A temporary base
A serviced stay or a short let can cover the gap while you learn the neighbourhood, the commute and the school run.
Mobility
International relocation
Plan the practical move — housing, schools, healthcare, banking, transport and the first months after arrival.
A successful relocation is usually about sequence: what must happen before arrival, what can wait, and which tasks depend on each other.
Relocation becomes easier when you treat it as a project with dependencies, not a long checklist.
Housing may be needed before banking. Banking may be needed before utilities. Schools may determine neighbourhood choice. Healthcare may need to be arranged before travel. The order matters.
Nothing below is a legal timetable. Destinations differ, and a household should check official requirements before treating any step as mandatory.
Sequence
A planning sequence, not a set of deadlines
These windows are a way to order a household move. They are not processing times, visa durations or local rules. A school place, a pet, or a shipment can pull a task earlier.
01
6+ months
- Destination research
- Visa and residence questions
- School options
- Housing market
- Pets and shipping, if either is likely
02
3–6 months
- Documents and legalisation
- School applications
- Insurance questions
- What an employer package covers
- A first view of temporary housing
03
1–3 months
- Temporary accommodation
- Banking conversations
- Healthcare cover for the gap
- Removals quotes
- Travel bookings
04
Final month
- Inventory
- Storage decisions
- School and medical records
- Pet paperwork
- Closing or pausing home utilities
05
Arrival week
- Address in hand
- Local phone
- Transport for the first days
- Registration appointments
- Keys, if the housing is ready
06
First 90 days
- A longer home, if you started temporary
- Banking, insurance and payroll settled
- School and healthcare in use
- A fresh look at tax residence
Housing
Decide what the address is for before you sign
A longer home
A rental, or a purchase, may be what registration, a bank or a school later asks to see. Deposits, a local guarantor and furnished or unfurnished terms are all local.
Proof of address, a deposit and who can act as a guarantor are local questions. So is whether the home should be near a school, a workplace or a station. A lease signed for the view can be the wrong lease for the rest of the move.
Children
Schools and childcare can set the moving date
- Public, private and international schools can sit side by side, with different admissions and fees.
- Records from the current school, and sometimes a curriculum comparison, are often requested.
- Term dates and a school calendar can fix the moving date more firmly than a flight.
- Transport to school, and childcare around it, belong in the same decision as the address.
This page does not describe a country’s school system. Ask each school what it needs, and ask early enough that a refusal still leaves another option.
Health
Cover the gap between two systems
Leaving one healthcare system and joining another rarely happens on the same day. Private cover, an employer plan and a public system may each apply to a different part of the family, or to a different month.
- Public and private systems, and who can join them
- Cover an employer may provide
- Temporary cover for the gap
- Whether the whole family is included
- Prescriptions and how medical records travel
Money
Salary, rent and a deposit rarely fit in one account
A local account may be what a landlord or an employer expects. A home-country account may still be what a pension, a mortgage or a subscription uses. Cards, credit history and the evidence a bank asks for do not automatically travel with you. Ask before you arrive.
The household
Utilities and a phone often wait on an address or an identity step
- Electricity
- Water
- Internet
- A local mobile number
- Whether a local ID or a registered address is required before a service will start
If a provider will not start service until you can show a local registration, the registration belongs earlier in the plan than the day you want the lights on.
Cover
Ask which policies still mean what you think they mean
- Health
- Home contents or buildings
- A car, if you will drive
- Travel for the journey itself
- Liability
- Life cover, and whether a home-country policy still responds
A home-country policy may exclude time abroad, a new address, or a car that is no longer garaged where it was declared. This page does not state what any policy must cover.
Getting around
A licence, a lease and a bus pass are three different plans
Whether a foreign driving licence is recognised, for how long, and whether you must exchange it, is local. Public transport may make a car unnecessary. A lease or a purchase is a further decision, with its own insurance and registration. Commuting time belongs in the housing choice, not after it.
What you already own
Importing a vehicle is a project of its own
Shipping a car, registering it, insuring it, or selling it before you leave are alternatives, not a sequence everyone follows. Customs, technical standards and tax can all apply. Ask before the vehicle is booked onto a ship.
Animals
A pet’s paperwork can be longer than the family’s
Entry rules may cover identification such as a microchip, vaccinations, a health certificate, an approved crate, and in some places a waiting period or quarantine. The rules are the destination’s. They should be read early, because a missed vaccination date is not repaired by a flight booking.
Possessions
Ship what you will use. Store or sell what you will not.
- Air or sea, which changes both time and cost
- An inventory, which customs may ask to see
- Insurance for the shipment
- Temporary storage at either end
- Items that are awkward, valuable or restricted
After you land
Local registration is how the address becomes official
An address record, a residence card, a tax number, a municipality and healthcare enrolment can be separate steps. Utilities and a bank may wait on one of them. The order is local.
