What does it really cost to get there?
The cash you need in hand, stage by stage
Not what you’ll earn, and not what it costs to live. The cash you need in hand to execute the move, and the bit that catches people out.
Kettle on. About 14 min
Seven stages, and the cash each one needs
Relocation costs arrive in a sequence, not all at once. Jump to any stage.
After all seven comes the stage nobody budgets for: the gap before your first pay day. It lands at exactly the moment the other seven have emptied your account.
Flights are the obvious cost. They’re rarely the whole story.
Professional registration, visas, medicals, temporary accommodation, rental deposits, transport and setting up a new home add up surprisingly quickly. So before accepting a role, it’s worth asking a very practical question:
How much money will we need to make the move?
There isn’t one figure that works for everybody. But there are costs you can anticipate, and a few that regularly catch people by surprise. This guide walks the sequence, then helps you build your own number rather than borrowing somebody else’s, and if you would rather do the arithmetic than read it, the cost of moving calculator builds the same budget from your answers.
Professional registration
For healthcare professionals, the cost of relocating often begins long before the flight.
Depending on your profession and pathway, you may need to pay for some combination of:
- Registration or application fees
- Qualification assessments
- English language testing
- Certificates of good standing
- Police checks
- Certified documents and translations
- Examinations or competency assessments
- Annual practising or registration fees
A radiologist, GP, psychologist and radiographer can have completely different registration journeys. Your individual circumstances matter too, two people in the same profession may face different requirements depending on where they trained and what they’ve done since.
Establish your likely registration pathway before you budget anything else, because it’s the cost that varies most between two apparently similar clinicians.
Visas & immigration
What you pay depends on the country, the visa route, and whether you’re relocating alone or with family.
There may also be associated costs for medical examinations, police certificates, document certification or immigration advice. Some employers cover or contribute towards these. Others don’t.
Don’t assume “visa sponsorship” means every immigration-related expense is covered. Before accepting an offer, ask exactly what the employer will pay for and what remains yours.
Flights
Prices vary significantly with the time of year, departure country, baggage requirements and how much flexibility you have over dates. And remember luggage: moving internationally on the standard airline allowance is difficult, particularly with children, so additional baggage or freight may need to be part of the budget.
If your employer offers a flight allowance, establish whether they book directly, reimburse afterwards, or provide a fixed contribution. That distinction matters enormously for cash flow before departure, a reimbursement you receive in month two doesn’t help you buy the tickets.
Shipping, or starting again?
The assumption that an international move requires a shipping container costs some families thousands they didn’t need to spend.
Slow, and not always cheap
International shipping can be expensive and slow, and large items may be less practical in your eventual home than they were in your current one. But replacing the contents of a whole family home isn’t cheap either.
Personal things only
Many families take personal belongings and a few important possessions, then buy furniture after arriving. Some clinicians move ahead of their family with a couple of suitcases and arrange everything later.
Some families ship almost everything and are glad they did. Others arrive with four suitcases and never miss the rest. Decide from your circumstances, not from what an international move is supposed to look like.
Temporary accommodation
This is the cost people underestimate most often.
You may not be able, or want, to sign a long-term rental agreement before seeing a property. That can mean spending your first few weeks in a hotel, serviced apartment or short-term let, and the longer it takes to find a suitable home, the more expensive it becomes. Families with requirements around bedrooms, schools and location often take longer.
If an employer provides temporary accommodation, establish precisely how many nights. Two weeks disappears very quickly when you’re starting a new job at the same time as house-hunting in a city you don’t know.
Getting into your first rental
Finding the property is only part of the expense. You need enough money available to move into it.
Upfront rental requirements differ between Australia and New Zealand and are subject to local rules, but expect to need money available for a rental bond and rent around the start of the tenancy. Then comes everything the house needs at once:
- Bedding and towels
- Kitchen equipment, down to a kettle
- Cleaning products
- Internet and utilities connection
- And the dozens of small purchases that look trivial individually
None of these are significant on their own. All of them arriving in the same fortnight is a different matter, and if you’re relocating with children, the list grows.
You may need a car sooner than expected
Whether you need one depends heavily on where you live and work.
In many locations, particularly with children, a car makes everyday life considerably easier. Potential costs include buying or financing the vehicle, registration, insurance, fuel, and converting or obtaining the appropriate driving licence. If both adults will be working in different locations, you may eventually need two.
Transport and accommodation are one decision, not two. Choosing a home without working out how you’ll get to work is how a cheaper rent becomes an expensive year.
Three costs that don’t sit in the sequence
These run underneath all seven stages, and they’re where a budget usually springs a leak.
They don’t stop when you land
You may still have a mortgage or rent, insurance, storage, loan repayments, professional memberships, the costs of selling or letting your property, and other existing commitments.
If your family follows several months later, you may temporarily be funding households in two countries. That can be the most financially demanding way to relocate, even though for some families it’s the most practical. Map that overlap before committing to a start date.
Don’t assume day one
Particularly important for families who normally rely on two incomes. Your partner may need time to find work, may have their own registration requirements if they’re in a regulated profession, or you may decide one parent concentrates on settling the children first.
Don’t build your first-year budget around both adults earning immediately. If the second income arrives quickly, excellent. If it doesn’t, you don’t want the whole move to become financially stressful.
Budget differently from an individual: school uniforms, stationery, devices, childcare, before- and after-school care, sports equipment and activities. Even where individual amounts are modest, they arrive together. The first few weeks of a relocation are often a period when money seems to leave the account constantly, that’s normal when you’re establishing an entire household, and it’s exactly why a buffer matters.
