Moving Abroad Checklist: The Complete Guide for First-Time Migrants

In this guide

1. Step 1: Get your documents ready
2. Step 2: Check your passport and photos
3. Step 3: Choose and understand your route
4. Step 4: Look for work and protect yourself from scams
5. Step 5: Plan your money
6. Step 6: Pack and travel smart
7. Step 7: Know your first tasks in the new country
8. Step 7b: Handle the paperwork that follows you abroad
9. Living in Europe as a Brit: healthcare and residency
10. Moving to Asia-Pacific, France and Norway: visas and first steps
11. A simple timeline
12. Key takeaways

Quick answer: Before you move abroad, get your documents in order, check your passport and photos, verify any visa agent or job offer, plan how you will move and send money, and know the first tasks you will face when you land. This page is a checklist that links to our detailed guides on each step, so you can work through them in order.

Moving to another country feels like one big task, but it is really a series of small ones. The people who struggle most are usually not missing money; they are missing a document, a deadline or a piece of information they did not know they needed. Use this checklist as a map. Each item links to a guide that goes into the detail, based on official sources. Rules differ by country and change over time, so always confirm the final requirements on your destination’s official government website.

Step 1: Get your documents ready

• Work through our checklist of documents to gather before moving abroad, including a tick-box list you can use on the page.
• Keep separate copies of key papers, and keep digital copies somewhere you can reach from any country.
• If your visa needs a police certificate, read our guide to the police clearance certificate for immigration, including how the FBI Identity History Summary works. Requirements depend on the destination, so check what your destination country asks for.
• Heading to the US and likely to need an ITIN? See which ITIN supporting documents the IRS accepts before you travel, because original or certified copies are required.
• Some Canadian applications need a health check or fingerprints: read who needs a Canada immigration medical exam and who needs to give biometrics.
• Applying to Canada? An Educational Credential Assessment may be needed for your foreign degree, and the IRCC secure account is where most applications start.
• Planning ahead for your family’s affairs? Learn what a power of attorney does and how a revocable living trust works.

Step 2: Check your passport and photos

• Check the expiry date of your passport well before you apply for anything.
• Photo rejections slow down applications. Read why passport photos get rejected and how to avoid it, based on US State Department rules.
• Know what to do if the worst happens: our guide to a lost or stolen passport abroad explains the steps for US citizens.

Step 3: Choose and understand your route

Every country has its own visa or immigration routes. These guides explain the main ones from official sources:

• UK, study: UK Student visa guide, then the Graduate visa guide. Graduates of eligible universities can also read the High Potential Individual visa guide.
• UK, work: UK Skilled Worker visa guide, the Health and Care Worker visa guide and the Global Talent visa guide. Also see the Seasonal Worker visa, Innovator Founder visa and Scale-up Worker visa.
• UK, young people: UK Youth Mobility Scheme visa guide.
• UK, family: UK family visa guide.
• UK, visiting: UK Standard Visitor visa guide and the UK ETA guide for visitors who do not need a visa.
• UK, changing planes: UK transit visa guide.
• UK, proving your status: UK eVisa and share code guide.
• UK, bringing a pet: bringing a dog, cat or ferret to Great Britain.
• Canada, skilled workers: Express Entry explained, with detail on the CRS score, language tests and proof of funds. Program guides: Canadian Experience Class and Federal Skilled Worker Program.
• Canada, provinces and regions: Provincial Nominee Program, Atlantic Immigration Program and the rural and Francophone community pilots.
• Canada, working temporarily: Canada work permit types explained, and for young travellers International Experience Canada.
• Canada, study: Canada study permit requirements, then the PGWP guide for work after graduation, and working off campus as a student.
• Canada, family: sponsor your spouse to Canada and the Canada super visa for parents and grandparents.
• Canada, visiting: Canada eTA guide.
• United States, work visas: L-1A, L-1B, TN for Canadians and Mexicans, E-1 treaty trader, E-2 treaty investor and O-1.
• United States, students: F-1 work rules: CPT and OPT.
• United States, green card: family-based green cards, adjustment of status, the affidavit of support and diversity visa winners.
• United States, status and work: Employment Authorization Document guide, renewing a green card, reentry permit for long trips, and, later, naturalization requirements.
• United States, tax status: if you will spend time in the US, read the substantial presence test guide early, because it decides how you are taxed. If you may qualify to be treated as a non-resident despite the day count, see the closer connection exception. Green card holders should read the green card test. Arriving or leaving mid-year? See the dual-status tax year guide. Moving with a US citizen or resident spouse? Read about the nonresident spouse election. Nonresidents may also need Form 1040-NR.

