Yes, for anyone who actually moves. Interactive Brokers lets you update your residency and tax details and keep your holdings, where most local neobrokers close the account and force a sale — a taxable event triggered by a change of address. The other reason is currency: IBKR Ireland charges 0.20 basis points on a conversion with a USD 2.00 minimum per order, against 0.15% to 0.5% at the app brokers.
If you move countries every few years, your broker is a liability most people only discover at the worst moment. You land in a new place, update your address, and a support email tells you the account has to be closed or transferred because the platform no longer serves residents of where you now live. Suddenly you are forced to sell a portfolio you never meant to touch, crystallising gains and paying tax you did not plan for, all because of a changed postcode.
I have watched this happen to friends who used the slick local neobrokers, and it is the single strongest practical reason so many globally mobile people end up on Interactive Brokers. The honest answer up front: IBKR is not the prettiest app, and it is not the cheapest for tiny monthly savings plans, but when you cross borders it usually just lets you update your residency and tax details and keep your holdings. For an expat, that continuity is worth more than a nicer interface. For more detail, see our guide: Interactive Brokers ISA.
This is not a sponsored verdict dressed up as advice. IBKR has genuine trade-offs. But if your life involves relocating, the case for it differs sharply from the case for a settled investor who will live in one tax jurisdiction forever.
Why does moving countries break most brokers?
Because their licence is tied to where you live, not to who you are. A platform authorised to serve residents of one country cannot keep you as a client once you are resident somewhere else, and the cheapest way out for them is to make it your problem.
Most neobrokers and local platforms are authorised to serve residents of specific countries. When you leave, you fall outside the residency they are set up for, and their cheapest option is often to ask you to leave too.
Methodology: this guide applies our broker testing checklist, from safety-of-assets checks to total-cost math.
In practice that means one of two bad outcomes. Either the broker restricts your account to sell-only and asks you to withdraw, which forces you to liquidate everything, or it supports an in-specie transfer out that is slow, fee-laden and only works if your destination broker accepts the same securities. Selling is the painful one, because in many countries the moment you sell is a taxable event even if you rebuy the identical fund the next day. You can lose years of deferred compounding to a tax bill that a change of address triggered.
There is a second, quieter problem: fragmentation. People who move a lot end up with an old account in one country, a new one in the next, and cash stranded in currencies they no longer use. A broker that follows you avoids that.
What makes Interactive Brokers different
IBKR was built as a global brokerage, and three features matter most when you are mobile.
Ready to open an account? You can open an Interactive Brokers account directly.
Multi-currency accounts and cheap FX
An IBKR account holds cash in many currencies at once. You keep euros, dollars, pounds and more side by side and convert between them at close to the interbank rate. The published commission at Interactive Brokers Ireland is 0.20 basis points of trade value with a minimum of USD 2.00 per order (IBKR Ireland spot-currency commissions, read 26 August 2026); IBKR markets the all-in cost, spread included, as around 0.03%. For more detail, see our guide: Interactive Brokers vs Trading 212 for ETF Investors.
The minimum is the part that decides whether this is cheap for you. Two dollars is 0.20 basis points of roughly USD 100,000, so only conversions above about that size actually pay the headline rate. Convert €1,000 and the USD 2 floor is about 0.2% — no better than a good app broker. Convert €10,000 and it is about 0.02%. Convert your salary once a quarter rather than once a week and the advantage is real; convert small amounts monthly and it mostly disappears. Either way it beats the 0.5% or more that many app brokers bake into every trade. For someone earning in one currency, spending in another and investing in a third, that spread compounds into real money over a decade. You are also not forced to convert your salary the day it lands; you hold it and convert when the rate suits you.
Access to global exchanges
From one account you can trade on Xetra, the London Stock Exchange, Euronext, the US venues and dozens more. That matters for expats because the “right” listing of a fund can change with where you live. An Irish-domiciled UCITS ETF such as VWCE or CSPX might be best bought in euros on Xetra in the eurozone and in pounds on the LSE if you move to the UK, and IBKR reaches both without a new broker. I walk through the mechanics in how to buy VWRA and IWDA on IBKR.
