Ten things to consider when planning a cross-continent move

My husband’s company decided to move us from Toronto, Canada to Belfast, Northern Ireland for three years starting early 2026. In this case, we had a lot of support financially, as well as administratively. If you’re planning a move, whether on your own or not, check the list below of ten considerations for a cross-continent move to help you think through the logistics.

1) Visas/Passports

The most important thing you will need is to be legally allowed to reside and/or work in your new country. My husband’s company set him up with a Skilled Worker visa and me with a Skilled Worker Partner visa. We did specifically request that I would be eligible to work while in the UK. This process was not as cumbersome as I would have expected, but again, the company took care of it. We did all have to submit our passports and attend an in-person appointment at a UK visa office downtown Toronto. They took our fingerprints and photos, a week later, we had our visas.

Another consideration, when do your passports expire? Mine an the kids' would have expired during the three years when we're living in the UK, so I renewed them all before we left Canada.

2) Taxes

Where will you pay taxes? Many countries have reciprocal tax laws but you still need to determine where you will be paying taxes and declare that. We have tax professionals helping us with this. I am curious to see how much we end up owing though. The Canadian tax year is different than the UK tax year so we’ll be filing our last Canadian tax and then a few months later, filing our UK taxes. 

3) Banking

Whether you decide to close all of your bank accounts in your home country will likely depend on several factors. Do you still own property in your home country? Do you still have income coming in there? Do you still have debts or loans to pay off? Will you return? For us, we ended up trimming back our Canadian bank accounts because we didn’t want to be paying monthly fees for essentially dormant accounts but since we’ve had those accounts for so long, we didn’t want to completely close them either. We each kept a Canadian credit card as well, for the credit history, in case we return to Canada. Make sure you inform your banks that you’re no longer a resident and give them your new address and phone number.

We also kept all of our retirement accounts open and active, in Canada. 

For the UK banking, we eventually opened Revolut accounts, which I would highly recommend.  We wouldn’t have been able to open standard accounts because we didn’t have a permanent address for 7 weeks after we had moved but we were able to use our temporary accommodations for Revolut. They are completely digital bank accounts and they allow you to convert between currencies, very handy in Europe. I’ve been using it now for two months and have nothing bad to say. I got the Premium account and opened a higher interest savings account and 3 accounts for the kids, all nested under my primary account.   

4) Kids’ schools (if applicable)

If you have school-age children, this will be particularly important. I can’t speak to other countries, but our experience with Northern Ireland, was very different than the Canadian education system so do your research well in advance. We ended up securing places at a Prep school for our younger two in January 2026 for August 2026. We then weren’t able to find out if our older daughter had a spot anywhere until June 2026. Because NI runs a standardized test for kids in Grade 5 (P7) which determines where they go for ‘Secondary’ school, our eldest had missed that test and so had to apply to each school separately, to enter in Year 9 or Form 2. I contacted several schools in November 2025, we then visited in March 2026 and she wrote an exam at one school and we went on tours at 2 others. I had to submit an application and her Canadian report cards. Ultimately, she was accepted at two very good Grammar schools, which was a huge relief. 

Many expats, especially if it is a corporate move, will be eligible for tuition reimbursement, which would make the process must simpler. The challenge with NI is that there aren’t any private schools at the secondary level, so you have to apply, like everyone else and hope for the best.

5) House/accommodations

Where will you live? Will you buy or rent? Each country has different laws regarding owning property and regarding renting. If you have a realtor, great, they can help you along in the process. Early on, we found the local real estate apps and just kept checking for suitable houses on there.

If you don’t know the neighborhoods, read some Reddit threads, no shortage of people who will share their experiences. That’s how I learned that South Belfast seemed to be the more family-friendly neighborhood. Recommendations can work as well but keeping in mind, what’s suitable for one person, may not be suitable for you. We got many recommendations that didn’t fit with our values or lifestyle. 

Also keep in mind if you will require temporary accommodations for the first while.

