Author: Coty

Overview

Settling in services are the post-arrival support a relocating employee and their family receive in their new location, covering bank accounts, driver’s licenses, healthcare registration, utility setup, school enrollment, and the dozens of administrative steps that come after the moving truck pulls away. ARC’s settling in services run alongside domestic and international relocations and adapt to each family’s specific situation rather than a one-size template

• What they cover: post-arrival administration, registration, integration, and cultural adjustment
• When they happen: from arrival day through the first 60-90 days, with ongoing touchpoints after that
• Who needs them: every relocating employee, especially families and international transferees
• How it works: needs assessment first, then local expert support for 1-2 days on the ground, then ongoing support as questions come up
• Why it matters: failed assignments and early returns almost always start with bad settling-in

What Are Settling In Services?

Settling in services are the practical, administrative, and personal support a relocating employee gets after they arrive at their new location. The work covers everything from opening a bank account and registering for a driver’s license to finding a doctor, enrolling kids in school, and figuring out how local utilities and tax authorities want to be paid.

This is the layer of relocation that decides whether the move actually succeeds. An employee can have a perfect visa, a flawless household goods shipment, and a beautiful new home — and still pack up and leave six months later because they couldn’t figure out the healthcare system or their kid hated their new school.

ARC’s settling in services handle all of that so the employee and family can focus on the move itself and the new role, not on bureaucratic paperwork in an unfamiliar system.

Settling In Services vs. Destination Services

These two terms get used interchangeably and shouldn’t be. Here’s the practical difference.

Destination services run from pre-decision through the first few days of arrival. They cover home finding, area orientation tours, school searches, neighborhood selection, and the work of choosing where the family will live.

Settling in services start the day the family arrives and run through the first 60 to 90 days. They cover the administrative setup, registrations, and integration that turn the new home into a functioning daily life, including bank accounts, driver’s licenses, healthcare, utilities, school enrollment, social security registration, and the rest.

Most assignments use both, with the same counselor coordinating across phases for continuity. A few companies bundle them under one name. The work is the same either way.

What’s Included in ARC’s Settling In Services

The program covers six workstreams, with the scope on each tailored to whether the move is domestic or international and what the family actually needs.

Home Setup

The first week in a new place is administrative chaos when handled alone. Settling in services take that off the employee’s plate.

The work includes utility connection (electricity, gas, water), internet and phone service activation, TV and streaming setup, vetted handyman and cleaning service introductions, furniture rental coordination if needed, and property insurance setup. For international moves, this also covers country-specific systems that don’t exist in the home country, like the BSN in the Netherlands or the codice fiscale in Italy that you need before you can do basically anything else.

Most home setup gets done in the first 7 to 14 days. The goal is a fully functional house by week two.

Local Orientation

Knowing where things are isn’t enough. You need to know which grocery store actually stocks what you cook with, which doctor speaks English (or your language), where the locals go versus where the tourists go, and how to navigate the unwritten rules that every neighborhood has.

ARC’s local experts spend one to two days on the ground with the employee and family, customized to what matters to them. That might be religious community connections, fitness facilities, specialty food sources, family-friendly activities, or the practical commute logistics for the new job.

This isn’t a generic city tour. It’s a tailored introduction to the specific version of the city the family is going to actually live in.

Administrative Support

Every country and most US states have a different set of administrative steps required to legally and practically live there. Getting them done in the right order saves weeks.

The work includes bank account opening and financial services setup, registration with local authorities (residency, tax ID, social security), driver’s license applications and license exchanges where reciprocity exists, vehicle registration, healthcare system registration and provider selection, and any country-specific permits or filings.

International moves often have more required steps and tighter timelines. Some countries require residence registration within 7 to 30 days of arrival, and missing the deadline can affect visa status. Domestic US moves usually involve fewer required filings, though state-specific items like vehicle registration and driver’s license transfer still have deadlines worth tracking.

Transportation Assistance

Getting mobile in a new place is one of the biggest practical hurdles, especially for families with school-age kids and dual-career couples.

ARC handles car rental during the initial settling period, guidance on whether to buy or lease in the destination, introductions to reputable dealers who won’t take advantage of newcomers, driver’s license exchange or testing assistance, vehicle insurance setup, and public transportation orientation including payment systems and route planning.

For international moves, vehicle decisions get more complicated. Some countries make it nearly impossible to import a US vehicle without expensive compliance modifications, while others have streamlined processes. The counselor walks through the options before any decisions get made.

