Expat Adjustment: Why Support Should Peak at Months Six to Eighteen
The Six to Eighteen Month Mark for Expatriate Staff
Most organisations give the most expat support in the first 90 days. That is often when the employee needs it least. The harder psychological work of an international move comes later. It builds between roughly months six and eighteen, and again after the return home. By then, the formal support has usually thinned. This piece looks at why adjustment follows that curve. It also covers why repatriation is often the harder half, and the three conversations that matter more than onboarding.
The pattern is older than most mobility programmes
The shape of expatriate adjustment is not new. In 1955, the Norwegian sociologist Sverre Lysgaard studied Norwegian Fulbright scholars in the United States. He found the hardest period was not the first months. Those early months are novel, and energy tends to be high. The real difficulty landed later, around months six to twelve. By then the initial momentum had worn off, and ordinary life had to be lived in an unfamiliar place. Most people stabilised after about eighteen months. This arc became known as the U curve.
Later research has refined the idea, and in places challenged it. The exact shape does not hold for everyone. But one core insight has stood up well. The hardest phase usually comes several months in, not on arrival.
Where most programmes spend, and where the dip falls
The practical problem is simple. Most global mobility support is built for the start, not the middle. Companies invest in pre-departure briefings, the first 90 days, and the housing handover. By month nine, support has usually thinned to the occasional check-in. That is often the deepest part of the U. The mismatch rarely shows up in any report. The employee is still functioning, just with less in reserve than anyone realises.
Repatriation is often the harder half
The part that surprises organisations most is the return home. Coming back can be harder than going out. The home country has moved on. Colleagues have changed roles. The skills gained abroad are not always recognised. The person has changed too. They often return as a slightly different version of themselves, and that version is not the one expected. This matters most for people moving between very different cultures. That includes the Korean and East Asian staff I work with most often. For them, re-entry can be the least supported stage of the whole assignment.
Three conversations worth more than better onboarding
If your organisation employs expatriates, the fix with the highest leverage is not a better onboarding pack. It is three structured conversations, placed where the difficulty actually falls. One at month six. One at month twelve. One around three months after the return home. Most companies hold none of them. These are not clinical sessions. They are deliberate check-ins at the points the research flags as hardest. Where more than a check-in is needed, structured support can sit alongside the mobility programme. It can then carry the cases the programme was never designed to hold.
Support that matches the curve
The pattern of expatriate adjustment has been clear for decades. The problem is not a lack of understanding. It is timing. Most support arrives during the settled early months. It then fades before the harder middle. The answer is to follow the curve instead. Support that reaches people at month six, month twelve, and after they return tends to keep them. Support that stops at onboarding tends to lose them quietly, around month nine.
Kelly Kim is an NIP-registered psychologist and workplace mental health specialist. She supports international and Korean organisations in the Netherlands. About Kelly.
Source: The U curve originates with Lysgaard (1955), the foundational study of cross-cultural adjustment (International Social Science Bulletin, 7, 45 to 51).
