Permanently relocating abroad in retirement is mostly logistics. Here's the order they happen in.
The decisions you make 12 months out determine your options for years afterward. Some of them — Medicare, your US tax address, where your money lives — get expensive to fix once you've left. This is the 18-month sequence for a permanent move.
Updated · Published
Heads up
This timeline is for permanent movers — selling up, getting a residency visa, relocating for good. If that's not your situation:
The Short Version
- 18+ months out — Decide if the numbers actually work
- 12 months out — Lock in the decisions you can't easily undo (Medicare, money, US tax address)
- 6 months out — Visa, international insurance, banking
- 3 months out — Pack down the US side (house, address, pets, documents, visa submission)
- Move month — Travel, arrive, register on the ground
- First year — File your first returns abroad, reassess what's working
Phase 01 · 18+ months out
Before you commit, find out if this is actually a plan.
The decisions further down this timeline get a lot easier once you've done a real budget — not the marketing numbers, but the one with local rent, local healthcare, and the US obligations you'll still be paying.
What to do in this phase:
- Run a real budget. Local rent, utilities, groceries, healthcare, and transport — plus US-side costs you'll keep (Medicare Part B if you're staying enrolled, US taxes, US bank fees, occasional flights home). The dream numbers floating around expat blogs are usually a single person, no kids, no health issues, no inflation. Yours won't be.
- Visit on a residency mindset, not a vacation. Two weeks won't tell you anything. Three to four weeks during a less-glamorous month — February in Portugal, August in Greece — tells you what daily life actually looks like.
- Talk to retirees on the ground. Reddit's r/expats and r/retirementabroad have unfiltered answers. Country-specific Facebook groups for retirees are useful. Marketing material is not.
- Decide who's going. Solo, couple, splitting time with adult kids in the picture, an aging parent who might need help — all of these change the math and the visa choice.
Each country guide has a real cost picture, visa requirements, and tax overview:
Your next step: Pick the top two or three countries you'd seriously consider, read each guide, and rule one out before moving to Phase 2.
Phase 02 · 12 months out
This is the expensive phase if you get it wrong.
Three decisions here have permanent or hard-to-reverse consequences: Medicare, where your investments live, and your US tax domicile. None of them get easier after you've moved.
What to do in this phase:
- Make the Medicare call. Keep Part B at $202.90/month for coverage that doesn't travel with you, or drop it and accept a permanent 10% per year penalty if you ever come back. There's no good "wait and see" — the penalty doesn't reset. → The Medicare Guide
- Decide where your investments live. Fidelity, Vanguard, and Schwab have been closing expat brokerage accounts since 2024. Move to an expat-friendly setup before you change your address — not after. → Investing abroad
- Pick your US tax domicile. Social Security deposits, the IRS, and most US banks need a US mailing address. Some states (Texas, Florida, South Dakota, Tennessee) make this much cheaper than others. → Choosing a domicile state
- Open the bank account that won't close on you. Wise, Schwab, and a couple of others handle expat addresses without flagging your account. → Banking
- Build a tax plan. Tax treaty, FEIE, FTC — pick the framework before you arrive, and find a CPA who handles expats. The first year is where the costly mistakes get filed. → US taxes for retirees abroad
Tax situation and timeline implications by country:
Your next step: Read the Medicare Guide first. It's the only decision in this phase with no good "wait and see" option.
Phase 03 · 6 months out
The phase where things stop feeling theoretical.
Visas take longer than people expect. International health insurance underwriting at 65+ takes weeks, not days. Apostille processing for the documents you'll need can take six to ten weeks in some states. This is the phase to start before you feel ready.
What to do in this phase:
- Pin down your visa path. Income thresholds, document requirements, and processing times vary sharply by country. See your country guide for the specifics.
- Get international health insurance quotes. Underwriting at 65+ takes 4–8 weeks. Most retirement visas require private insurance with specific terms — Portugal D7 rejects policies with copayments, Greece requires "full" coverage, Italy requires a minimum coverage threshold. → International insurance comparison
- Apostille your US documents. Birth certificate, marriage certificate, FBI background check — these all need apostilles for most visa applications. Some states process apostilles in days; others take 6–10 weeks. Start now. → Apostille guide: documents, timing & costs
- Schedule your consulate appointment. Some consulates book months out. Don't assume you can walk in.
- Open a Wise account if you don't have one. Multi-currency, works across borders, holds USD/EUR/GBP without your US bank flagging anything. → Banking
Visa timelines, document checklists, and consulate quirks by country:
Your next step: Get an international health insurance quote this month. The underwriting timeline alone is reason to start now.