6) Packing up/organizing/donating stuff

What will you bring? What will you store? What will you sell/donate? We were allotted by my husband’s company an Air shipment, a Sea shipment and storage in Toronto. Because we knew about the move so far in advance (9 months), I started to donate stuff heavily and then a few months out, I started to sell stuff on Kijiji. Realistically, we could have brought everything with us but I also looked at it as a good opportunity to rid ourselves of things that were old, outdated or that we no longer needed. 

One big mistake me made, we brought all of our appliances, thinking we could buy adaptors and still use them in the UK. This turned out not to be true because the voltage is different. So basically any kitchen appliances and lamps, we didn’t need to bring because we had to buy new. Tip: Take photos of the back of your electrical belongings and ask ChatGPT if it will work in your new country. We have boxes piled in our guest room of appliances we can’t actually use here. 

7) Cars

Will you sell your cars in your home country, will you import them to your new country or will you keep them in storage? This may have caused me more stress than anything else. We had two cars and our original intention was to sell them. Oddly enough, my car was stolen in October 2025, so we just never replaced it. So that essentially ‘solved’ that problem. But then we still had my husband’s car and it was a fairly new car so I spent months reaching out to shipping companies to see if we could import it. 

Ultimately, we ended up selling it, at the eleventh hour because we decided it was too complicated given that people drive on the opposite side of the car and the opposite side of the road. We really didn’t want to sell it though because it was such a great car and still so new. 

And then in your new country, do you need cars? We had one car from my husband’s company but we knew we would need a second car. We have no credit history in the UK so we couldn’t get a lease or financing. We tried to go through an expat leasing company which almost worked, until they realized we were in NI (they initially thought we were in Wales). So your only option may end up being to pay cash for a car, which is what we had to do. If you’re lucky enough to be moving somewhere with amazing public transit, you may not even have to worry about a car.

Also, check on whether your home country drivers licence will work in the new country. We have 12 months to get UK drivers licences but some countries may require you to convert your’s sooner. 

8) Healthcare

No doubt the healthcare systems will be different. We do also have private health insurance but you may not. We found out that we had to sign up with a GP, who would then submit our forms to receive National Health cards. Every country will no doubt be different.

Find out what is covered and what is not. I called a dentist and spoke to them and they informed me that dental check-ups are free for the kids but not cleanings. So I would need to budget £90/cleaning here. Whereas in Canada, our private health care covered 80% of their cleanings.

Also, find out what the emergency numbers are. Canada - 911, NI - 999. Find out where is your closest hospital or emergency room.

9) Language / cultural differences

This one wasn’t too bad for us because we speak english and they speak english. However, there are of course cultural differences between our two countries. My husband’s company did offer cultural training but it was mores focused on differences in a professional setting, which was still super helpful to him. 

Leading up to our move, I started reading Irish authors and watching Irish / UK shows. Because NI has such a unique and recent history of turbulence, it was important to us to try to understand the history. The Troubles only ended in 1998, so two generations of people still living know what it was like before the Good Friday Agreement. The unique relationship between Ireland and Britain is something we, as outsiders (or ‘blowins’ as they refer to us here) don’t fully understand and probably can’t.

10) Cell phone - two-factor authentications!

Getting a new cell phone may not be terribly complicated. You can likely purchase a SIM card and just use it in your existing phone. I needed a new cell phone though so I had to straight out pay cash for one here because of the no UK credit history thing. But then I was able to purchase a SIM card from my broadband (internet) provider and use it no problem. 

One important point I will call your attention to - don’t cancel your home country phone number until you’ve changed over all your passwords and two-factor authentications. I kept my Canadian phone number for two months after we moved because of this. If you have a permanent address right away, it won’t take you as long. Get a new phone number for your new country and then begin the process of converting all of your accounts to the new phone number. I literally had to swap SIM cards back and forth to update accounts. 

Hopefully these tips will be useful for anyone considering a cross-continent move. It will be a long process but you can make it smoother by planning far enough ahead.