A phone number for expats, in either direction

The problem: two countries, one pocket

When you move, the home number and the new number pull in opposite directions. Many services at home — email recovery, online shopping, some government and utility portals, older friends and relatives — only know your home number. Meanwhile, the new country's landlords, employers and recruiters want a number they can call locally, and they often want it before you've arrived.

Keeping a home SIM active from abroad can be costly or, with some carriers, not allowed once you stop living there. Waiting until you arrive to get a local number can mean weeks of back-and-forth, because some local carriers ask for a residence document or a local bank account first.

Direction 1: keeping a home-country number

If your concern is staying reachable at home, pick a real mobile number in your home country. Family and old friends can text and call a domestic number without international rates, and accounts that verify by SMS keep a local number on file.

One honest limit: you can't transfer your existing home number to SMSCreation. The new number is a different number, so plan the switch while your old SIM still works — update your accounts, tell your contacts, then let the old line go if you want to.

• Family texts and calls a domestic number
• Home accounts keep a local number for codes and recovery
• You read SMS and call from the browser in your new country

Direction 2: a number in your new country before you land

If your concern is the destination, pick a real mobile number there before you travel. You can put it on rental enquiries and job applications, and landlords or recruiters can reach you on a local number while you're still packing.

Once you arrive and qualify for a local SIM contract, you may keep both or move your everyday calls to the local SIM. Many expats keep the dashboard number for accounts and a local SIM for daily life.

Recommended setup

Decide which side is harder for you to cover. If your home carrier won't let you keep a plan abroad, start with a home-country number. If your destination makes local SIMs hard to get before you have paperwork, start with a destination number. Some people take one of each — the price is the same in all 181 countries.

Because an expat move is measured in years, the yearly plan at $1.80 a month ($21.60 billed yearly) is the practical choice, renewing automatically from your wallet.

1. 01Sign up with your email; no phone number or ID is required.
2. 02Choose your home country, your destination, or both.
3. 03Pay in USDT or USDC; the number appears in your dashboard.
4. 04Update your key accounts and tell your contacts while your old SIM still works.
5. 05Keep your wallet topped up so the number renews while you settle in.

What to watch out for

Official processes are where expats most often hit limits. Banks, tax authorities, immigration portals and some mobile carriers may require a number registered in your name with a local operator, or may verify identity in ways a phone number alone can't satisfy. Ask each institution what it accepts before relying on any number for it.

SMSCreation numbers are for your own accounts and real communication. Our acceptable use policy prohibits bulk account creation, fraud and spam, and you still need to follow each app's and each institution's own rules.

• Keep backup codes for accounts you move, in case a code is delayed.
• Don't cancel your old SIM until every important account shows the new number.
• Check your destination's rules on registering phone numbers for everyday local use.

A hypothetical example

This is an invented scenario for illustration only. Imagine a British nurse relocating to the United Arab Emirates on a two-year contract. Her UK carrier plan can't follow her, but her parents, her GP surgery's reminders and several UK shopping and email accounts all use her UK number.

Before she leaves, she picks a UK real mobile number, moves her email and online accounts to it, and gives it to her family. After arrival she gets a local UAE SIM for everyday use once her residence paperwork is done. Her parents keep texting a UK number, and her UK account codes land in her dashboard in Dubai.

Why it works with WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram & Google

Apps check more than the digits: they look up the line type, the country format and whether the number can actually receive their code. Every SMSCreation number is a real mobile number in its country's official format — not a VoIP line — so it passes those checks the same way a SIM in your pocket does.

And we stand behind it with a 7-day replacement guarantee: if your number doesn't work with WhatsApp, Facebook, Telegram, Google or any app you need, we replace it free with a new number in the same country — or refund 100% if you prefer.

• Non-VoIP, real mobile line type — line-type checks see an ordinary SIM number, not a VoIP line
• Official country format with the right country code, prefix and digit count
• Unlimited incoming SMS and calls — codes arrive by text or through the “call me” option
• Private to you — never listed on public SMS sites, so it isn't flagged or rate-limited
• Yours for as long as you want — re-verification and account recovery keep working

Price, keeping the number and the 7-day guarantee

The yearly plan is $1.80 a month ($21.60 billed yearly), the same in every country, with unlimited incoming SMS and calls, 500 outgoing SMS and 1,000 outgoing minutes a month. The number stays yours while renewed. If it doesn't work with an app you need, you get a free replacement in the same country within 7 days of activation or a 100% refund, and a no-questions-asked refund within 7 days if it hasn't been used.