Relocating a Russian speaking family to Thailand.

Start with the school year and work backwards

Almost every international school in Thailand runs an August to June year, with the main intake in August and a smaller one in January. Applications for August entry generally open the previous autumn and the popular year groups fill through the winter and spring. That single fact should set your whole timetable. Working backwards from an August start, the shape that works is: shortlist schools in September or October, visit in person over the winter, apply and sit assessments by the new year, accept a place and pay the deposit in the spring, resolve visas in the spring and early summer, ship in June, arrive in July with a few weeks to breathe before term.

Families who compress this into eight weeks in July do it every year and it is uniformly unpleasant. The two things that will not compress are school admissions and document legalisation, and both of them have to be started while you still have easy access to the institutions and authorities in your own country. A January entry is a perfectly good alternative if the timing suits, with the caveat that a child joining mid year has a harder social landing than one joining in August with the rest of the new intake.

What to ship, and what not to

The honest answer for most families is: far less than you think. Thailand imposes duty on imported household goods, sea freight from Europe or Central Asia takes a long time and costs real money, and a great deal of what people ship is furniture that will not suit a tropical house, winter clothing nobody will wear and electrical goods that will be cheaper here. Rentals here are very commonly furnished or part furnished, which removes most of the argument for a container. Many of the families we work with ship a small consignment or nothing at all, buy locally, and are glad of it.

• Worth bringing: documents and their certified translations, medical records, children's books in Russian in quantity, prescription medicines within the permitted rules, a small number of genuinely sentimental items, professional tools of trade, and good quality bedding and towels if you are particular about them.
• Worth buying here: furniture, most kitchen equipment, electrical appliances, air conditioning, bicycles, sports equipment, and almost all clothing other than shoes in larger sizes, which are genuinely harder to find.
• Not worth bringing: heavy winter clothing beyond one set per person, wooden furniture that will suffer in the humidity, most books other than the children's, anything bulky and replaceable, and appliances built for a different voltage or plug standard.
• Check before bringing: medicines and supplements, drones, radio equipment, large quantities of any single item, and anything that could be treated as commercial rather than personal, all of which are governed by specific rules.

If you do ship, use an established international mover with a Thai partner and a customs broker, get the quotation as a door to door figure inclusive of Thai side handling and clearance, and ask explicitly what happens if duty is assessed. Verify the current rules on household effects with Thai Customs rather than relying on your mover's summary, because the mover is quoting you a price and the customs authority is the one who decides.

Documents and legalisation

This is the part that catches families out, because most of it can only be done in the country that issued the document and it takes longer than anyone expects. The documents that most commonly need to be produced in Thailand are birth certificates for the children, the marriage certificate, school records and transcripts, medical and vaccination records, any court order relating to custody, powers of attorney, and, for those setting up a business, corporate and professional documents. Each will typically need legalisation in the country of origin and certified translation, with consular authentication depending on the receiving authority.

The order of operations matters and getting it wrong means paying twice. In general terms a document is legalised or apostilled in the issuing country first, then translated by a translator the receiving authority will accept, then authenticated as that authority requires. Which of those steps applies depends on the country of issue, the document and the Thai body that will receive it, and the requirements change. Do not take a general answer from anyone, including us: confirm the exact chain with the Thai institution or authority that will receive the document, with the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs Legalisation Division, and with your own embassy, and then follow it precisely. Bring multiple certified copies of everything, because you will be asked for originals in more places than you expect.

Pets

Dogs and cats can be brought to Thailand and thousands of families do it, but it is a documented process with fixed timings that begin months before departure and cannot be shortened. In broad terms it involves microchipping, rabies vaccination within a defined window, in many cases a rabies antibody titre test with a waiting period after it, other vaccinations, a government veterinary health certificate issued close to travel, and an import permit obtained from the Thai authorities in advance. Airlines have their own separate rules on carriage, crates, breeds and temperature, and some routes will not carry animals at all in the hot months.

Two pieces of practical advice. Start at least six months out, because the titre test and its waiting period are the long pole and everything else hangs off it. And plan the arrival end as well as the departure: not all rental housing in Thailand accepts pets, condominium buildings frequently prohibit them entirely, and a family that has flown a large dog across a continent and then cannot find a lease has a serious problem. Verify the current import requirements with the Thai Department of Livestock Development and confirm carriage rules with the airline before you commit to anything.

Housing and the staged arrival

Do not sign a twelve month lease from abroad. The pattern that works is a reconnaissance trip of two to four weeks, a short term let of one to three months on arrival while the children start school and you learn the geography, and only then a long lease taken in an area you have actually lived in. It costs a little more and it saves families from the most expensive mistake in the whole process, which is a year committed to the wrong side of a city or an island. When you do take a lease, have it read by a Thai lawyer, understand the deposit and its return conditions, confirm who is responsible for the address notification to immigration, and get everything you have been promised in writing rather than in conversation.

Money, in advance and lawfully

Arrange your payment and banking route before you fly, not after, and arrange it through licensed institutions only. Confirm in writing with your own bank what will and will not work in Thailand, because some cards issued by some banks do not function here at all and a family discovering that in week one of a move is in real difficulty. Expect enhanced due diligence when opening any account or making any substantial transfer, keep complete and consistent documentation of the source of your funds, and build the time it takes into your plan rather than being ambushed by it. Take professional advice from a qualified adviser in your own jurisdiction and from a Thai adviser here, since both sets of rules apply and neither adviser can speak for the other. Where something cannot be done lawfully, it cannot be done, and a good adviser tells you that early. We do not advise on informal arrangements, third party accounts, cash movement or digital assets as substitutes for regulated channels, and neither should anyone else.

What actually goes wrong

The recurring failures are unglamorous and avoidable. A document left unlegalised in the home country, discovered six months later, requiring a flight back or a costly power of attorney. A pet timeline started too late. A school application submitted in May for an August start, into a full year group. A twelve month lease signed off a photograph. A visa route chosen because a friend used it, without checking whether it fits your family's actual circumstances. And, most often of all, a household arriving with no tested way to pay for anything in the first fortnight. Fix those six and the rest of a family move to Thailand is genuinely enjoyable.

Customs allowances, document legalisation chains, pet import requirements and school admission calendars all change. Verify household goods and personal importation rules with Thai Customs, pet import requirements with the Thai Department of Livestock Development, document legalisation with the Thai Ministry of Foreign Affairs Legalisation Division and your own embassy, and visa requirements with the Royal Thai Embassy or Consulate in your country.

This briefing is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Thai rules change frequently and individual cases differ. Verify current requirements with the relevant authorities, including the Immigration Bureau, the Board of Investment, the Land Department, the Department of Business Development and the Revenue Department, and take advice on your own facts before acting.