See also: revolut not offering ucits.
An account that updates rather than closes
The headline benefit is simple: when you relocate, you update your address and tax residency inside the account and, in most cases, carry on. Your positions stay put, your cost basis is undisturbed, and there is no forced sale. It is not guaranteed for every move, and some product access shifts with residency, but the default is continuity rather than eviction.
The entity and onboarding picture
IBKR is not a single company; it is a group of regulated entities, and which one holds your account depends on where you live. European residents are typically onboarded through Interactive Brokers Ireland (IBIE), authorised and supervised by the Central Bank of Ireland as an investment firm — its public register is where you confirm that yourself — with EU investor-protection cover. UK residents sit under the UK entity, US residents under the US broker-dealer, with separate entities for Asia and other regions. I cover the European side, including how client assets are protected, in the piece on IBIE and investor protection.
See also: Forex and Daytrading Brokers.
When you move between regions, IBKR may migrate your account from one entity to another rather than closing it. That can involve paperwork and a short window of limited trading, but the intent is to keep you as a client under the correct regulator, which is a very different experience from a local broker that simply cannot serve you any more. For how IBKR sits against the other serious platforms, the European ETF broker hub puts the options side by side.
Tax residency and CRS: the part you cannot skip
Keeping the account is the easy half. Reporting yourself correctly is the half people neglect. Under the OECD Common Reporting Standard, your broker reports your account to the tax authority of the country where you are tax-resident, relying on the residency and tax-ID details you give it. When you move you must update those details promptly, because a mismatch between where you live and what your broker reports is exactly what surfaces in an audit years later. The framework is set out on the OECD’s tax transparency and international co-operation pages.
Keeping the account open across a move does not make your gains tax-free and does not move your tax home. You owe tax where you are resident when the gain is realised, and some countries have exit-tax or deemed-disposal rules that apply when you leave. This is the one area where an expat genuinely benefits from local advice, because the interaction between two tax systems in the year you move is rarely simple. Treat continuity as an administrative convenience, not a tax strategy.
Learning ETFs the slow way?
The free 12-page Starter Kit gets you to a first, sensible portfolio faster: the 7-filter fund shortcut, the 3-question broker matrix, and the 7 costliest beginner mistakes.
Interactive Brokers versus a typical local neobroker for movers
This is the comparison I would have wanted before my first international move. Figures are approximate and 2026-vintage, so check the current schedule on the official site before relying on any number.
| Feature | Interactive Brokers | Typical local neobroker |
|---|---|---|
| Behaviour when you move country | Usually update residency and keep holdings | Often forced to close, sell or transfer out |
| Currency accounts | Many currencies held side by side | Often single base currency |
| FX conversion cost | 0.20 basis points, minimum USD 2.00 per order (~0.03% all-in per IBKR) | ~0.5% or more per conversion |
| Exchange access | Dozens of global exchanges | A curated local subset |
| Regulatory entity by region | Migrates you to the correct entity | One jurisdiction only |
| Best fit | Globally mobile, larger balances | Settled resident, small monthly DCA |
The caveats worth naming
IBKR is not perfect for the mobile investor. Product access can vary by residency, so a fund you held freely in one country may become restricted after a move, particularly around US-domiciled products that EU rules limit. The platform is more complex than a three-tap app, and its tax reports are generic rather than pre-formatted for your country, so you or your accountant does the reconciliation. And an open account never removes your obligation to declare and pay tax correctly in your new home. None of these are dealbreakers, but walk in knowing them.
Fee figures in this guide are cross-checked against our EU broker fee dataset, reviewed quarterly.
My verdict: what I would do
If you expect to move countries during your investing life, I would make Interactive Brokers the long-term home for the core of your portfolio and treat local neobrokers as convenience accounts you are willing to close. The continuity across borders, the multi-currency cash and the cheap FX are precisely the features a settled investor undervalues and a mobile one cannot do without. My fuller case for the platform sits in why Interactive Brokers stands out, and the guide to investing in UCITS ETFs from the UAE shows the same residency and domicile logic from outside the EU. Before you buy anything, use the UCITS ETF comparison tool to settle on a small set of funds you can hold anywhere. Keep the funds simple and let the account do the travelling.
