Documents to check before moving abroad

Sort every document into three piles before you leave: the ones that will expire while you are away and are hard to renew from abroad (passport, driving licence, professional registrations); the ones that stop applying the moment you move (home-country health cover, car insurance, some warranties); and the ones you will be asked for on arrival and cannot easily obtain later (birth and marriage certificates, degree transcripts, police certificates, apostilles). Renew the first pile, cancel or replace the second, and certify the third before the flight.

Pile one: things that expire while you are away

Passport

The obvious one, and still the one people get wrong, because a passport with two years left feels fine. It is fine for the move. It is not fine for the trip home for a wedding in eighteen months, when the six-month rule at your new country's border applies to your return, or for the residence-permit renewal that requires a passport valid beyond the permit's end date. Renewing from abroad usually means the embassy, an appointment weeks out, and a longer wait than at home. Do it before you leave if there is less than three years on it. The full passport checklist is here.

Driving licence

Two separate problems. First, your home licence may only be valid for driving in the new country for a fixed period — often six or twelve months — after which you must exchange it or retest, and the exchange window sometimes closes if you miss it. Second, the licence itself expires on a date, and renewing a licence from overseas is, in many countries, simply not possible: you need to be resident. An international driving permit is a translation, not a licence; it does not extend either deadline.

Professional registrations and certifications

Nursing, teaching, engineering, accountancy, trade licences: most run on annual or biennial renewal and most require continuing-education hours that are awkward to log from another country. Letting one lapse can mean re-qualifying to get it back. Note the renewal date, the CPD requirement, and whether the body accepts overseas hours.

Visa and residence permit

The new country's permit will have its own expiry, its own renewal window (often you must apply before a certain point, not after), and its own passport-validity requirement. Set the reminder for the start of the renewal window, not for the expiry.

Pile two: things that stop applying

Health cover. Public health entitlement is usually tied to residence and ends when residence does — sometimes on the day you leave, sometimes after a grace period. Private policies frequently exclude long stays abroad. Between leaving one system and being enrolled in the next there is often a gap, and it is the gap that needs a policy.

Car insurance and the car. A policy for a car you are leaving behind still bills; a policy for a car you are shipping does not cover it on the other side. Either cancel or arrange the replacement, and note that some countries require a local policy before the car can be registered.

Warranties and extended cover. Many are territory-limited. The laptop's three-year warranty may be worldwide; the appliance's may cover one country. Not worth chasing, but worth knowing so you do not count on it.

Subscriptions. The ones that keep working abroad keep billing; the ones that geo-restrict keep billing too. This is a good moment to run the numbers and cancel what will not follow you.

Pile three: things you will be asked for and cannot easily get later

This pile is the one people underestimate, because these documents do not expire — they are simply not available from abroad without weeks of correspondence.

• Birth, marriage and divorce certificates. Bring originals, and check whether the new country wants them apostilled (an international certification of the document) or legalised through its embassy. Apostilles are done in the issuing country and can take weeks.
• Degree certificates and transcripts. Employers, licensing bodies and universities abroad often want sealed transcripts sent directly from the institution, and sometimes a credential evaluation on top. Order them before you go.
• Police certificate. Required for many work and residence permits, valid for a limited period (often six months), and issued by your home police — from abroad this can involve fingerprints at an embassy.
• Medical records and vaccination history. Get copies. Some countries require proof of specific vaccinations for residence; all of them are easier to deal with when you can show the history.
• Tax records. The last several years of returns, plus a certificate of tax residence if your home country issues one. You will need them for the exit filing at home and the first filing abroad.
• Proof of no-claims for car insurance. A letter from your current insurer can carry years of discount across borders. Without it you start again.

Certify, then digitise, then leave

The order matters. Certified copies and apostilles need the originals in the issuing country; do those first. Then photograph everything — every page, both sides — because you will be filling forms abroad with the originals in a box that has not arrived. Keep the photos somewhere that does not depend on a home-country phone number for login, and does not need a connection to open. Then, and only then, pack the originals somewhere you can reach them on arrival rather than in the shipping container.

RenewKeep was built for exactly this situation: the documents and their photos are on the phone, they open with no signal, and each one carries its own reminder — so the licence-exchange window, the permit renewal and the passport buffer all announce themselves in time to act. But the principle holds with any tool: the audit has to happen before the flight, because half of pile three cannot be done after it.