For most people relocating abroad, accommodation, visas and banking tend to dominate the pre-move checklist. The phone setup gets left to the last week, sorted in a rush at the airport or cobbled together from advice in a Facebook group. It is an oversight that tends to announce itself quickly, usually in the form of a surprisingly large phone bill or a week of spotty coverage in a city that was supposed to have excellent infrastructure.
Getting the communication setup right from the start is not complicated, but it does require understanding how the different layers of modern connectivity fit together. SIM strategy, calling apps, and data plans are three separate decisions, and conflating them tends to be where new expats run into trouble.
The local SIM question
The first decision most expats face is whether to get a local SIM immediately, keep their home country number active, or try to manage with an eSIM. Each has a legitimate case depending on the situation.
A local SIM remains the most practical choice for anyone settling in a single country for six months or more. Local rates are almost always better, network coverage tends to be stronger, and having a local number matters more than most people anticipate. Landlords, banks, utility providers and healthcare registrations all typically require one. Arriving without a local number creates friction at exactly the moment when administrative tasks are already piling up.
The process of obtaining one varies significantly by country. In the UAE and much of the Gulf, registration requires a passport and residency visa, which means tourists can get a SIM but expats on new visas may need to wait until their paperwork clears. In most of Europe, registration is lighter and a passport alone is sufficient. In some markets, including parts of Southeast Asia, the process is near-instant at any convenience store.
The eSIM case
For expats who move frequently, split time between two countries, or are still in the exploratory phase of a relocation, eSIMs have matured into a genuinely practical option. Providers like Airalo and Holafly allow a traveller to purchase a regional or country-specific data plan before arriving, activating it digitally without needing a physical card.
The limitation is consistent: eSIMs provide data connectivity but not a callable local number. For expats whose work or personal life requires receiving calls on a local number, eSIMs serve better as a supplementary layer than a primary one. Used alongside a home country SIM kept active for continuity, the combination covers most connectivity needs during a transition period without committing to a local plan prematurely.
Calling home: where most expats underestimate the cost
Data and messaging costs have become largely predictable. International voice calls have not. WhatsApp and FaceTime handle most casual contact with family and friends abroad, provided both parties have reliable internet and are on the same platform. The problems emerge at the edges: calling a parent who does not own a smartphone, reaching a GP surgery or government office on a landline, or dialling into countries where internet-based calls are either restricted or unreliable.
In these cases, expats typically default to their mobile carrier’s international rates, which remain expensive across the board, or to legacy platforms like Skype, which has lost significant ground in recent years as Microsoft has deprioritised the consumer product.
The gap has been filled by a growing number of specialist VoIP providers offering rates that are considerably lower than traditional carriers for specific international corridors. For expats with regular calling needs to regions such as the Middle East, South Asia or parts of Africa, identifying the right provider for their specific corridor can reduce monthly calling costs substantially. Sayfone is among the more frequently cited options in this space, particularly for calls into the Gulf; a detailed breakdown of how it compares to other Skype alternatives on price, call quality and ease of use is available for those evaluating their options.
Number portability and keeping a home country presence
One consideration that catches expats off guard is the question of their home country number. Cancelling a contract before leaving seems financially sensible. In practice, it creates complications that surface later.
Banks and financial institutions in many countries still rely on SMS-based two-factor authentication tied to a registered mobile number. Losing access to a home number can mean losing access to online banking, government portals and various subscription services simultaneously. The workaround most long-term expats settle on is keeping a low-cost SIM on a minimal monthly plan active purely to receive SMS messages, rather than cancelling outright.
Several providers now offer specific products designed for exactly this use case: plans with no data allowance and minimal call credit, priced purely to keep a number active. They are not widely advertised but are available from most major carriers on request.
The device question
Network-locked phones remain a source of unnecessary difficulty for new expats. A device locked to a home country carrier will not accept a foreign SIM, which renders any SIM strategy redundant until the lock is removed. Most carriers will unlock a device on request after a contract period has elapsed, though the process and timeline varies. Expats planning a move are better served by confirming their device is unlocked before departure than by dealing with it on arrival.
Dual-SIM capability, either physical or through eSIM, is worth prioritising in any device purchased going forward. The ability to run a home country number and a local number simultaneously removes most of the practical tension between maintaining continuity and integrating into a new market.
Building the stack
Taken together, the communication setup that tends to work best for new expats is not particularly complicated. A local SIM for day-to-day calls and data. A home country number maintained on a low-cost plan for financial and administrative continuity. A VoIP app calibrated to the specific international corridors they call most frequently. And, for those in a transitional period, an eSIM for flexibility during travel.
None of it requires significant expense. What it does require is making four or five deliberate decisions in the first week rather than defaulting to whatever is easiest in the moment. The expats who get this right early tend to find it barely registers as something they think about again. The ones who don’t tend to notice the gap at unpredictable intervals for considerably longer.
