Moving abroad - how much does it cost realistically

[anotherlevel]

Just that really. Does anyone have experience or knowledge of what needs to be sorted out and how much realistically it would cost to move abroad. We're a family of 6 for context and currently live in England.
Tia x

Where would you be moving to?

Yes that would be helpful! I started to type it out and changed the sentence and forgot to add to it.

Middle East - Qatar, Abu Dhabi or Dubai

Removed as cross posted with update

How long is a piece of string?
You need to find out which visas you need and pay for them. There’s a good handful to choose from.

If you’re moving all the contents of your home, then removals can be 5 figures.

And then somewhere to live, school fees, health insurance. Just off the top of my head.

Well, are you going on a package? Or doing it completely yourself? Off the top of my head:

Visas x6
Flights x6
Shipping all your belongings, or packing it all into 2 cases each and rebuying all the furniture at the other end.
Short term rental until you can get a house rental sorted
Potentially (tho I think this is becoming less common) a years rent up front (we left the ME 5 years ago - we paid rent once a year).
4x a terms school fees (assuming all kids are school age)
Medical insurance
Nw bedding because the beds are all weird sizes, and none of your sheets fit.
New school uniform for everyone, and a load of new clothes as you don't have enough summer clothes
New corkscrew, as you realise its essential, and packed in the stuff that isn't arriving for 6 week...

It's not cheap!

Do you mean just the start up costs for the first few months?

For the UAE the amount you'd need would be well into the thousands (GBP). You'd need deposits for lots of things, but 6months - 1 year's worth of rent upfront (plus security deposit, plus agent fees) is the biggest, although sometimes your employer will provide an interest free loan for the first year or two so you can pay it back monthly. If staff accommodation is not provided you'd need to budget for a hotel or serviced accommodation until you have found housing to rent (which can't be done until your visa has been processed)
Other big expenses would be:

• visas and health insurance if these aren't included with the salary package

-school fees (even if these are included with salary package sometimes they only include a contribution to and not cover the full fees, or only the first child, and often not for pre-school age) -maid (if you need one) -car hire (or car purchase). -furniture, appliances etc lots of warm weather clothing! Deposits also needed for AC / Electricity / Water accounts, phone, broadband and you should budget for flights for however often you'd like to return (sometimes these are covered with a salary package, but check if it's for the whole family). Fees for things like attestation certificates for marriage, degree certificates etc also mount up. I have not worked it out exactly, but excluding housing fees and school fees, I would think you'd need access to around at least £10k for a family of 6 just to get you started, assuming you had a proper job (not relying on commission) lined up that you'd be starting on arrival.

Wow that's a lot of rent upfront!
And lots to research. I've always wanted to move abroad but never had the opportunity to but now we do though work I'd need to sort out.

If you have the opportunity to do it through work, does work cover any of the relocation costs?

The last time we moved internationally to and then from the UK the actual moving costs were covered by my husband’s work entirely. We spent money on buying new houses.

Outside of that, it all depends on how many people are going and how much you’re taking.

I googled using Dubai as your destination, and here’s a calculator to give you an idea:
https://www.pssremovals.com/international-removals-cost-calculator

A useful guide and checklist:
https://www.clearcurrency.co.uk/stories/moving-to-dubai-checklist

Another guide:
https://slothmove.com/moving-to-dubai-from-the-uk/

it’s also worth looking at expat communities on Reddit.

That's so helpful @InterIgnis thank you for taking the time to.

My company budgets 10k plus an extra 2k per kid to move to Europe, which is meant to cover new electrical appliances and shipping & moving. Relocation consultant, visas, estate agent, house deposits, tax advisor are a separate bill. We're not a very high ranking company so international school and private health care aren't included, plus it's Europe so they're not really a thing.

For me, moving as a single youngish person 5 years ago, I never managed to do it for less than 4k by the time you need flights, moving boxes, deposits, phone contracts, bureaucratic fees, first few nights in an airbnb and the odd piece of extra furniture.