The Complete Guide to UN Relocation: Entitlements, Rules and What Actually Gets Paid

Accept a UN offer and the reality lands fast: an international move isn't one decision but dozens. The UN treats relocation as a structured package of entitlements shaped above all by two things: how long your contract runs, and how your duty station is officially designated. The ICSC re-rates the figures on published cycles, so treat every amount below as a starting point to verify at the source.

Before you accept: sizing up the duty station

Every offer names a duty station carrying several official designations, set independently by different bodies. Conflating them is the classic new-recruit error: a post can be high-hardship yet family, or family yet still draw danger pay.

• Hardship (H, A–E): Living and working conditions — health, climate, isolation, housing.
• Family / non-family: Whether dependants can safely reside there.
• Danger pay: Acute security risk.
• Post adjustment: Cost of living and currency (P and D staff only).

Hardship is payable only at B–E. Family/non-family is the one most likely to reshape your life: when UNDSS judges dependants would be restricted for six months or longer, the post becomes non-family — the point isn't the allowance, it's that your family can't join you. Danger pay and R&R are temporary by design, so never budget them as permanent income. See our guides to hardship, non-family duty stations and field allowances for the mechanics.

Your relocation entitlements

Moving on a UN appointment isn't one benefit but a package of ten. Clear the gate first: it applies only to internationally recruited staff whose travel is at UN expense for an appointment of one year or longer — locally recruited staff, UN Volunteers and consultants get none.

• Settling-in grant: On arrival, appointment ≥1 year.
• Shipment of personal effects & household goods: The move itself.
• Travel on appointment: The journey to post.
• Excess baggage & terminal expenses: Authorized official journeys.
• Mobility incentive: 2nd assignment onward, after 5 years' service (never at H).
• Hardship allowance: First assignment at a B–E station.
• Non-family service allowance: Non-family stations.
• Rest and recuperation: Recurring cycle at qualifying field stations.
• Home leave: Every 24 months (12 at D/E), serving outside home country.
• Repatriation grant: On separation, from 1 year of qualifying service abroad.

Look up the amounts for any specific post in our countries guide.

Visas, the laissez-passer & legal status

Your right to live and work at post doesn't rest on an ordinary work visa. It sits on the 1946 Convention on the Privileges and Immunities of the UN — functional immunities covering legal process, tax on UN salaries and immigration restrictions, extended to dependants — plus a host-country agreement turning that into a residence permit or ID card. The UN Laissez-Passer supplements, never replaces, your national passport, and several states (including the US) still expect the entry visa in that passport, so carry both.

At a US duty station, a G-visa is mandatory (most staff hold G-4); a spouse with a firm job offer files Form I-566 for an Employment Authorization Document. Tax status is where nationality bites: a non-US-citizen G-4 holder's UN salary is exempt under IRC §893, but US citizens and green-card holders who signed the Form I-508 waiver owe US income tax on UN earnings — quarterly estimates plus self-employment tax, half reimbursed by the UN.

Identity cards are what actually regularize you — Geneva's FDFA legitimation card, Vienna's BMEIA Legitimationskarte, or a UN grounds pass in New York. A family member taking a job converts their card first, after which that work is taxed locally.

Medical clearance, insurance & healthcare

Clearance comes before the contract. No offer is final until the UN medical service clears you — "fit," "fit with limitations," or "not fit" — and it assesses dependants too, so a condition a station can't manage can be why a family posting is declined. Disclose chronic conditions early; the service is confidential. Most vaccinations are recommendations except yellow fever, a legal entry condition whose certificate has been valid for life since 2016 — book the travel clinic once your post is confirmed.

Which plan you land in is decided by recruitment type and duty station:

• MIP — locally recruited staff away from HQ (mandatory). Cigna; ceiling a multiple of MIP Reference Salary; most of premium subsidised; care within duty-station country plus its Regional Area of Care.
• WWP — internationally recruited staff outside the US (voluntary). Cigna; high ceiling, US deductible; ~50% subsidised; thin inside the US.
• UNSMIS (Geneva) — Geneva-based staff and retirees. Premium a % of net salary; subsidised 50% active, two-thirds retirees.

Two clocks start on day one: health insurance within 31 days, group life within 60 days. Children are covered to age 25, and outside the everyday plan sit medical evacuation and After-Service Health Insurance (ten years' participation, applied for within 31 days of separation).

Moving your household: shipping, pets & customs

"Personal effects and household goods" excludes animals and power-assisted vehicles — your pet and your car are separate projects. What the UN moves scales with assignment length: 100 kg unaccompanied under a year, rising to 1,000 kg for you plus 500 kg for the first family member and 300 kg per extra dependant at a year or more; excess accompanied baggage is a separate 25 kg per traveller.

