Moving abroad means keeping track of papers that live in different places: a passport in the safe, a permit application with a consulate, a birth certificate at your parents' house. This expat document checklist is a free printable set of two pages. Page one is 12 write-in rows where each document gets an expiry date, a copies circle, and a location you can name in two words. Page two covers the backup side: a 6-item digital checklist, a contacts table for the people who help, and 4 opinion tips, including the two-copies-in-two-bags habit. If you want status columns like apostille tracking on screen instead, the documents checklist for moving abroad is the organizer version; the money side of the move is on the cost checklist.
How to use this page: print both pages at 100% scale. On page one, one row per document: write the name, read the expiry date off the document itself and write it down, circle Checked once you have verified it, then circle done or not under Copies depending on whether a paper copy exists, and write where the original lives. On page two, tick each backup item only after you have opened it from a second device, and fill the contacts table with names, roles, and phone numbers while you still remember who does what. Requirements vary by country - check official government sources, and treat these pages as a place to organize what you find, not a source itself.
Nothing on the sheets says which documents your route requires or how to get any of them. The rows hold names, dates, circles, and locations; your handwriting holds the rest. It is a records set for a move abroad, so the same two pages work for a work transfer, a study term, or a family move, because nothing on them assumes a country.
One row per document. Write the name, write the expiry, circle Checked after you read it off the document, circle done or not under Copies, and write where the original lives. If a location takes more than two words to say out loud, it is not a location yet.
| Document (write it in) | Expires (date) | Checked | Copies | Location (write it in) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. ____________ | done not | |||
| 2. ____________ | done not | |||
| 3. ____________ | done not | |||
| 4. ____________ | done not | |||
| 5. ____________ | done not | |||
| 6. ____________ | done not | |||
| 7. ____________ | done not | |||
| 8. ____________ | done not | |||
| 9. ____________ | done not | |||
| 10. ____________ | done not | |||
| 11. ____________ | done not | |||
| 12. ____________ (the paper your route adds that this list missed) | done not |
Renewal dates move even when documents do not: a row whose expiry lands during your move is a row to handle first, and the date you wrote is the one to set the reminder from.
The digital side of the same documents. Tick a box only when the backup opens on a device you did not copy it from.
| 1. ____________ (what is backed up, and where) | |
| 2. ____________ | |
| 3. ____________ | |
| 4. ____________ | |
| 5. ____________ | |
| 6. ____________ |
| Name | Role (write it in) | Phone |
|---|---|---|
| Example: the person who holds your spare set | ||
| 2. ____________ | ||
| 3. ____________ | ||
| 4. ____________ |
Check your destination. What each document needs - translations, stamps, extra copies, or nothing - depends on the countries on your route, and those requirements change. The answer lives with the destination's official government sources and the issuing authority, not on a printable. This sheet records what you find; it does not decide it.
These two pages organize documents: names, dates, copies, locations, contacts. They contain no country requirements and no filing steps, and they are not legal, immigration, or tax advice.
Twelve rows on paper keep the records straight, but the page cannot tell you what your route requires, and it does not try. The pack these sheets come from is built the same way on purpose, and the pack's own README says it better than a summary would:
“Rules for permits, taxes and registrations change and differ per country. A printed table of ‘requirements’ goes stale fast and nobody wants wrong legal information. So this pack tracks your process instead: dates, fees, copies, deadlines, contacts. Whatever your destination asks for, you write it in, and the footer on every page says where the official answer lives: the government source for your route.”
- Expat Relocation Planner README, “Why it is generic on purpose”
The same README covers the printing basics the two free pages share: the pack ships as two files, one for A4 and one for US Letter, prints fine in grayscale at 100% scale, and is licensed for personal use - print as many copies as you need for your own move.
Two pages hold the document records for one move. The full Expat Relocation Planner runs the same write-in idea across the whole timeline: a 30-row document tracker with obtained, expires, and renewal columns, a 6-slot permit and application tracker with fees and decision dates, budget pages with currency columns, a 20-row housing log, a 30-row shipping inventory, an arrival-day checklist, and a first-week page. The other free angles of the same move: the 12-month moving abroad checklist for the timeline, the moving abroad cost checklist for the money, and the documents organizer for apostille and storage columns on screen.
one-time · A4 + US Letter · instant download · personal use, print copies for your own household