Family Support

The family side of settling in is where assignments succeed or fail.

For accompanying partners, ARC supports career transition planning, job search coaching, networking introductions, and information on work rights tied to dependent visas. This is direct, hands-on support rather than a referral to a generic service.

For children, our relocation specialists handle school system explanations (curriculum differences, grading systems, calendar differences), school visits and interviews, application and registration support, and childcare or after-school activity placement. School placement is often the single most stressful part of a family move, and starting it early in the relocation timeline is one of the highest-leverage things HR can support.

Cultural Integration

Cultural adjustment isn’t optional for international assignments. It’s the difference between a family that’s surviving and one that’s thriving.

ARC’s cross-cultural training covers practical conversational language training with certified instructors, cross-cultural workshops for the whole family, introduction to local customs and business culture, and social networking opportunities with both expat and local communities. The training is designed to be practical and conversational rather than academic.

For domestic US moves, cultural integration looks different though still matters. Moving from Boston to Birmingham, or from rural Idaho to downtown San Francisco, involves real adjustment that benefits from structured support. ARC’s content on moving to a new state covers some of the practical side.

Settling In Timeline: What to Expect

The settling in phase typically runs from arrival day through about 90 days, with the heaviest work happening in the first month.

Days 1-3: Airport pickup, temporary or new home arrival, immediate essentials (groceries, basic utilities check, SIM card or local phone setup, cash and banking access).

Days 4-14: Local orientation with the ARC counselor, bank account opening, residency registration where required, school enrollment if not already complete, healthcare provider selection, internet and TV setup.

Days 15-30: Driver’s license and vehicle registration, ongoing utility connections (gas, water, any specialized services), insurance setups, social and community connections, language training kickoff if international.

Days 30-90: Continued cultural integration, spouse career support, settling into daily routines, ongoing administrative items as they come up, check-ins with the ARC counselor to address anything that’s still rough.

Post-90 days: Touchpoints continue as questions arise. Settling in support doesn’t end at a hard date. It tapers as the family gets established.

Settling In Services FAQs

What’s the difference between settling in services and destination services?

Destination services cover the pre-arrival and home-finding phase, including choosing the neighborhood, finding the house or apartment, and school searches before the move. Settling in services cover the post-arrival administrative and integration phase, including bank accounts, registrations, utility setup, and ongoing support during the first 60-90 days in the new location.

How long do settling in services last?

The intensive phase runs 60 to 90 days from arrival, with the heaviest work concentrated in the first month. Ongoing touchpoints continue after that as new questions arise, so there’s no hard end date and support tapers as the family settles.

Are settling in services worth the cost on a domestic move?

Often yes, especially for relocations across state lines with families involved. Driver’s license transfers, vehicle registration, healthcare provider changes, and school enrollment all have state-specific rules that benefit from local expert guidance, and the time saved usually justifies the cost.

What if the employee speaks the local language already?

Language fluency helps, though it doesn’t eliminate the value of settling in services. Knowing how to read a Spanish lease isn’t the same as knowing which Madrid neighborhoods fit a specific family, how the Spanish tax system actually works in practice, or which local doctor takes the company’s expat health plan. Local expertise covers more than language.

Can settling in services be added to an existing relocation policy?

Yes. ARC plugs settling in services into existing corporate relocation programs as a standalone module. The needs assessment establishes scope, and the work integrates with whatever moving, visa, and destination services the company already has in place.

Do settling in services include the spouse and children?

Yes, family support is one of the core workstreams. Spouse career assistance, school enrollment, childcare placement, and family cultural integration all run as part of the standard program for families.

What countries do ARC’s settling in services cover?

ARC delivers settling in services across more than 85 countries through a network of local experts, plus full coverage across the US for domestic moves. The on-the-ground support varies by destination, though the core program structure stays consistent.

Who runs the settling in process at ARC?

A dedicated ARC counselor manages each employee’s settling in program from kickoff through the post-arrival period, with local experts on the ground in the destination handling the in-person work. The counselor is the single point of contact for both HR and the transferring employee.

Final Thoughts

The companies that get relocation right understand that the move doesn’t end at the airport. It ends when the family is functioning in their new life — kids settled in school, partner finding their footing, employee focused on the new role rather than on figuring out which form they need for the local tax authority. Settling in services are what get the family from arrival to actually settled, and skipping or skimping on them is one of the most expensive mistakes in corporate relocation.

