The moving-to-Thailand checklist: everything in order
Every task in a Thailand move is easy; the order is what catches people.
This checklist runs backwards from your first week in Thailand, and every line links to the guide that covers it properly. The single most common sequencing mistake: shipping booked off the lease date instead of the visa date, so the container lands outside the duty-free window, or with the wrong visa entirely.
- Visa first everything hangs off it
- TM30 in week one two later steps depend on it
- Schools take longest up to a year at the famous ones
- Shipping window 1 month before to 6 after arrival
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Three months out
- Settle the visa route: it decides your shipping duty position and your banking options, so it goes first
- Get three mover surveys and understand the customs exemption against your visa
- If you have children: school applications should already be moving; entry-year places go first
- Start the pet permit and vaccine timeline if an animal is coming
- Price health insurance; some cover needs medical checks that take weeks
One month out
- Book the shipment inside the customs window (lands no earlier than one month before you do)
- File the pet permit (7–60 days before the flight)
- Gather the document file: passport-copy sets, marriage and birth certificates (translated and legalised where needed; see the legal guides), school records, vaccination books
- Give notice on utilities and start the mail-forwarding chain
First week in Thailand
- Landlord or hotel files your TM30. Chase this: two later steps depend on it
- Thai SIM (the bank app will bind to it)
- Certificate of residence, then the bank account
- 90-day report date in the calendar (how it works)
- Health insurance active from day one, not from when you get around to it
First month
- Receive the shipment; check against the packing list before signing
- Driving licence conversion if you will drive
- School settling, utility transfers, and the cost-of-living reality-check against the plan
Checklist FAQ
What is the single most common sequencing mistake?
Shipping booked off the lease date instead of the visa date, so the container lands outside the duty-free window, or with the wrong visa entirely.
What takes longest?
School places at the famous Bangkok schools (a year), then insurance underwriting, then the pet timeline.
What should I do the day I get the keys?
Confirm the TM30 was filed. Everything bureaucratic downstream depends on it.