before your big move, you might want to look for a real estate agent at this point. Find out what you need to do to prepare. Research the selling market for your area and find out how long it may take to sell your house. Learning about it early and get it out of your way will be helpful as you will have so much more to think about as the date of your move approaches.

 

4 MONTHS BEFORE LEAVING

You can also do all this 3 months before. It’ll be easier if you start any of this earlier.

1. PREPARE PASSPORTS

If you don’t have a passport or your family members don’t have passports, apply for them as soon as possible. Some countries would not issue a work or dependent visa if your passport expiration date is within a year. Go to your host country’s Embassy website and check the requirements.

2. CONTACT SCHOOLS OF YOUR INTEREST

Start contacting administrative offices of the schools in which you are interested for your children. We sent an email message to the school admission office. Some schools might refer you to parent networking groups or helpful websites for you to find out more about the life in the city. Some schools would be competitive to get in. If that is the case, start a school application process for your kids sooner than later.

3. IMMUNIZATIONS

Find out required and recommended immunizations prior to moving to the new country. I find the website of Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website helpful.

4. START ORGANIZING AND CLEANING YOUR HOME

If you are a home owner, repair anything you need in order to rent or sell. Start organizing home and sort what you need to take with you and what you will send to a storage. If there is anything you don’t need, try to remove them from home. Getting rid of things takes time. You will be better off starting the process early if you have the time.

5. RELOCATING PET PROCESS

Do you have a pet or pets? Start researching what you need to do in terms of paperwork and check-up in order to travel with your pet. Not all the airline companies will accept pets. You might have to research which airline company and route will make the most sense for you to fly with your pet.

6. FIND A RELOCATION / MOVING COMPANY

Your company might already have a moving company that uses for relocation or have recommendations. You can start contacting moving companies to find out their quotes.

FOR HOME OWNERS

IF YOU ARE RENTING OUT YOUR HOME, TAKE PHOTOGRAPHY OF YOUR HOME.

Decide if you will find a renter on your own or ask a real estate agent or property management company to help you find a renter. If you ask a property management company or real estate agent to find your future renter, the cost will likely be a one month rent. You can always try to find one yourself, and if it does not go well, you can ask your agent to help you. If you will try to find your own using websites such as Zillow, start taking photos of your home now.

 

3 MONTHS BEFORE LEAVING

1. CONTACT A MOVING COMPANY

In my own experiences, a pack-out survey happens as early as 3 months prior to the actual pack-out. A moving company will send an employee who will come to your house and estimate how much you will be shipping overseas. If you are relocating during the peak moving season, securing the dates for your pack-out early is advised.

2. SCHOOL APPLICATION & HEALTH CHECK-UP

If you haven’t applied for your kid’s school yet, start filling out school application forms and gather required documents. Most likely your children will be required to submit health check-up. Make an appointment with your provider.

3. LOOK AND SEE TRIP

Some companies offer a “look and see” trip. We’ve never done it ourselves. In Jakarta and Mumbai I have known many families who were able to visit the city prior to relocating. This trip will allow any potential expats in those cities to visit schools and do some apartment or house hunting prior to moving. If you would like to visit schools, it will help to make an appointment with the school admission office so that you can get a school tour and meet with the staff.

FOR HOME OWNERS

RENTING OUT

CREATE ADS

If you are going to find a renter of your home yourself, create an ad. I used zillow.com.

POST ADS FOR RENTAL HOME

I posted my ad 4 months before the available move-in date. Having done that, I think 3 months prior would be okay. You will show your home to potential renters. It will take up more of your time than you think.

 

2 MONTHS BEFORE LEAVING

1. VISA APPLICATION

If you are assigned to move overseas, your company’s HR office should help you with the visa application process. By now you should have your valid passports. In many cases it takes 4 to 6 weeks for acquiring work visas and visas for dependents. Check with your host country’s Embassy website about the duration of time required for the visa to be processed.

2. ORGANIZE YOUR IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS

Some people say it is better for you to travel with your important documents such as health records, immunization records, marriage certificate, birth certificates, school records, etc. Make copies of important documents. If you have the time, scan them and keep digital records as well.