Full household removal — a 20-ft container alone, or 40-ft with family — arises only at a headquarters-classified station on a two-year-plus appointment. Many staff instead take the relocation grant, a lump sum needing no proof of use, but then waive UN shipment and insurance. Reassignment to a non-family post sends only your own effects; dependants' portions redirect home. Your car isn't household goods: a partial, capped reimbursement arises only at designated stations,, clawed back if you sell within three years.

Pets: start two to three months ahead. The EU needs a microchip and rabies vaccination; unlisted countries add a blood titre drawn 90 days before travel, and Australia routes pets through quarantine. Carriers follow IATA rules with seasonal embargoes.

Finding and paying for housing

Housing is usually the largest recurring cost of relocation, and the UN's main lever is the rental subsidy — not automatic: you apply and recalculate at each renewal.

• Who: Professional/higher and Field Service international recruits relocating from beyond commuting distance.
• How much: a share of the lower of your rent or a per-station ceiling, capped at 40%, tapering over seven years at group-1 stations.
• The catch: nothing for your deposit, though it covers an agent's fee once per assignment.

When the UN houses you in the field, subsistence allowance drops or a rental deduction applies. Clear any home with security before you commit.

Full mechanics in our rental subsidy guide.

Schooling for children

The education grant reimburses much of your children's school costs when you serve away from home. The home-country condition is the crux: post someone back in the country they call home and the regular grant switches off. It starts at "primary" (age 5) and runs until four years of post-secondary study, never past 25. The scale reimburses 86% at the lowest bracket down to 61%, under a ceiling of about USD 46,000 per child, covering tuition and enrolment fees minus any scholarship.

Boarding staff at hardship stations (A–E) get a flat lump sum, and a separate special education grant for a certified disability reimburses 100% of costs to age 28. The grant reimburses; it doesn't find a place — start researching schools early.

Money, banking & tax

For Professional and higher staff, pay is net base salary plus post adjustment in US dollars — but at many non-US stations part is issued in local currency at the UN operational rate of exchange, so confirm the split with payroll.

Staff assessment is the gap between gross and net on your payslip — an internal levy, not a tax, and never reimbursed or deductible. US passport or green-card holders are the exception: having signed the I-508 waiver, you owe US income tax on UN earnings (quarterly estimates) and pay Social Security and Medicare as self-employed, with the UN reimbursing half. On arrival, the settling-in grant eases cash flow: 30 days' DSA for you plus half that per family member, and a lump sum of one month's net remuneration.

Partners, dual careers & family wellbeing

How the UN recognizes your partner: personal status follows the law of the place of celebration, not your nationality, so a same-sex marriage validly celebrated where it's legal is recognized even if your home country isn't. Who counts as a dependant is grade-blind: a dependent spouse (or single parent's first child) triggers 6% of net base plus post adjustment, and children qualify under 18 (21 in full-time schooling).

The dual-career problem the UN has never solved: be honest before accepting — the UN will not find your partner a job, and a stalled partner career is a leading reason relocations fail. If the worst happens, the UN Pension Fund pays a survivor's benefit of roughly half the participant's to a qualifying partner.

Safety, security & settling in

Under the UN Security Management System, UNDSS coordinates security across the UN family and in each country a Designated Official holds accountability — though UNDSS provides risk management, not troops. The Security Level (1–6) measures threat, not risk, and most countries split into several level areas, so the capital and a remote province can differ sharply. BSAFE training is mandatory for all UN personnel and its certificate does not expire; security clearance is required for all official travel, including home leave.

Before you fly: the other essentials

Your contract sets what you get: a temporary appointment unlocks almost none of the package, a fixed-term of a year or more opens the settling-in grant and rental subsidy, and only two years or more unlocks full household removal. (Unsure how appointment types and grades fit together? See our guide to decoding the UN grading system.)

First-week admin: annual leave accrues from day one, and you'll get a staff index number, self-service payroll and a grounds pass. Convert your driving licence within the local window; pension membership begins automatically and follows you across agencies.

Six mistakes that catch everyone

1. "The UN ships everything." No — animals and vehicles are excluded, the shipment is weight-capped, and full removal needs a two-year-plus HQ posting.
2. "I've got the job, so the benefits are mine." Only if you clear the gate: internationally recruited, UN-paid travel, appointment ≥1 year.
3. "The move is paid for, so I won't be out of pocket." You will be, up front — the subsidy can't touch your deposit, and most benefits are reimbursed in arrears.
4. "My UN salary is tax-free." Not with a US passport or green card: income tax, quarterly estimates, and SECA half-reimbursed.
5. "We'll sort schools once we arrive." The grant is off in your home country, starts only at primary level, and reimburses rather than finds places.
6. "A family member can just start working." Dependent employment turns on the host-country agreement and, at a US station, an EAD via Form I-566.

Above all, confirm the two things that gate the whole package — your appointment length and international-recruitment status — and verify every figure at its live source.