ARC has spent decades building the local expert networks and counselor expertise that make settling in work, across both domestic US moves and international assignments in more than 85 countries. Whether this is your first relocation or your hundredth, we can integrate settling in services into your existing program or run them as a standalone engagement.

Contact ARC Today for More Expert Relocation Advice and Guidance!

Call ARC at 866.697.3561 or contact us online today to talk through settling in support for your transferring employees.

Understand the High Price of Doing it Wrong 

When your top engineer accepts that dream role in your Seattle office, you’re celebrating a win. But here’s what most companies don’t see coming: there’s a 40% chance that move will fail within the first year. And when it does, you’re not just losing an employee—you’re bleeding money in ways that never show up on a single invoice.

Corporate relocation is a $25 billion industry for a reason. Companies spend an average of $16.2 million per year moving their people around. That’s not pocket change, and when things go wrong, those numbers multiply fast. The real damage isn’t always visible until it’s too late.

The Hidden Costs of a Failed Relocation

Let’s talk about what a failed relocation actually costs you. It starts with the obvious stuff—moving expenses, temporary housing, flights, settling-in allowances. You’ve already written those checks. Then there’s the repatriation costs when things fall apart, which means you’re essentially paying for the move twice. 

One failed relocation can easily cost $150,000 to $200,000 once you factor in everything.

But that’s just the beginning. Your employee spent three months in limbo instead of contributing to your bottom line—that’s lost productivity you can’t get back. 

The signing bonus and relocation incentives you offered? 

Gone. 

Now you’re back to square one, posting the job again and starting another search that’ll take months.

Here’s where it gets really expensive: replacing that employee costs 50-200% of their annual salary depending on the role. A senior developer making $150,000? You’re looking at another $75,000 to $300,000 to find and onboard their replacement. Add it all up and a single failed relocation can cost anywhere from $200,000 to $500,000 when you include direct costs, lost productivity, and replacement expenses.

Most finance teams never connect these dots because the costs are scattered across different budgets and departments. Moving expenses come from one place, recruitment from another, and productivity losses don’t show up on any ledger at all.

Why Your Relocations are Failing 

The truth is most relocation failures are preventable. They happen because companies treat moves like a logistics problem when they’re actually a people problem. You can have the best moving company in the world, but if your employee’s spouse can’t find work or their kids are struggling in a new school system, that assignment is doomed.

Lack of Proper Planning

Too many companies wing it. They think booking a moving truck and finding an apartment is enough. It’s not. Successful relocations require detailed planning that starts months before the move date and continues long after the boxes are unpacked.

This is where ARC steps in. 

We don’t just coordinate your move—we build a comprehensive strategy that addresses every phase of relocation. That means helping with home finding before your employee even arrives, connecting families with schools and community resources, and providing ongoing support through the entire settling-in period. Our team has relocated over 27,000 people since 2004, and we’ve learned that the details everyone else overlooks are the ones that make or break an assignment.

Compliance Issues

Here’s something that keeps legal teams up at night: international relocations are a compliance minefield. Tax laws, work permits, visa requirements—they vary wildly by country and change constantly. One mistake can result in massive fines or even criminal liability for your company.

Smaller companies often don’t have dedicated international HR specialists who understand these nuances. Even large corporations struggle to keep up with changing regulations across multiple jurisdictions. The risk is real, and ignorance isn’t a defense when regulators come knocking.

Inexperienced HR Managers

Your HR team is talented, but unless they’ve handled hundreds of relocations, they’re learning on your dime. They might not know about the spouse’s work authorization timeline, or that certain countries require medical exams months in advance, or that school enrollment deadlines can make or break a family’s transition.

It’s not their fault—relocation is specialized work. Expecting your HR generalist to manage complex international moves is like asking your family doctor to perform brain surgery. They’re both in healthcare, but the expertise required is completely different.

Family and Cultural Issues

This is the silent killer of relocations. Your employee might be excited about the opportunity, but if their family isn’t on board, you’ve got a ticking time bomb. A trailing spouse who can’t work legally, kids struggling to adapt to a new culture, or an aging parent left behind without support—these personal factors derail moves faster than any logistical challenge.

Cultural adjustment takes time and support. Someone moving from suburban Texas to urban Tokyo needs more than a welcome packet. They need cultural training, language support, and a network of resources to help them navigate daily life. Without it, culture shock turns into constant stress, and stress turns into resignation letters.

