Guides, free to everyone.

In many European countries the first formality after a move is to register where you live. Much of what follows depends on it: a personal or tax number, health cover, a bank account, a school place.

1. Find out whether your country of residence requires registration and which office handles it: the town hall, a residents’ registration office or the police, depending on the country.
2. Ask which proof of address is accepted. A tenancy agreement, or a signed confirmation from your landlord, is common.
3. Bring your passport or national identity card, and the birth or marriage certificates of family members who register with you.
4. Keep the certificate you receive. Banks, employers and health insurers often ask for it.
5. If you are an EU citizen living in another EU country, that country may also ask you to register your right of residence. Ask at the same office.
6. When you move again, or leave the country, ask whether you must report the change or deregister.

Wages, rent and bills run through a local account. Banks are obliged to check who their customers are, so expect to show documents.

1. Before you go, ask the bank which identity document and which proof of address it accepts. Requirements differ from bank to bank.
2. If you have no local address yet, ask whether an employment contract or a university enrolment is accepted instead.
3. If you are legally resident in an EU country, you have the right to a basic payment account, even without a fixed address. Ask for it by that name if an ordinary account is refused.
4. If a bank refuses you, ask for the reason in writing and for the way to complain.
5. Compare account fees before you choose. Banks in the EU must give you a fee information document.
6. Never let another person use your account, and never open an account for someone else: see Scam Watch.
7. The United Kingdom and Switzerland have their own rules. Ask the bank, or a free advice service.

Every European country runs its own health system. The first question is always which country is responsible for your cover.

1. Where you live and work, join the national system: register with the health insurer, health fund or health service as that country requires, and ask how to register with a family doctor.
2. Ask what applies in your first weeks, before you are registered, and whether you need private cover for that time.
3. The European Health Insurance Card (EHIC) is free from the health insurer of the country that covers you. It gives access to medically necessary, state-provided care during a temporary stay in another EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway or Switzerland.
4. The United Kingdom issues the Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) to people it covers, for necessary state care on temporary stays in the countries it applies to.
5. Neither card is travel insurance, and neither replaces cover in the country where you live. They do not cover private care or the cost of being brought home.
6. Carry the card when you travel, and check its expiry date.

Whether you need formal recognition depends on whether your profession is regulated in the country where you want to work.

1. Find out whether your profession is regulated there. Health professions, teaching, law, architecture and many trades often are, and the list differs by country.
2. If it is regulated, apply to the competent authority for that profession. Each country has a national contact point that tells you which authority that is.
3. If it is not regulated, you may work without formal recognition. An official statement comparing your diploma with local ones still helps employers to understand it.
4. For academic recognition, to continue your studies, contact the national information centre of the ENIC-NARIC network.
5. Prepare certified copies of diplomas, transcripts and proof of professional experience, with sworn translations where they are requested.
6. Ask at the start about language requirements, and about any additional training or test you may be asked to complete.

Whether you may keep driving on your licence, and for how long, depends on where it was issued and where you now live.

1. A valid licence issued by an EU country is recognised throughout the EU. You are not normally required to exchange it while it remains valid.
2. A licence issued outside the EU is treated under the national rules of the country where you live. Many countries let you drive on it for a limited period after you become resident, and then require an exchange or a new test.
3. Ask the licensing authority which countries’ licences it exchanges without a test, and what the time limit is. Do not leave it late.
4. Ask whether you need a certified translation or an international driving permit in the meantime.
5. When your licence expires, renew it in the country where you normally live.
6. The United Kingdom has its own exchange rules; check them on the government website.

A working life spent in several countries produces several pension records. None of them is lost, but each has to be claimed.

1. Every country where you were insured keeps your record until you reach its pension age. Years worked in one country are not transferred to another.
2. Within the EU, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway and Switzerland, you normally apply to the pension authority of the country where you live, or of the country where you last worked if you never worked where you live. That authority passes your claim to the others.
3. Each country calculates and pays its own part, under its own rules and at its own pension age, so the parts may begin at different times.
4. Periods in different countries can be added together to meet a minimum qualifying period.
5. For work outside those countries, ask whether a social-security agreement exists between the two countries concerned.
6. Keep contracts, payslips and insurance numbers from every country, and ask for a statement of your record well before you retire.

The cost of a transfer has two parts, and only one of them is called a fee.

1. Compare the total cost: the fee and the exchange rate together. A transfer with no fee may carry a poor rate.
2. Look at how much the person receives, in their own currency, not only at what you pay.
3. Use a provider that is authorised to offer payment services in the country you send from. The national financial regulator publishes a register.
4. In the EU, the provider must tell you the charges and the exchange rate before you agree. Keep the receipt and the reference number.
5. Send only to people you know. No genuine authority, employer or landlord asks to be paid by money transfer to a private person.
6. If something goes wrong, complain to the provider in writing first, then to the national complaints body for financial services.

When a flight, a train, a coach or a ferry lets you down, European rules give you rights. They are worth knowing before the summer journey home.

1. EU passenger rights cover travel by air, rail, bus and coach, and ship.
2. By air, they apply to flights that leave from an EU airport with any airline, and to flights that arrive in the EU operated by an EU airline.
3. If your journey is cancelled or seriously delayed, you are generally entitled to information, to care while you wait, and to a choice between a refund and another route. Compensation may be due, depending on the cause and the length of the delay.
4. Keep tickets, boarding passes and receipts for meals or a hotel, and ask staff for written confirmation of the delay or cancellation.
5. Claim from the carrier first, in writing. If the answer does not satisfy you, turn to the national enforcement body.
6. The United Kingdom applies its own, similar rules to flights from its airports.

For Europeans who are moving to another continent. What you settle before you leave is far easier than what you try to settle from a distance.

1. Ask your town hall or registration office whether you must deregister, and keep the proof.
2. Ask your health insurer when your cover ends. The EHIC is no substitute for health cover in the country you are moving to.
3. Ask the tax office how your tax residence changes and what it needs from you.
4. Ask your pension authority how your record is kept, and whether you may continue to contribute voluntarily.
5. Check that your passport and driving licence are valid for long enough, and how you renew them through a consulate.
6. Where you settle, register with your country’s consulate if it offers registration, and ask how voting from abroad works.
7. Keep a bank account, and a postal or digital address, for official letters.

After years away, the systems you left treat you as a new arrival. A little preparation shortens the second beginning.

1. Register your address the moment you have one: much else depends on it.
2. Rejoin the health system at once, and ask whether any waiting period applies to you.
3. Bring proof of the years you worked and were insured abroad. They may count towards your pension or other entitlements.
4. Ask your bank and your insurers what they need from you. A claims-free record from abroad may be recognised if you bring it in writing.
5. Have diplomas and professional experience gained abroad recognised, if your profession requires it.
6. A family member who is not an EU citizen may need a visa or a residence card. Ask the immigration authority before you travel.
7. Enrol children in school early, and bring their school records, translated.