People
A household does not move on one person’s start date
A spouse or partner may be changing job, or may not yet have the right to work. Children may need a school place before the family will travel. Childcare, medical treatment and who arrives first are timing decisions. They sit beside the visa, not underneath it.
The package
An employer relocation package is a contract, not a custom
Allowances, temporary accommodation, help with tax filings, moving expenses, school fees, flights and immigration support are all things some employers offer. None of them is standard. Ask what is included, for how long, and what happens if the assignment ends early. Settling-in services, where they are offered, are practical help. They are not a substitute for reading the visa or the lease.
Budget
Plan the categories before you plan the figures
Costs vary too widely for this page to state amounts. A useful budget names the categories, then replaces each one with a quote.
- Visa and legal costs
- Housing
- Deposits
- Shipping
- Travel
- Temporary accommodation
- School
- Insurance
- A car or other transport
- Banking and foreign exchange
- Everyday setup
Arrival
The first 30 days are for making the address work
This is a practical list, not a legal deadline. What is urgent depends on the destination and on what you arranged before you flew.
- 01Register an address
- 02Open or activate a bank account
- 03Get a local phone
- 04Start utilities
- 05Arrange healthcare
- 06Confirm the school start
- 07Update employer payroll
- 08Sort everyday transport
- 09Check insurance is in force
- 10Ask about a tax number
Settling
The first 90 days are for replacing temporary arrangements
- Move from temporary housing if that was the plan
- Review wills and other estate documents
- Review banking once salary and rent are flowing
- Review insurance against the life you actually have
- Review pensions and investments
- Ask how local credit is built
- Review residence status and tax residence separately
A specialist
Questions to ask before you hand the move to someone else
01What should be completed before arrival?
Ask which tasks cannot start until you are there, and which become harder if you leave them. Official requirements should be checked for the destination.
02Which tasks depend on a local address?
Banking, utilities, registration and sometimes a school or a visa step may all ask for an address. Map which ones can use a temporary address.
03How early should the housing search begin?
Ask what the local market usually needs, without treating any lead time as a rule. School location and commute should be in that conversation.
04What school documents are needed?
Ask the schools you are considering for their current list. Reports, a curriculum note and identity documents are common, and they are not universal.
05What healthcare cover is needed?
Ask what must be in place before travel, what an employer provides, and when any public system might apply.
06Can pets enter immediately?
Ask about vaccinations, identification and whether any waiting period applies. Entry rules vary, and this page does not state them.
07What should be shipped, and what stored?
Ask what you need in the first months versus what can wait. Shipping everything is often the expensive default.
08What local registrations are required?
Ask about address, a residence card, a tax number, a municipality and healthcare, and which of them depend on each other.
09Which employer benefits are available?
Ask for the written package: allowance, temporary housing, flights, school support, tax support and immigration support. Do not assume a benefit exists because a colleague received it.
10What is not included in the relocation package?
Ask what you will pay yourself: deposits, pets, storage, a car, and anything after a stated period of temporary housing.
Watch for
Relocation mistakes that are expensive to undo
- Signing a home before you understand the commute and the school run
- Leaving the school search until the moving date is fixed
- Shipping the whole household when storage or a later shipment would do
- Assuming utilities can be switched on the day you arrive
- Arriving without healthcare cover for the gap
- Ignoring steps that need proof of address
- Keeping a home-country policy without asking whether it still responds
- Leaving deposits and setup costs out of the budget
Support
When practical relocation help may be useful
This section is a way to see the dependencies. It does not book housing, a school or a shipment.
- A family move
- A school search
- Pets
- A complex shipment
- A senior executive move
- A tight timeline
- A difficult housing market
- Particular healthcare needs
Compare relocation providers
Compare support for housing, schools, moving and settling in
Relocation is the practical work of establishing life in another country after the legal right to move is dealt with.
Compare international relocation companies and destination-service providers by housing support, schooling, physical moving, family services, immigration coordination and corporate mobility capability.
Relocation providers can have very different scopes. Some manage a complete international move, some specialise in destination services, and others solve one practical part such as temporary accommodation.
Start with your move
What practical help do you need?
What to compare
A relocation quote is only useful if you know what is included
01
Home search
Does the provider help you find and secure accommodation?
02
School search
Can they help families understand education options?
03
Physical move
Packing, freight, household delivery and storage.
04
Settling in
Orientation, local registration and practical arrival support.
05
Immigration
Direct visa support, specialist partners, or no immigration service?
06
Family support
Children, a spouse or partner, and family logistics.
07
Pet relocation
Is pet transport included, coordinated or excluded?
08
Corporate mobility
Can the provider work through employer relocation programmes?
Filter relocation providers
3 providers listed for comparison.
Flatio
Flexible accommodation platform
Furnished stays for a flexible arrival. This is not a household-moving or relocation-management service.
