How much does it cost to get professional help moving abroad?
As of October 2026: the sticker price matters less than who is paying whom. Professional help splits into research, legal casework, and destination services — each priced differently, some funded by commissions you never see. Our research product is $495, and nobody pays us but you.
The short answer: it depends on which of three different jobs you are paying for — and, more than anything, on who is paying your advisor. Professional help with a move abroad splits into research (which country, which route), legal casework (filing the visa), and destination services (housing, schools, logistics). Each is priced differently, and some of what looks free is funded by commissions on decisions you have not made yet. Our own research product, the Abroad Dossier, costs $495 flat. Answer current as of October 28, 2026.
The three jobs, and how each gets priced
Research — deciding where to go and by which door. This is the step most households skip professionally and crowdsource instead, from forums, videos, and undated articles. Where it is sold at all, it is sold as consultations billed by the hour, as courses and quizzes, or bundled invisibly into one of the services below — which is precisely the problem, because bundled research inherits the bundle's incentives.
Legal casework — the visa itself. Immigration lawyers in your destination country price per application or per hour, and the honest ones will tell you a figure only after they understand your case: nationality, income shape, family structure, and the route chosen all move the quote. This is the one category where paying well is rarely a mistake — a correctly filed application is cheap compared to a refused one. What a lawyer in one country will not do is tell you whether a different country would have suited your household better. That is not their job, and it is not their jurisdiction.
Destination services — landing. Relocation agencies, property finders, and settling-in packages are often paid partly or wholly by the other side of the transaction: the developer, the landlord, the service provider. When a relocation service is free or cheap to you, you are not the customer — you are the referral. That does not make the help worthless. It makes the recommendation worth auditing.
The question under the question
Asking what help costs is really asking what the help is worth, and the answer turns on incentives. A commission-funded advisor earns when you buy what their partners sell, in the country their partners operate in. An hourly advisor earns when the engagement runs long. Neither structure is scandalous — but neither is aligned with the one decision that determines everything else: which country, which visa, in what order. Getting that decision wrong is the expensive outcome, and no refund on a service package covers it.
What we charge, so you can see the shape
We publish our pricing because the structure is the point. The Abroad Dossier is $495: a personalized relocation-intelligence report for your household — a researched and ranked shortlist across the nine countries we track completely, covering visa routes as practiced, recognition of your marriage and your children, healthcare continuity, and the tax treatment of American income. Every claim is dated, checked against primary sources, and where it matters corroborated in writing by practitioners in-country. Delivered within five business days, kept current for twelve months, with a thirty-minute debrief call. The complete sample report is public, so you can judge the work before paying for it.
And the alignment clause: we file no visas, sell no property, and take no commissions on the destination. When your dossier is done, we refer casework to licensed counsel who work for you directly. Nobody pays us but you — which is the only arrangement under which a ranked shortlist can be honest.
What this means for your plan
Budget in the right order. Spend first and least on the research that picks the country and the route — done properly, it is the cheapest item on the list and it de-risks every dollar after it. Spend properly on counsel in the country you actually choose. And treat any free help as what it is: marketing with a concierge desk, useful once you know enough to audit it.
The personalized version of this answer is the Abroad Dossier — $495, five business days, twelve months of updates. The complete sample is public.
Last verified: October 28, 2026. This is research and information, not legal, tax, or immigration advice.