Resource · ~7 min read
Emigrating from the UK: the emotional checklist.
In short
Practical moving guides cover visas, tax and shipping; few cover how the move will feel. Before you emigrate from the UK, map what steadies you now, plan for the slump that usually arrives between month three and month eighteen, set up a few routines early, agree how you’ll talk about it at home, and know where support will come from.
Rose Markotic · Anxiety Skills Coach
Rose’s path here runs through more than a decade of clinical training and practice — graduate training at Santa Clara University and years inside Dr. David Burns’ TEAM-CBT group at Stanford, the home of the measurement-driven framework.
This guide doesn’t cover visas, residency, tax or pensions. For those, use official government guidance and a qualified adviser in your destination country. It covers the part the checklists leave out: the emotional side of leaving the UK, which is often what decides whether a move works.
The emotional checklist before you move
1. Name what you're leaving, not just what you're going to
Write down the people, places and routines that steady you now: the friend you call on the way home, the Sunday walk, the GP who knows you. Then decide which ones you'll keep remotely and which you'll need to rebuild.
2. Plan for the dip, not just the arrival
Many moves follow a rough curve: excitement, then a slump somewhere between month three and month eighteen, then adjustment. Knowing the dip is normal makes it far less frightening when it arrives.
3. Decide your first three routines
Pick three anchors you'll set up in the first fortnight, such as a morning walk, a weekly call home and one regular class or club. Routines do a lot of the steadying that familiar people used to do.
4. Agree how you'll talk about it
If you're moving with a partner or family, agree now how you'll check in when one of you is struggling and the other is thriving. That imbalance is common and much easier to handle if it's expected.
5. Set a review date, not a verdict
Put a date in the calendar, around 12 to 18 months in, to review honestly how it's going. It stops every bad week from turning into "we made a mistake".
6. Know where support will come from
Find out before you go how you'll register with a doctor, where the English-speaking groups are, and who you'd talk to if your mood dipped. It's much harder to look for help once you need it.
What the first year usually feels like
The first months are often a honeymoon: the weather, the food, the sense of having pulled it off. Then the novelty fades and the losses become real. You miss easy conversations, the shorthand of people who’ve known you for years, and the feeling of knowing how things work. Anxiety, low mood and irritability in this phase are common, and they usually say more about adjustment than about whether you chose the wrong place.
Moving to Spain from the UK
Spain draws Brits for the climate, the pace and the coast, and many arrive with a ready-made community of other British expats. That helps at first, but it can also slow the real settling in. The common emotional pressures are the bureaucracy (the appointment system, residency paperwork), loneliness once the holiday feeling fades, and a quiet sense of living alongside the country rather than in it. There are pages for Barcelona and for Spain more broadly.
Moving to Portugal from the UK
Portugal’s appeal (Lisbon, the Algarve, a gentler cost of living) often comes with a slow bureaucracy and a social scene that’s easy to join and harder to go deep in. Many newcomers describe a full calendar of acquaintances and few people who really know them. The emotional adjustment is covered in more depth in moving to Portugal: the emotional adjustment, and Lisbon has its own page.
If the anxiety is already here
For many people the anxiety starts before the move: the decision itself, the logistics, the fear of regretting it. The same skills help before and after. Notice the worry loop and postpone it, test the catastrophic forecast against evidence, and keep a few steadying routines. See how to stop overthinking and anxiety after moving abroad.
When to see a licensed professional
If low mood or anxiety lasts for weeks, comes with panic or thoughts of harming yourself, or stops you functioning, please see a doctor where you live or a licensed professional. Coaching teaches skills; it isn’t a substitute for clinical care. The crisis resources page lists lines for Spain, Portugal, the UK and more.
Frequently asked
Common questions
- Is it normal to feel anxious about emigrating from the UK?
- Yes. A move abroad means leaving familiar people, routines and systems all at once, and anxiety before and after the move is very common. It usually eases as you build new routines and connections, especially if you expect a dip in the first year rather than reading it as a sign you made a mistake.
- What should be on an emotional checklist before moving abroad?
- Map what steadies you now and how you'll keep or replace it; expect a slump between month three and month eighteen; plan three routines for the first fortnight; agree how you'll talk about it with a partner or family; set a review date instead of a verdict; and find out where support will come from before you need it.
- How long does it take to settle after moving abroad?
- There's no fixed timeline, but many people describe the first 12 to 18 months as the hardest, with a dip after the initial excitement fades. Setting a review date around then helps you judge the move fairly instead of week by week.
- Can a coach help with moving abroad?
- Yes, with the emotional side: anxiety about the decision, the first-year dip, loneliness, and rebuilding routines. Rose works online, in English, with people moving to or living in Spain, Portugal and across Europe. Visas, tax and legal questions are for a qualified adviser.
Next step
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