Moving Abroad: What You Need to Think About Before You Go

Posted on 2/6/2026, 9:54:04 AM

Moving abroad can be such an exciting thing to do in life, it’s easy to imagine yourself in this new place having a fresh start. But there’s a practical side too and the everyday things you need to do dont stop just because you’ve changed countries (and some of it gets a lot more complicated once you’re no longer dealing with systems you’re used to). It’s worth thinking through the boring details early on, while everything is still a plan on paper, rather than trying to sort them out once you’re already there. 

Location

Before you decide to move to a completely new place, it’s important that you do your research. Even if you know the place well, perhaps you’ve been on vacation there a number of times, bear in mind that it’s likely to be considerably different as a place to live as it is as a destination. If the place you want to move to is overseas, you’ll need to weigh up things like living costs as rent, groceries, gas and more might all be priced very differently to what you’re used to. Making contact with people who either live at the destination or expats there like you which can be helpful to get some better understanding. 

Finances

Getting your finances sorted is an important step even if you’re not actually earning yet or have been pais from your job. Things like setting up new bank accounts is a must, as well as finding out how you’ll get paid. You’ll also need to uderstand what your residency status means for things like healthcare and insurance. For Americans in particular, there’s often a surprise waiting when it comes to taxes. Even if you’re living and working abroad, the US still expects you to file tax returns (and plenty of expats only realise this years later when they’re already settled into life in another country!) It can be so stressful to discover you’re behind on filings, but there are formal ways to catch up on US expat taxes without turning it into a bigger problem than it needs to be. Knowing this early on makes the whole move feel less daunting, because you can plan for the admin side alongside everything else. Find out what the process involves for both the place you’re moving to AND where you’re leaving.

Practicalities 

One of the most important things to get right when you’re moving abroad is finding somewhere to live. It needs to be affordable but also safe, many places in the world might not be friendly to people they consider ‘outsiders’ or you might become a victim of crime. Moving to a safe area or somewhere that other expats live will often be your best bet. Finally, you’ll need to think about moving your stuff. If the place you’ll be living is far away, it might be worth selling much of what you own and buying it again when you arrive to avoid transportation costs. If you’ll be bringing pets with you when you’ve moving abroad, you’ll need to find out what the process is and what kinds of vaccinations or quarantine they’ll need. If you want to bring a car you’;ll need to figure out what’s involved with that, if you’ll be moving to a place where they drive on the opposite side of the road then buying a car that’s been built for that country (with the drivers seat/ gearbox on the ‘correct’ side for that place) might be easier. If you’re moving to a big city or somewhere that has excellent transport links then there might not be much point owning a car at all which are all things to think about.