Your first 90 days

Most of what follows is admin, and most people get the admin right. The last part is the bit people leave until it is too late, so read to the end.

Before you arrive

Confirm in writing what permit or certificate every member of your household will hold, and exactly what each one allows. This determines where you can live, who can come with you, and whether your partner can work. The permits page sets out how the system works.

If you have school-age children, contact School Admissions now rather than on arrival. Deadlines here run far earlier than families expect, as the schools page explains.

And have three or four conversations with people already on the island. Not job applications. Conversations. They are worth more than anything else you do in this phase.

Week one

Register with Social Security. This is what unlocks the health benefits and the specialist scheme, and it is easy to postpone and costly to forget.

Register with a GP practice. Remember that appointments are charged and that all practices here are private, which the healthcare page covers.

Confirm your permit paperwork is properly in place.

Weeks two to four

Open a local bank account. Set up utilities, and identify a heating oil supplier if your home runs on oil.

Consider the St John ambulance subscription. Sort driving licence and vehicle registration. Get a bus card and actually use the buses for a fortnight, because it is the fastest way to learn the island's geography.

Month two, and this is the important one

Everything above is logistics, and logistics do not determine whether you stay.

This month is for the household, not the paperwork. Everyone in the family picks one recurring thing with other people in it and commits to it. Not "we should join something eventually". A named activity, on a named day, starting this month.

If a partner has moved without a job, this is when their project starts in earnest, and it should be treated with the same seriousness as the employee's role. There is more on that on the partner work page.

Say yes to things you would normally decline. The first three months is the only window where being new is an asset rather than a fact.

Month three

Have an honest conversation as a household. What is working, what is not, who is struggling, and what would need to change.

Do this deliberately and out loud, at the three month mark, before anyone has quietly formed a view they are not saying. Most households never have this conversation, and most of them wish they had.

What to expect

Month one is busy and mostly fine. Month two is often flat, once the admin is done and the novelty has thinned. Month three is where it either starts to knit together or starts to drift.

None of that means anything has gone wrong. It is simply the shape of arriving somewhere, and it is far easier to handle when you are expecting it.

Last reviewed: August 2026.