Step 4: Look for work and protect yourself from scams

If you want a job lined up, start with how to find a job abroad before you move and prepare a resume for applying abroad. If you will work in the US, learn how Form I-9 and Form W-4 for nonresident aliens work before your first day. Before you pay anyone, read how to avoid visa and job offer scams. The core rule is simple: genuine visa processes do not need you to pay private individuals before you apply, and you should only apply through the official government website. The same patterns appear in payment scams, covered in how to avoid money transfer scams. If you ever get caught out, see who to contact for help with a scam or fraud and what to do if you are a victim of identity theft.

Step 5: Plan your money

• Learn what really costs you money in a transfer: hidden fees in international money transfers.
• Decide whether sending money is safe for your situation: is it safe to send money abroad.
• If it is your first transfer, follow how to use a money transfer app for the first time.
• Know your rights when something goes wrong: remittance transfer rights in the US, how to cancel an international money transfer and what to do if the recipient received less than you sent.
• Understand the transfer types: international wire transfers, what information a wire needs and US limits on sending money abroad.
• For regular transfers to family, see our hub on sending money home from abroad.
• If you are closing a bank account before you leave, read how to close a bank account and how to stop automatic payments first. Also check whether closing a credit card hurts your credit and how to close one properly.
• If you will keep a bank account back home while living in the US, read about FBAR and Form 8938 before you leave. If relatives abroad will send you large gifts, read Form 3520 for foreign gifts.
• If you will earn US-source income as a nonresident, read about 30% withholding. International students receiving scholarships should see the scholarship tax treaty exemption.
• Need more time or help paying a US tax bill? See the filing extension, paying your IRS bill and checking your refund.
• If you are moving to the UK, learn how income tax, National Insurance, foreign income and Self Assessment work. Leaving the UK? Read about UK income when you live abroad. In Canada, start with taxes for newcomers and CRA My Account.
• If you are moving with children, check family payments early: UK Child Benefit and Canada Child Benefit.
• If you are a US citizen moving out of the US, read the expat tax guide, because you may still have to file. Then check the expat tax extension, Social Security tax abroad and Form 6166 residency certification.
• If you are a non-citizen leaving the US, find out whether you need a sailing permit.

Step 6: Pack and travel smart

Before you fly, check what food you can carry. For the US, read bringing food into the US: what you must declare at customs.

Step 7: Know your first tasks in the new country

Once you land, a short list of tasks comes up in almost every country: banking, a tax or social number, healthcare, housing and a credit record. Our hub on your first 90 days in a new country links to the guide for each task, country by country.

Step 7b: Handle the paperwork that follows you abroad

• Documents used overseas: read how an apostille for US documents works before an authority abroad asks for one.
• Safety check: use the travel advisory levels to check your destination before you book.
• Voting and pensions: British citizens can read how to vote from abroad and whether the UK State Pension can be paid abroad. US benefit recipients can read about Social Security benefits outside the US.
• US expat tax: foreign housing exclusion, which exchange rate to use, streamlined foreign offshore procedures and the expatriation (exit) tax.
• Moving to Canada: cost of living in Canada, the customs declaration card, GCKey, IMM 5406, IMM 5476, PRRA and criminal rehabilitation.
• Americans abroad: vote with the Federal Post Card Application and read about retiring abroad with Medicare and Social Security.
• Leaving Canada: emigrant tax rules and residency status and ties.

Living in Europe as a Brit: healthcare and residency

Start with living in Spain as a British national. Then read the healthcare guide for your country: Spain, Portugal, France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, Greece, Cyprus, Malta, Sweden, Ireland, Belgium, Austria, Poland, Denmark, Finland, Czechia.

Moving to Asia-Pacific, France and Norway: visas and first steps

These guides summarise GOV.UK guidance on visas, residence documents, health cover and driving: moving to Japan, moving to New Zealand, living in Australia, immigration to Norway and moving to France as a British national.

A simple timeline

Key takeaways

• Start with documents, passport and photos, because delays there hold everything else up.
• Understand your visa route from the official source before you apply.
• Verify every visa agent and job offer on official sites before you pay.
• Plan your money and understand transfer costs before you leave.
• Use the hub guides to find the right country-specific steps.

This page is general information, not legal or immigration advice. We update our guides as sources change, and not every topic is covered yet. Last updated: October 2026.