Your Assignee Cannot Pay The Deposit. The System Does Not Know Them.

Banks, phone contracts and payment apps often depend on each other, and a new arrival may have none of them in the first weeks.

InterNations' 2026 survey of almost 8,000 expats found that 39% worldwide find dealing with local bureaucracy difficult, rising to 61% in Germany. A new arrival can need a local phone number to open a bank account, a bank account to get a phone contract and an address to get both. Until that is untangled, paying a deposit, receiving salary and even travelling on public transport can be difficult.

Banks in many countries ask for a residence card, proof of address and often a local phone number, and some impose a waiting period after arrival. In South Korea, for example, the foreigner registration card can take several weeks to issue. Meanwhile the deposit, first month’s rent and utilities all fall due in the first days.

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The share of expats worldwide who find dealing with local bureaucracy difficult, rising to 61% in Germany.
InterNations via Forbes, 2026

How The First Week Gets Stuck

The blockers rarely appear alone. Each one waits on another, so a delay in one holds up the rest.

  • Banking: Japan commonly asks for a residence card and a local phone number, while UK banks typically ask for months of address history.
  • Phone: the local number needed for the bank may itself need a residence card.
  • Salary: in the UK, employers generally will not pay into an overseas account, so first pay can be delayed.
  • Payments: in China, apps accept foreign cards, but identity verification can take days, and QR scanners far outnumber foreign card readers.

Build A Pre Arrival Setup Checklist

Most of this can be started before the flight, while the assignee still has their home phone number and bank.

  • Ask the assignee to set up payment apps and complete identity verification before departure, while they can still receive codes on their home number.
  • Open an international or multi currency account before the move, where the destination allows it, to hold funds and make local transfers.
  • Agree who pays the deposit and first rent, and whether the company advances it, so a missing local account does not block the lease.
  • Arrange a local number or eSIM for arrival day, and have the assignee carry some local cash as a backup.
  • Book a first week session to complete bank, phone and residence registration in the right order.

A new arrival’s first week depends on a chain of systems that do not yet recognise them. Map the chain before the flight and the first week gets easier. Leave it to chance and the deposit is the first thing to go wrong.

Pinewood guides assignees through the first weeks, including the order of bank, phone and residence registration, so nothing waits on something else. Get in touch to plan the first week before your next assignee arrives.