3. PURGE & GARAGE SALE

It is a good time to do a garage sale.
If you plan on doing a garage sale, I recommend you do a garage sale 2 months before you move. Within the last month is also good, but I find it too stressful to do a garage sale closer to a pack-out date.

4. SHOPPING FOR YOUR NEW HOME

In some countries, buying furniture may not be cheap or easy. Finding good kids furniture is not easy unless you move to a city with IKEA nearby. I always like to make a purchase and ship essential furniture as well as decorative items prior to moving to a brand new city so that once we receive our boxes, all I have to do is to decorate our new home with them. It is much easier and less stressful this way.

I will write a post on the items that will be helpful to include in your shipment when moving overseas.

 

1 MONTH BEFORE LEAVING

1. FIGURE OUT LOGISTICS BETWEEN PACK-OUT AND DEPARTURE

Most likely you will have a gap between the day you pack-out and the day you fly out in order to take care of businesses. You need a place to stay after movers pack your household effects and before you hop on a plane to leave. If your family lives near by, maybe that is where you will go. If not, you will need to stay in a hotel. It is a good idea to find a hotel in advance especially if you move in June or July as it is a popular relocation season.

2. PLAN FOR FAREWELL PARTIES

It is important that you put a closure to the chapter of your life. Saying good-bye to your friends whether it is emotionally difficult or not is important. If you have children and you would like to host something so that they can properly say good-bye, now is the time to plan.

3. VISAS READY?

Check in with the HR office or the Embassies of your host country to make sure your visa application process is on track. It doesn’t hurt to ask.

4. UTILITIES

Contact Gas, Electricity and Water companies and ask what you need to do to transfer names or end the service.

5. CABLE COMPANY & CELL PHONE COMPANIES

Contact your service companies about termination of services and how you need to make payments for the last bills.

6. VEHICLES

Are you selling your car? We have always purchased a local car because it is much easier to fix issues. Every time we moved out of the United States, except for one time, we sold our cars. I sold our car twice on Craig’s List. I cleaned the car and took photos about 5 weeks before we needed to let go of the car. I posted an ad 4 to 3 weeks before we could part from the car.

LIVE IN THE U.S.?
CarMax would be a good place in case you end up not having enough time to sell your car. Benefit of using a CarMax is that you can use your car until right before you leave. We had taken our car to CarMax 5 weeks before we left to have it estimated. In the end, I sold our car on our own, but CarMax gave us such a good quote that we were very tempted to take the offer.

7. INTERNATIONAL DRIVER’S LICENCE

Regulations for foreigners to drive in a host country vary. Many countries recognize international driver’s license. If you might bring or buy a car and drive yourself in your host country, having an international driver’s license might come handy until you will acquire a local driver’s license.

 

2 WEEKS BEFORE LEAVING

1. PACK YOUR SUITCASES

Why? You still have time. Right? It is better to pack so that you will see how much more you can pack or if you need to retrieve some stuff and ship it instead. It always helps to pack your suitcases with items you will take with you to separate them from the items that will be shipped.

*Make sure you put your passports and important documents in your suitcases and put your suitcases in one closet or a room where you ask movers to not enter, so that packers won’t pack the passports. Believe it or not, this happens to some people.

2. PACK-OUT

I like to pack out within 2 weeks before the departure date. Give yourself an extra day in case the pack-out does not end as scheduled. It has happened to us.

3. PAYMENT FOR BILLS

Make an arrangement with someone to complete the last payment before you leave. Some HR offices might help you with this.

4. FORWARDING ADDRESS

Go to your area’s post office and register a forwarding address after you move out.

 

1 WEEK BEFORE LEAVING

1. CLEAN YOUR RESIDENCE

You can clean it yourself or you can hire a professional cleaner to do it yourself. We hired a professional cleaner to do a deep detailed cleaning of our home prior to renting it out.

2. COLLECT SCHOOL RECORDS

If you need to take school records with you, make sure to visit your kid’s school and pick up the record from the office.

THAT’S IT!

This is the end of the timeline for an overseas relocation.

I hope you’ll find this helpful.

Good luck with your move.

It felt like a marathon to me as I started preparing for our relocation 6 months prior to our pack-out. It was hard at times, but it all went well and now my family and I live happily in Manila. All of your hard work will be worth the effort in the end.