We left with four suitcases and no plan B. It worked out — mostly. But "mostly" is doing a lot of work in that sentence, and most of the gaps in our plan didn't show up until we were already on the ground, trying to solve them in a language we were still learning.
This audit is the thing I wish I'd had before that flight. It's not a country guide, and it's not legal advice — it's five minutes that show you where your plan is solid, and where it's still mostly hope.
What it checks
Five categories, the same five that quietly decide whether a move feels like an adventure or an emergency:
The Move — your legal right to be there, and what happens if that changes.
The Paper Trail — the documents that turn "I want to move" into "I can move."
The Money — what this actually costs, including the costs nobody budgets for.
The Ground — where you'll land, and what happens to everything you're leaving behind.
The State — healthcare, medication, and the things you can't replace if they go missing.
How it works
Answer a series of short questions — most are yes/no/not sure, a few ask for rough numbers. About five minutes. At the end you get a readiness score, a breakdown by category, your top risks, an estimated transition cost, and the five things worth doing next.
What to do with your score
Whichever category came back weakest, start there — not because the others don't matter, but because that's where a gap is most likely to turn into a 2am problem.
If The Move came back weak, Visa Types, Explained is the next thing to read. If The Money came back weak, What Is Geoarbitrage, Really? will help you separate "cheaper" from "actually cheaper." If The Ground came back weak and Colombia is on your radar, Is Colombia the Move for You? is worth a look.
One more thing
A 24/100 isn't a verdict. It's where most people start — including us. The difference between people who move well and people who don't usually isn't how ready they were on day one. It's whether they kept closing the gaps instead of hoping they'd close themselves.
If this was useful, Sovereign Sundays sends one breakdown like this every Sunday — geoarbitrage, visa pathways, and what the ground actually feels like once you're there.