Your first salary may be further away than you think
Starting work doesn’t mean being paid. Depending on your employer’s payroll cycle and your start date, there can be a real gap before your first full salary reaches your account.
It arrives at precisely the wrong moment. At the same time, you may be paying for temporary accommodation, a rental bond, furniture, transport and everyday living.
“When will I receive my first payment?” It is a very simple question, almost nobody asks it, and the answer makes budgeting the first two months dramatically easier.
What will your employer pay for?
Depending on the employer, profession and how hard the vacancy has been to fill, support ranges from very little to substantial.
Ask a better question
Relocation support might include contributions towards flights, visa costs, professional registration, temporary accommodation, shipping, general relocation expenses or immigration assistance.
Some employers offer a fixed relocation allowance. Others reimburse specified expenses up to a maximum. Some offer very little, and some particularly hard-to-fill positions come with a great deal.
So don’t ask “is there relocation assistance?” Ask “what exactly does the relocation package cover?”
It isn’t always free money
An employer may require you to repay some or all of the contribution if you leave within a specified period. That isn’t necessarily unreasonable, they’re investing significant money in your move.
But you need to understand the terms before accepting. Read the contract carefully, ask what the period is, and ask what happens if you leave for reasons outside your control.
Relocation support is also one of the most negotiable parts of an offer, sometimes more so than the salary itself. Our guide to negotiating an offer covers how to raise it.
How much should you have saved?
A single clinician with flights and temporary accommodation covered may need relatively little upfront; a family shipping belongings may need many thousands more.
So rather than borrowing an arbitrary number, build your own relocation fund in three parts.
Before departure
Registration, immigration, medicals and documentation, flights, and shipping if you’re shipping. Everything you pay while still at home.
Arrival costs
Temporary accommodation, rental bond and initial rent, transport, and furnishing and equipping the house.
Living buffer
Enough accessible money to cover everyday life until your salary, and potentially your partner’s, is properly established.
Take off anything the employer has confirmed in writing that they will cover. What’s left is a far more meaningful figure than anyone else’s relocation budget, and it’s specific enough to plan against.
The cost of moving calculator does this arithmetic for you
Answer a few questions about your profession, your household and where you are going. It applies the published registration and visa fees, works the bond and rent in advance out of the tenancy rules where you are moving, subtracts what your employer is contributing, and gives you a figure you can print.
- Every number editable
- Official fees sourced and dated
- Nothing personal asked
Keep an emergency buffer separate
If you possibly can, don’t spend every available dollar getting there. International moves don’t always go to plan.
- A property may take longer to find than you expected.
- A partner’s job may take longer to arrive.
- Your belongings may be delayed in transit.
- The car may need repairing.
- You may need to fly home unexpectedly.
Money that remains untouched after the move makes every one of those situations considerably less stressful, and none of them less likely.
Added together, this can sound daunting. But not everybody pays for everything themselves. Employers contribute. Families relocate in stages. Some people sell furniture rather than shipping it. Others arrive in furnished accommodation and take their time. The important thing is knowing the likely costs before you commit. A well-planned move is a completely different experience from discovering that your first salary needs to cover a bond, furniture, a car and six weeks of living all at once.
We see relocation as more than securing a job and obtaining a visa. The moment that worries me for people isn’t the flight. It’s week three, when the temporary accommodation is ending, the bond is due, the house is empty and the first pay day hasn’t arrived. Almost nobody plans for that fortnight, and it colours how the whole move feels. Ask the unglamorous questions early: what the employer will cover in writing, when you’ll be paid, and what you need in the bank before you get on the plane. Getting the job is only the beginning. Arriving with financial breathing room is what lets you start the new life well.
SophieFounder, Ethicare Resourcing
The questions we’re asked about relocation costs
Can you give me a single figure to save?
No, and anyone who does is guessing. A single clinician whose employer covers flights and temporary accommodation needs a fraction of what a family of five shipping belongings and furnishing a house needs. Build the three-part fund above, subtract what your employer has confirmed in writing, and you’ll have a number that means something.
Does “visa sponsorship” mean my immigration costs are paid?
Not necessarily. Sponsorship refers to the employer’s role in the visa process, not automatically to who pays for what. Medicals, police certificates, document certification and advice may all still be yours. Ask for the split explicitly, before you accept.
Should I ship my furniture?
There’s no universal answer. Shipping is slow and can be expensive, and large items sometimes suit your new home less well than your current one, but replacing a whole household isn’t cheap either. Many families take personal belongings and buy furniture after arriving. Price both properly rather than assuming a container is required.
How long should I expect to be in temporary accommodation?
Longer than you hope, particularly with children and school considerations. It’s the most commonly underestimated cost of the whole move. If an employer is providing it, get the exact number of nights in writing and budget for the possibility of needing more.
What if I have to repay relocation assistance?
Repayment clauses are common and not unreasonable. The employer is investing real money. What matters is understanding the terms before you sign: how long the period is, whether it reduces over time, and what happens if you leave for reasons outside your control. Ask, and get it in writing.
Is relocation support negotiable?
Often yes, and sometimes more readily than the salary. Particularly where pay sits on a fixed scale. For a family moving halfway around the world, meaningful relocation support can be worth more in year one than a modest increase to base pay. Our offer guide covers how to raise it well.
Let’s work out what your move would cost
Tell us your profession, who’s coming with you and where you’re considering, and we’ll walk through the likely costs stage by stage. Registration and immigration through to accommodation, schools and settling in, and what a given employer is likely to cover.
Ethicare Resourcing, healthcare careers across Australia & New Zealand.