2026-10-07 · Daniel Okonkwo, Office manager, New York
What to prepare in 2026 if you want to move in 2027
Passports, school records, a residence question, and a budget. The families who land calmly in 2027 started the file the year before.
From the New York desk, the moves that arrive intact were started about a year out. The ones that arrive angry were started when the lease was already ending. If 2027 is your year, this is the short list I send back.
This quarter
Check every passport’s expiry against the visa and the first school term, not against next month’s holiday. Order civil records you do not have: birth, marriage, divorce, and the children’s documents as their own files. Write who is moving, who is staying, and who must be allowed to work.
Before you choose the country
Two places, not a list of ten
Compare a lawful stay, a school, a lease a foreigner can sign, and healthcare. Weather is last. Léa, on the Brussels desk, sees the same mistake from Europe: people fall in love with a city and then discover the partner cannot stay.
Ask counsel one question
“On these passports, what stay is actually open, and how many months does a complete file take?” We can book that conversation. We cannot answer it as if we were the authority.
What can wait
Flights, a shipping container, and a resignation letter can wait until the stay and the school are real. A second residence you might use, and a move you have decided, are different budgets. Say which one you mean when you write.
