Moving to Miami from Latin America: the arrival sequence for international families
Last reviewed: November 9, 2026. Sources for this page are listed in its fact sheet.
Short answer first. Miami-Dade County is built for this move. About 54.5 percent of county residents are foreign born (Census, 2020 to 2024 survey), net international migration added about 54,200 people in the year to July 1, 2025, and 75.3 percent of residents age five and older speak a language other than English at home. What trips families up isn't welcome. It's sequence. Florida runs on clocks and paper: a 30 day license clock, school records that must be rewritten onto a Florida form, and residency dates that decide your tax exemptions a year later. This page runs the state level steps in arrival order. It does not cover visas or immigration status questions; those belong to the federal sources and, where you need advice, a licensed immigration lawyer.
A moving truck at an apartment building. Stock photo, not a Miami arrival. Photo: Royal Moving & Storage, Pexels.
Step 1: your driving license, and the exam reality
While you're still a visitor, you may drive on your valid home country license for as long as you remain a nonresident. The 30 day clock starts when Florida counts you as a resident, and the tax collector's triggers are concrete: you've started a job or a business in Florida, enrolled your children in Florida public schools, registered to vote, filed for homestead exemption, or lived in Florida more than six consecutive months. From that point you've got 30 days to hold a Florida license (vehicle title and registration run on a tighter 10 day clock; the full sequence is in the license and plates guide).
Now the part that surprises people. Florida waives its knowledge and road exams only for licenses from US states and territories, US military licenses, Canada, France, Germany (road test only, the knowledge exam still applies), Taiwan, and South Korea. Every Latin American license sits outside that list. A valid license from Mexico, Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Venezuela, or anywhere else in the region means both exams, knowledge and road, with a vision test on top. And since February 6, 2026, Florida gives every driver license exam in English only, for every class, with no translation services and no interpreters, under the highway safety department's January 30, 2026 announcement. Study the English handbook before your appointment. It's the cheapest preparation you'll do all year.
Step 2: the documents appointment
Bring the right paper the first time. Permanent residents present a green card (Form I-551), an I-551 stamp, or the asylum or refugee paperwork the state lists. Visa holders present a valid employment authorization card, or Form I-94 with a valid passport carrying the US visa and the entry stamp; students on F-1 or M-1 visas add Form I-20, and J-1 or J-2 visitors add Form DS-2019. Your documents must stay valid more than 60 days, and a non-immigrant license is issued for the period your federal documents allow, up to one year. Everyone shows proof of Social Security number (the card itself, a W-2, a pay stub, or a 1099) plus two different proofs of Florida residential address, such as a lease, a Florida vehicle registration, a utility bill, an insurance document, a bank statement, or government mail. One correction to advice you'll hear: if you're in the country without a work visa, the highway safety department states plainly that you do not need a letter from the Social Security Administration saying you were never issued a number. Don't queue for a letter the state doesn't ask for.
Step 3: the first car and its insurance
Florida requires $10,000 of personal injury protection and $10,000 of property damage liability cover, from a Florida policy, before a car can be registered. Expect your first US policy to price high: with no US driving record to rate, some carriers won't quote at all until you hold a Florida license, and the ones that do price the unknown. That's a reported pattern, not a rate promise, and it argues for doing the license step before the car step wherever you can. The full cost picture, with the state's own market figures labeled by source, is in the Miami insurance costs guide.
Step 4: school enrollment with foreign records
Your children's vaccine records cannot be handed to the school as they are. Foreign immunization records must be transcribed onto Florida form DH 680, the state's certification of immunization, by a Florida doctor or provider or by the county health department, and that Florida form is what enrollment runs on. Book that appointment in your first weeks, because the magnet application window and school placement both move faster than a records queue. Documents, boundaries, and the January 15, 2027 magnet deadline are in the school enrollment guide.
Step 5: the residency clocks that pay you back
Three dates decide money a year from now. Homestead exemption needs you living in the home on January 1 and filed by March 1; the homestead filing guide walks it. The Amendment 3 line is sharper: if you take title on or after January 1, 2027 without having held a Florida permanent residence as of December 31, 2026, you land in the new resident tier, $25,000 off school levies and $50,000 off non-school levies, stepping up to the full amount only in your fifth year of the exemption. The Amendment 3 deadline guide and the property tax estimator guide do that math in full. University tuition runs on its own clock: Florida residency for tuition at public universities needs 12 consecutive months of legal residence before enrollment, under state statute. And when county paper confuses you, the county itself works in three languages: the 311 contact center serves residents in English, Spanish, and Haitian Creole, weekdays 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. and Saturdays 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Landing weeks before a lease starts? Families often land in a hotel or short stay first.
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The settling order after arrival week is in the first 90 days checklist, and the hub for the whole move is the moving to Miami guide.
Sources and check dates
License reciprocity, exam language, document lists, and residency triggers are from the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles, including its January 30, 2026 English only announcement, checked November 9, 2026. Population and language figures are from the US Census Bureau (2020 to 2024 American Community Survey via QuickFacts, and Vintage 2025 population estimates for migration). The DH 680 rule is from the Florida Department of Health and Miami-Dade school guidance. The tuition rule is Florida Statute 1009.21. County language service is from Miami-Dade County's 311 pages.