The last season before a move fills up with viewings, goodbyes and shipping quotes. The financial work is less visible and more annoying to do later. A ninety-day window is long enough to write to providers and short enough that you will still remember the answers. Nothing in that number is a day-count test for tax or immigration.
The first weeks: list and ask
Make the inventory of accounts, investments, pensions, insurance and property. Send the short question: what happens to this product if I become non-resident, and what do you need from me? Diary a chase. Silence is not a yes.
At the same time, gather originals and scans of passports, marriage or birth records you may need, recent bank statements, and evidence of address. Certified copies and translations take longer than people expect, and the rules for what counts as certified are local.
The middle: money and cover
Decide which payments must keep working: a mortgage, school fees, a subscription, a salary that will change currency. Open or apply for the account you will actually use, once you know what the new bank wants. Do not empty the old one until those payments have a home.
Read health and life policies for territory, dependants and what you must tell the insurer. If a new policy is needed, start it so that it is in force before the old one ends. Travel insurance for the journey is a different contract from a year of ordinary care.
The final weeks: access and records
Check that online banking, security codes and a working phone number will still function. Tell providers the address they should use, and keep a copy of what you sent. Start a note of days if the year of departure may be questioned later.
This is a poor moment to transfer a pension, cash in a tax wrapper, or sign a company structure because a deadline feels close. Those decisions survive a delay better than they survive a mistake.
Use the window to collect answers, not to force a structure
A ninety-day stretch is long enough for a bank, a school and an insurer to reply, and short enough that you will still be in reach of the documents they ask for. Split it into questions you can finish and decisions you should not rush. Finish the inventory, the written questions to providers, and the scan of passports and proof of address. Do not treat the same window as the moment to transfer a pension or to choose a company because a forum described the destination in a sentence.
Chase silence. A provider that has not replied is not a provider that has agreed. Book the chase in the diary rather than trusting that you will remember after a viewing or a shipping quote. If a school or a landlord needs a letter from a bank, ask for that letter early. The people who issue it are rarely the people who are packing your house.
What is worth having in hand before you fly
Certified copies and translations follow local rules, and those rules are not something to guess from a neighbour’s experience. Ask the institution that will receive the document what it accepts, including whether a translation must be sworn and whether a copy must be certified in a particular way. Start that ask while you still have the original nearby.
Write down what must still be paid after you land: a final utility bill, a tax instalment, a storage invoice, a card you are keeping. Leave the account that pays those items open until the payments have a new home. The calendar is a planning aid. It is not a day-count test for tax or immigration, and it does not become one if you happen to leave on day ninety.
A practical checklist
- Provider questions sent, and answers filed.
- Identity and civil documents copied.
- Payments mapped to an account that will survive the move.
- Insurance dates checked so there is no gap.
- Phone and security access tested.
- A day record started if residence may be unclear.
Questions to ask
- Which of my products are unavailable to non-residents?
- What proof of address will you accept after I leave?
- When does my current health cover stop?
- Who is notified if I change tax residence?
- What can safely wait until I have local advice?
Common mistakes
- Treating 90 days as a legal threshold.
- Leaving document requests until the week of travel.
- Cancelling a card that still pays the mortgage.
- Buying travel insurance and calling it healthcare.
- Making an irreversible pension or investment decision to ‘get it done’.
WiT Access provides general information and comparison resources. Nothing on this website constitutes financial, tax, legal or investment advice. Always consider obtaining advice from an appropriately qualified professional.