Frequently asked questions
Q: Can I keep my Interactive Brokers account when I move to another country?
A: In most cases yes. You update your residential address and tax residency inside the account, and IBKR keeps your holdings rather than forcing a sale. It may migrate you to a different regional entity, which can involve paperwork and a brief limited-trading window, but the default is continuity rather than closure.
Q: Does keeping the account open mean I avoid tax when I relocate?
A: No. You owe tax where you are tax-resident when a gain is realised, and some countries apply exit-tax or deemed-disposal rules the year you leave. An open account is an administrative convenience, not a tax shelter. The year you move is the one to check with a local tax adviser.
Q: What is CRS and why does it matter for expats?
A: The Common Reporting Standard is the OECD framework under which your broker reports your account to the tax authority of your country of residence. It relies on the residency and tax-ID details you provide, so you must update them promptly when you move. A mismatch between where you live and what your broker reports is a common source of later problems.
Q: How expensive is currency conversion on Interactive Brokers?
A: Roughly 0.03% of the amount converted, subject to a small per-conversion minimum, which is far cheaper than the 0.5% or more many app brokers charge. Because you can hold multiple currencies at once, you also control when you convert rather than being forced to do it on every trade. Verify the current rate on the official fee schedule.
Q: What is the best brokerage account for an expat?
A: The test is not fees, it is whether the account survives a change of residency. Judge any candidate on four things: does it serve residents of the countries you might move to; will it migrate rather than close your account when you do; does it hold several currencies at once so your salary, your spending and your investments do not all need converting; and does it reach the exchanges where your funds are listed in each of those places. Interactive Brokers is the usual answer because it is the only mainstream retail broker that passes all four. A local neobroker can still be an excellent second account — just do not put the position you never want to sell inside it.
Q: Can US expats use Interactive Brokers?
A: Yes, and for US citizens abroad it is often the only practical option, because most European brokers will not open an account for someone with US tax obligations and most US brokers restrict accounts with a foreign address. Two warnings that have nothing to do with the broker. First, PRIIPs rules block EU-resident retail investors from buying US-domiciled ETFs, so a US expat in Europe usually cannot keep buying the American funds they know. Second, US-domiciled funds are not the safe default here anyway: American citizens face PFIC reporting on non-US funds, which makes fund selection genuinely complicated. This is the one reader profile that should take paid cross-border tax advice before choosing anything.
Q: What should an expat look for in a broker?
A: In order of how much it will cost you to get wrong: continuity across a move, multi-currency cash, the exchanges you need, then price. Continuity is first by a wide margin, because a forced sale realises gains you were deferring and no fee saving recovers that. Multi-currency is second because conversion costs recur on every salary, every trade and every dividend. Exchange access is third because the right listing of a fund changes with where you live. Headline commission is fourth — it is the number brokers compete on and the one that matters least to a mobile investor.
Q: Which IBKR entity will hold my account as a European resident?
A: European residents are typically onboarded through Interactive Brokers Ireland, regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland, which provides EU investor-protection cover. UK, US and Asian residents sit under different group entities. When you move region, IBKR generally migrates you to the appropriate entity instead of closing the account.
Q: Is Interactive Brokers a good first broker if I am not moving countries?
A: It can be, but the trade-offs shift. A settled investor making small monthly contributions may prefer a simpler app with free savings plans, since IBKR’s strengths are multi-currency handling, global reach and low FX that matter most to mobile or larger-balance investors. If you never expect to relocate, weigh the broker options before committing.
This guide is part of our guide to moving countries with an ETF portfolio — browse the full cluster for related situations.
European UCITS/ETF investor with 11+ years building a global dividend and index portfolio, and founder of Financial Expert Class. I write every guide here from first-hand experience investing across EU brokers and tax regimes — not theory. More about me →