- Global reach
- High
- Best aligned with
- Remote workers and flexible arrivals
- Home search
- Flexible furnished stays
- School support
- Not provided
- Settling in
- Accommodation-led only
- Physical move
- Not provided
- Immigration
- Not provided
- Pet relocation
- Property dependent
- Corporate mobility
- Not core
- Case management
- Accommodation marketplace
- Pricing model
- Listing-based pricing
Accommodation availability, deposits, terms and local tenancy law vary by property and jurisdiction.
Santa Fe Relocation
Global relocation company
International moving and destination support for corporate clients, assignees and families. Confirm what is delivered directly.
- Global reach
- High
- Best aligned with
- Corporate clients, assignees and families
- Home search
- Destination-service network
- School support
- Through destination services
- Settling in
- Destination support
- Physical move
- International moving
- Immigration
- Within the wider service
- Pet relocation
- Route dependent
- Corporate mobility
- Strong
- Case management
- Network coordination
- Pricing model
- Consultation and quote
Confirm which services are delivered directly and which use local partners in each destination.
SIRVA
Global relocation management and moving
Home finding, household moving, education support and corporate mobility programmes. Delivery can involve affiliated companies.
- Global reach
- Very high
- Best aligned with
- Corporate teams, employees and private clients
- Home search
- Full support
- School support
- Education consultancy
- Settling in
- Full destination support
- Physical move
- Household goods and storage
- Immigration
- Visa and immigration services
- Pet relocation
- Yes
- Corporate mobility
- Policy and programme management
- Case management
- Programme technology and reporting
- Pricing model
- Programme and move specific
Service delivery can involve affiliated companies and supplier networks. Route-specific terms should be confirmed.
Compare international relocation providers
Short published facts only. Reach is not a country list, and none of these figures is a rating.
Confirm the origin, the destination and which services are delivered directly. A stay or a shipment is not immigration status.
| Provider | Provider type | Best aligned with | Home search | School support | Settling in | Physical move | Corporate mobility | View |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flexible accommodation platform | Remote workers and flexible arrivals | Flexible furnished stays | Not provided | Accommodation-led only | Not provided | Not core | View |
| Global relocation company | Corporate clients, assignees and families | Destination-service network | Through destination services | Destination support | International moving | Strong | View |
| Global relocation management and moving | Corporate teams, employees and private clients | Full support | Education consultancy | Full destination support | Household goods and storage | Policy and programme management | View |
| Provider | Provider type | Best aligned with | Home search | Physical move | View |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Flexible accommodation platform | Remote workers and flexible arrivals | Flexible furnished stays | Not provided | View |
| Global relocation company | Corporate clients, assignees and families | Destination-service network | International moving | View |
| Global relocation management and moving | Corporate teams, employees and private clients | Full support | Household goods and storage | View |
Flatio
Flexible accommodation platform
- Type
- Flexible accommodation platform
- Best aligned with
- Remote workers and flexible arrivals
- Home search
- Flexible furnished stays
- School support
- Not provided
- Physical move
- Not provided
- Settling in
- Accommodation-led only
- Corporate mobility
- Not core
Santa Fe Relocation
Global relocation company
- Type
- Global relocation company
- Best aligned with
- Corporate clients, assignees and families
- Home search
- Destination-service network
- School support
- Through destination services
- Physical move
- International moving
- Settling in
- Destination support
- Corporate mobility
- Strong
SIRVA
Global relocation management and moving
- Type
- Global relocation management and moving
- Best aligned with
- Corporate teams, employees and private clients
- Home search
- Full support
- School support
- Education consultancy
- Physical move
- Household goods and storage
- Settling in
- Full destination support
- Corporate mobility
- Policy and programme management
Different relocation providers solve different problems
Full-service relocation company
Combines household moving and destination support. SIRVA and Santa Fe Relocation publish this kind of scope. They do not publish the same list of services.
Relocation management company
Coordinates corporate moves, suppliers and employee programmes. SIRVA publishes policy, programme and vendor management. Santa Fe publishes corporate mobility through its relocation company.
Destination-services platform
A provider whose published type is destination services on their own. This comparison does not list one. Destination support appears inside the relocation companies.
Flexible accommodation platform
Temporary or medium-term furnished housing while you get established. Flatio is this model. It does not move a household.
The right provider depends on whether you need logistics, destination support, or both.
Common scenarios
Which move looks most like yours?
Further reading
Related guides
Explore mobility
Related mobility topics
- VisasThe permission the household plan has to fit around.
- ResidencyImmigration residence and tax residence, kept as separate questions.
- CitizenshipA longer legal relationship than the move itself.
- Digital nomadsWhen the move is for remote work rather than a local job.
Planning the household move?
Sequence housing, schools, healthcare and banking before the arrival week fills itself.
WiT Access provides general information and comparison resources. Relocation, housing, moving, immigration and destination services vary by provider, country and individual circumstances. Nothing on this page constitutes immigration, legal, tax, property or financial advice.Some providers coordinate third-party destination or moving services rather than providing every service directly.