The Benefits of Proper Relocation Strategy 

When you get relocation right, the benefits extend far beyond just filling a position. You’re making a strategic investment that pays dividends across your entire organization.

Cost Savings

Companies that work with professional relocation management firms typically see 15-25% cost savings compared to managing moves internally. How? We’ve got established relationships with 1,693 vetted suppliers worldwide, which means better rates on everything from moving services to temporary housing. We also prevent the costly mistakes that inexperienced teams make—like missing tax deadlines or choosing the wrong visa category.

The real savings come from preventing failures. If even one relocation that would’ve failed succeeds instead, you’ve saved hundreds of thousands of dollars. That’s not even counting the opportunity cost of the work that person will complete once they’re settled and productive.

Good for Productivity

A well-managed relocation gets your employee up and running faster. Instead of spending weeks stressed about finding housing or figuring out how to register their car, they’re focused on their job. Our clients report that relocated employees reach full productivity 40% faster when they work with us compared to managing moves on their own.

There’s also a multiplier effect—stressed employees create stress for their teams. When someone is constantly distracted by relocation problems, it impacts their colleagues’ productivity too. Get the move right, and everyone benefits.

Business Reputation

Word travels fast in today’s connected world. When you handle relocations well, you become known as an employer that takes care of its people. That reputation attracts top talent who might otherwise hesitate to relocate. On the flip side, botched relocations damage your employer brand in ways that are hard to repair.

Your relocated employees are often your most valuable team members—they’re the ones willing to uproot their lives for your company. Treating them well during this vulnerable time creates loyalty that lasts for years. These are the people who become your future leaders and your strongest advocates.

Employee Retention

This might be the most important benefit of all. When you invest in proper relocation support, you’re telling employees they matter. That message resonates. Companies with strong relocation programs see significantly higher retention rates among relocated employees—not just in the first year, but for the duration of their tenure.

Every employee you retain is one you don’t have to replace. In tight talent markets, that competitive advantage can’t be overstated.

Types of Assignments & Risk Profiles

Not all relocations carry the same risk. Understanding the different types helps you allocate resources appropriately and set realistic expectations.

Domestic relocations might seem simpler, but they still involve significant complexity and cost an average of $30,000 or more per move. The logistics are easier, but the human factors—leaving friends, family, and familiar surroundings—are just as challenging as international moves.

International long-term assignments carry the biggest risk and highest cost. These moves involve multiple countries’ legal systems, complex tax implications, and the greatest cultural adjustment. They’re also where professional support delivers the most value. One mistake on a long-term international assignment can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Short-term or commuter assignments have lower upfront costs but present their own challenges. Employees living away from family for extended periods face burnout risk and relationship stress. These arrangements need careful management to prevent them from backfiring.

What Transferees Tell Us: The Problem

• We know transferees feel neglected when they don’t get timely updates—because they tell us.
• We know international assignees often feel lonely in the first few months—because they tell us.
• We know families feel nervous about schools, spouses’ careers, and healthcare access—because they tell us.
• Employees report feeling overwhelmed when the focus is only on logistics (boxes, flights, trucks).
• They want human support and reassurance—someone to answer questions that aren’t in the policy handbook.
• Neglected feelings lead to disengagement, which is an early warning sign of failure.

Employees relocated with ARC report higher satisfaction and reach productivity 40% faster. Companies using the AI tool + ARC support have seen lower failure rates and stronger retention.

How ARC Can Help

Here’s what makes us different: we’re completely independent. Unlike other relocation companies with sister companies in van lines or real estate, we’re free to recommend the best options for your situation—not the ones that pad someone else’s bottom line.

We work with companies of all sizes and don’t require a minimum number of moves per year. Whether you’re relocating one person or managing a group move of 1,000 employees, we’ve got the expertise and resources to make it work. We’re trusted by the Federal Government as one of only 10 authorized move managers, and we’ve successfully moved employees to over 120 countries.

Our approach is personal. When you try to handle relocations internally, you’re trading speed and employee satisfaction for the illusion of control. We give you the best of both worlds—professional management that reduces your workload while improving outcomes. Book a free consultation and we’ll build a custom relocation plan that fits your needs and budget.

Your next relocation doesn’t have to be a gamble. With the right partner, it can be what it should be: a strategic move that strengthens your organization and takes care of your people. 

That’s what we do, and we’ve been doing it successfully since 2004.