We have compiled a list of essential packing tips for international students to help those of you who have decided to study abroad. A lot of our guides focus on providing you with information about the best universities to study in or how to obtain important documents, but what about those who have already been accepted into an institution and are only a plane ride away from the university of their dreams? Well, this article is our answer.
In the following text, you will find most of the advice you will ever need on how to pack easily and efficiently. Of course, everyone has different needs, but the approach we will provide you with here should serve as a useful base template for anyone to customize according to their own requirements. Some of this advice may strike you as common sense but it is often those very obvious things that people sometimes forget and end up in a foreign country with no idea of where they put their passport! Read on to make sure you do not make such mistakes.
This guide will be split into two sections. In the first section, we will discuss the best strategies for packing while in the second we will give you advice on specific things you should make sure to pack.
Just like with any form of travel, your destination is going to heavily influence what clothes you need to bring. Packing for the freezing winters of Toronto is going to look very different from packing for a city in Florida, for example. Research is the name of the game here. You need to make sure you carefully look into the type of weather you can expect at your destination and adjust your packing practices accordingly.
Procrastination is never a good thing but especially not when you have to undertake something as important as packing all of the things you are going to need to initially survive and subsequently thrive in a foreign country. To prevent as many potential problems from arising as possible, we recommend getting the jump on this task and not leaving it for the last day before your flight takes off. Even practically speaking, you might need some documents which take several days or even up to a month to receive.
This is one of the most important packing tips for international students as they can often get stuck in trying to bring everything with them. After all, if you are someone who is used to living at home, it can be difficult to imagine how you could exist without your most familiar items. Unfortunately, you can only bring so much. Make sure that the things you are packing are absolutely essential, and the next tip should help you with determining that.
Instead of just randomly going through your stuff and deciding on a whim whether or not you might need something, a good idea is to make a packing list informed by your research and priorities. It will add a level of organization to a process that gets chaotic very easily.
Keep in mind that there are some things you are not allowed to pack in your bag or bring on the airline in your hand luggage. Checking what is permitted and what is not is preferable because you do not want to unpack anything after being stopped by security. This is particularly true with regard to liquids and cosmetics.
This is one of the most crucial packing tips for international students. When travelling abroad, you need to have ready access to all of your critical travel documents. We advise storing all of these in a file or folder along with your hand luggage. If security or immigration asks for these, it will speed up the process.
Finally, after you are done packing, make sure that you do one last check just to certify that everything is where it should be, that your important documents are with you and that your luggage does not exceed the maximum weight limit for your airline of choice. You might have to speak with them beforehand to clarify this last part.
Important Documents:
Clothes:
Other Items:
These Things Are Not Needed Or Can Be Bought Later:
By Packing These You Are Breaking The Law:
We hope you have enjoyed reading our article and that it has provided you with the necessary info you need to pack easily and efficiently. As we have already mentioned, your needs might dictate that you go against some of these tips, and that is okay! The important thing is to check with your airline and destination country to make sure what you are bringing is legal and necessary. Our final tip is not to worry if you forget something trivial like a specific T-shirt. Remember: expendable things can always be bought.
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