Phase 04 · 3 months out
Submit the visa. Pack the house. Sort the US-side admin.
This phase is logistics-heavy and runs your weekends. The work is finite — but a lot of it has long lead times you can't compress.
What to do in this phase:
- Submit your visa application. Processing times typically run 30–120 days depending on country and consulate.
- Make the house decision. Sell, rent, or hold — each has tax consequences. Selling triggers capital gains. Renting creates passive income that needs reporting. Holding means a vacant property and insurance complications.
- Change your US mailing address. Driver's license, voter registration, financial accounts, IRS, Social Security. Order matters — domicile state first, then financial institutions, then everything else. → State residency
- Sort the pets. EU pet passport, rabies titer test, microchip, import permits — most of these have lead times measured in months, not weeks.
- Prep the household goods. International movers book 4–8 weeks out. Decide what's worth shipping vs. selling.
- Talk to your tax CPA. If you're leaving mid-year, your filing situation gets complicated — domicile change, partial-year residency, foreign income reporting. Better to have the plan now than discover it in April. → Catching up on expat taxes
Visa submission and pet import logistics by country:
Your next step: Confirm your US mailing address situation before anything else. Without one, Social Security and the IRS lose track of you.
Phase 05 · Move month
You're on the ground. Now you have 30–90 days to register everything.
The first month in country isn't sightseeing. It's appointments — immigration, tax ID, bank, lease, utilities, sometimes health system enrollment. The countries that make this hardest also have the shortest deadlines.
What to do in this phase:
- Arrive on a residency-eligible visa, not a tourist stamp. This sounds obvious. People still get this wrong.
- Register at the local immigration office. Different names, same idea — AIMA in Portugal, Questura in Italy, immigration office in Greece. Each has its own deadline.
- Get your local tax ID. NIF (Portugal), codice fiscale (Italy), AFM/AMKA (Greece). Without it, you can't open a local bank account, sign a lease, or buy local insurance.
- Open a local bank account. Required for utilities, lease, and most day-to-day transactions.
- Switch to local insurance if you qualify and want to. Most countries require residency + local tax ID before local insurers will sell you a policy.
Registration deadlines vary sharply:
| Country | Office | Deadline |
|---|---|---|
| Portugal | AIMA | ~4 months |
| Italy | Questura | 8 days |
| Greece | Immigration office | 30–60 days |
Your next step: On day one, find your country guide's first-week checklist and book the appointments that have the shortest deadlines. → Portugal · Italy · Greece
Phase 06 · First year abroad
Two tax returns this year. And a few decisions to revisit.
The first year is when you find out which decisions held up. International insurance might be more than you needed once you have local residency. Medicare Part B might feel pointless after a year of paying for coverage you didn't use. Or you might decide both were the right call — but you should make that decision actively, not by inertia.
What to do in this phase:
- File your first US return as a non-resident. Automatic 2-month extension to June 15 — but only on filing, not on payment. FBAR (FinCEN Form 114) is required if your aggregate foreign accounts crossed $10k at any point. → Catching up on expat taxes
- File your first local return. Most European countries: April–July deadlines. The 7% flat regimes (Greece, parts of Italy) have specific filing deadlines that void the regime if missed.
- Reassess your international insurance. Was the plan a fit, or do you want to move to local insurance now that you have residency + tax ID?
- Reassess Medicare. A year of $202.90/month for coverage you didn't use is data. Decide if that's still the right call. → Medicare for a permanent move
- Renew what needs renewing. Visa or residence card, international insurance, US passport if it's coming up.
Annual filing deadlines and first-year tax rules by country:
Your next step: Book the first annual meeting with an expat CPA. The first year abroad is the year tax mistakes get filed.
Sources
- 2026 Medicare Parts A & B Premiums — CMS: Part B premium ($202.90/month). Updated each fall by CMS.
- Medicare Costs — medicare.gov: Late enrollment penalty rules (10% per year, permanent).
- US Citizens and Resident Aliens Abroad — IRS: Automatic 2-month filing extension to June 15.
- Report of Foreign Bank and Financial Accounts (FBAR) — FinCEN: $10,000 aggregate threshold for FinCEN Form 114.
- Apostille guide — ExpatRetireGuide: Which documents need apostilles, federal vs. state process, state processing times, and timing for retirement visa applications. Primary source: US State Department apostille requirements.
For deeper sourcing on Medicare decisions, see the Medicare Guide and its sources block. For tax, banking, and US address mechanics, see the Money & Taxes section. For visa, insurance, and country-specific facts, see each country guide.
Start where the most retirees get this wrong.
The Medicare decision is the one item on this timeline with no good "wait and see" option. Start there.
Read the Medicare Guide