Most "moving to Bali" guides are written for a solo digital nomad packing a laptop bag. Moving with kids is a different project entirely: visas for every family member, school enrolment on a deadline, healthcare that actually covers your children, and a villa that has to work as a home, not a holiday rental. This checklist puts the steps in the order that actually matters, based on what we help families through every week at SO Living Bali.
Want this as a document you can tick off as you go? Download our free Family Relocation Checklist and we'll send the full PDF straight to your inbox.
Six or more months before you move
1. Shortlist your school and get on the waitlist. This is the step families underestimate most. Popular schools like Green School Bali and Canggu Community School run genuine waitlists, and enrolment often needs to happen months before the term you're targeting. Our guide to the best international schools in Bali for expat kids covers fees, curricula and start dates to help you shortlist quickly.
2. Work out your visa pathway. Family relocation to Indonesia runs through a KITAS (limited stay permit): a spouse KITAS for a non-working partner, and a dependent KITAS for children under 18 (or under 21 if still financially dependent). Whether you sponsor through a work KITAS, an investor KITAS, or another pathway changes your documentation and timeline significantly, so it's worth getting proper visa advice early rather than assembling paperwork blind.
3. Build a real budget, not a guess. School fees, villa rent, health insurance and household staff all vary enormously depending on where you live and which school you choose. Our guide to the cost of living in Bali for a family of four breaks down real 2026 numbers, or you can message our team on WhatsApp for a budget built around your specific family.
4. Start gathering documents. Passports with at least six months' validity for every family member, marriage and birth certificates (apostilled and translated where required), and any employer sponsorship letters all take time to obtain and legalise. Start this well before your target move date, since apostille processing alone can take weeks in some countries.
Three months before
5. Apply for your family's KITAS. With documents ready, offshore visa processing (through an agent or directly via evisa.imigrasi.go.id) typically takes 5 to 10 business days once your application is complete, though onshore conversions can take 2 to 6 weeks. Build in buffer time; Indonesian visa processing is rarely the fastest step in this whole checklist.
6. Confirm school enrolment and request the exact start date. Indonesia has no single national school calendar: some international schools follow an August-to-June year, some follow July-to-June, and a smaller group follows the Australian January-to-December model. Once your child has a confirmed place, get the exact start date in writing so you can plan your move date around it.
7. Start your villa search around your school, not the other way around. This is the single biggest quality-of-life decision families get wrong: they fall in love with a villa first and discover the school commute is 45 minutes each way. Work out which neighbourhood sits within 15 minutes of your chosen school, then search within that radius. Our guide to the best family-friendly areas to live in Bali with kids breaks down which areas suit which schools and family situations.
8. Sort health insurance before you land, not after. International health insurance for a family of four typically runs $150 to $500 a month depending on coverage level. Bali's private hospitals handle most everyday needs well, but serious cases are often referred to Singapore or Jakarta, so you want a policy that covers that from day one.
One month before
9. Book your villa and confirm the lease terms. Most long-stay villa leases are paid six to twelve months upfront, so confirm exactly what's included (pool maintenance, garden staff, wifi, water) before you sign, and get everything in writing. This is exactly the stage where a local villa manager who knows the actual condition of a property, not just its listing photos, saves families from expensive surprises.
10. Arrange shipping or decide what to buy locally. Most families ship far less than they expect to. Cots, strollers, bikes and basic furniture are all readily available in Bali, often cheaper than shipping. Focus your shipping budget on things that are genuinely hard to replace: specific medications, particular comfort items for younger kids, and any specialised equipment.
11. Register your children with their new school's admin team. Ask specifically about uniform requirements, what to bring on day one, and whether there's a new-families orientation, many schools run one in the week before term starts, which is often the fastest way for kids to make a first friend before day one.
12. Set up banking and a local SIM plan in advance where possible. Some banks allow account opening to begin before you land if you have the right documentation; a local SIM and data plan can usually only be sorted on arrival, but knowing which provider covers your area (this varies more than people expect between Canggu, Sanur and Ubud) saves a wasted trip in your first week.
The week you arrive
13. Complete your biometric appointment and register for your NIK. After landing on your visa, you'll typically need to complete a biometric appointment and register with Disdukcapil for a NIK (resident registration number) within 7 to 14 days. Keep copies of every document from this process; you'll need them repeatedly for school, banking and healthcare registration.
14. Do a proper villa walkthrough before you fully move in. Test the wifi speed at the hours you'll actually use it, check pool fencing and gate security if you have young children, and confirm which staff (cleaner, gardener, pool maintenance) come with the property and on what schedule.
15. Give yourself a real settling-in week before school starts. If your timeline allows it, arrive at least a week before your child's first school day. Jet lag, a new home, and a first day of school on the same week is a lot for any child, and a few days to explore the neighbourhood together makes the transition noticeably smoother.
Let SO Living Bali handle the local half
Visas, schools and shipping are things you can research from anywhere. Finding the right villa in the right spot, one your family can actually picture living in, is the part that's genuinely hard to do from overseas. SO Living Bali manages family-ready villas across Bali's most liveable neighbourhoods, and our advisors can match a shortlist to your school, your budget and your move date.
Want the full version of this checklist to work through at your own pace? Download our free Family Relocation Checklist below and we'll email it straight to you, along with the villa and school shortlists our advisors put together for families just like yours.