Relocation Timeline Planner
Pick your visa and target arrival date — get a personalised, date-by-date plan of every milestone, working backward from move day. Export to PDF or your calendar. Free. No signup.
Your Portugal D7 timeline
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Read the full guide →How to Use This Planner
Pick your visa
Choose from seven popular routes. Each has its own milestone sequence and lead times built from official processing data.
Set your arrival date
The planner works backward from move day, scheduling every step so nothing is left too late.
Mark your progress
Tell it where you are now. Completed steps are checked off and your current step is highlighted.
Export your plan
Download a PDF or push every milestone into your calendar with the .ics export for automatic reminders.
How to Plan a Relocation Timeline
The single biggest mistake people make when moving abroad is starting too late. A visa decision might only take two months — but the documents you need before you can apply can take far longer. A criminal background check, an apostille, a long-term lease signed from overseas, and a consulate appointment slot can each take weeks, and they often have to happen in a specific order. Planning backward from your target arrival date is the only reliable way to see when each step must begin.
Background checks are almost always the long pole
An FBI Identity History Summary commonly takes 6–14 weeks, and a UK ACRO certificate around 2–6 weeks. Both then need an apostille (the Hague legalisation stamp), which adds more time and sometimes a mail-in round trip. Crucially, most consulates require the check to be recent — usually issued within the last 3 to 6 months — so you can't simply do it a year ahead. This planner schedules it in the right window automatically.
Some visas are filed before you move, others after
Portugal's D7 and Spain's NLV are applied for at a consulate in your home country, so the heavy lifting happens before you fly. Costa Rica's Rentista and Pensionado categories work differently: you typically enter as a tourist and then file your residency application in-country with the DGME, which is why those milestones fall after your arrival date in the plan. The planner reflects each visa's real sequence rather than forcing them into one template.
Leave buffer for the things you don't control
Consulate appointment availability, AIMA scheduling in Portugal, and INM processing in Mexico all fluctuate. Where a step depends on a government calendar, give yourself extra runway. If the planner flags a milestone as already overdue for your chosen arrival date, that's a signal your timeline is too tight — push the date back rather than cutting corners on documents.
Next steps
Once you have your timeline, generate a personalised document checklist so nothing is missed, check your income against the threshold with the Proof of Funds Calculator, and read the full corridor guide for your destination for consulate-specific detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
From first research to landing, most passive-income and digital-nomad visas take 6 to 12 months. The decision itself is usually 1 to 4 months, but the document phase — background checks (up to 5 months), apostilles, accommodation, and bank setup — determines your real timeline. This planner works backward from your target arrival date so you know when to start each step.
It's usually the long pole. An FBI summary can take 6–14 weeks and must then be apostilled. Most consulates require it to be dated within 3–6 months of application, so timing matters — too early and it expires, too late and it delays everything. The planner schedules it automatically based on your visa and arrival date.
Yes. Click "Export to Calendar" to download an .ics file with every milestone as a dated event. Import it into Google Calendar, Apple Calendar, or Outlook and each step appears on the right date with reminders. You can also download a printable PDF.
The planner flags milestones whose start dates have already passed, so you can see whether your timeline is realistic. For most visas you need at least 6–9 months of runway; if a step shows as overdue, consider pushing your arrival date back or fast-tracking documents like your background check.
Portugal D7 and Digital Nomad (D8), Spain Non-Lucrative and Digital Nomad, the Mexico Temporary Resident visa, and Costa Rica's Rentista and Pensionado categories. Each has its own sequence — for example, Costa Rica is filed in-country after you arrive, while Portugal and Spain are filed at a consulate beforehand.
Yes, completely free with no signup or email. Your inputs stay in your browser, and both the PDF and calendar export are generated entirely on your device.