Quick Answer
Open Settings on your iPhone or iPad, tap your name at the top, choose Media and Purchases, then View Account. Tap Country or Region, then Change Country or Region. Pick the new country, accept the terms, and add a payment method issued by a bank in that country. The App Store, Music library, and subscriptions all switch to the new region.
Before you start, drain your store credit to exactly $0.00 and cancel every active subscription, then wait for the current billing cycle to end. If you skip either step, Apple will block the change.
The pre-flight checklist
| Block | Resolution |
|---|---|
| Store credit balance | Spend down to $0.00 (contact Apple Support if a few cents remain) |
| Active subscriptions | Cancel all and wait out the current billing period |
| Pending media rentals | Wait 48 hours for the rental window to expire |
| Trusted phone numbers | Add a number in the new country before you move |
| Local payment method | Have a card and address in the new country ready |
Step 1: drain the wallet and cancel subscriptions
Apple blocks country changes when there is any active financial obligation tied to the old region. Two things to clear.
Store credit. If your account has even a few cents of leftover gift card credit, the system refuses the country change. Spend the balance down. If a residual amount cannot buy anything (you have $0.12 left and nothing costs that), contact Apple Support and ask them to zero the balance for you. They do this routinely and it takes one short chat session.
Subscriptions. Cancel everything: Apple Music, Apple TV+, Apple Arcade, iCloud+ storage tiers, and every third-party subscription billed through the App Store. Cancellation is found under Settings, your name, Subscriptions. After you cancel, you have to wait until the current paid period ends before the country change will go through. There is no way to short-cut this. If you cancel Apple Music on the 15th and your billing cycle runs to the 30th, you have to wait until the 30th.
You can re-subscribe to iCloud+ in the new region the moment your account switches over. Your photos, files, and backups remain in iCloud during the transition.
Step 2: add a trusted phone number in the new country
If two-factor authentication on your Apple Account is anchored to a phone number in your old country, you risk being locked out the moment your old SIM stops receiving texts. Add a phone number in your new country before you change anything else.
Settings, your name, Sign-In and Security, Edit next to Trusted Phone Numbers. Add the new local number. Verify the code. Leave the old number in place for now as a backup until the migration is complete.
Step 3: change the country in Settings
With balance at zero and subscriptions out, you can run the migration.
- Open the Settings app.
- Tap your name and photo at the top.
- Tap Media and Purchases (it has a small App Store icon).
- In the popup, tap View Account. Authenticate with Face ID, Touch ID, or your password.
- Tap Country or Region.
- Tap Change Country or Region.
- Pick your new country from the alphabetical list and accept the terms and conditions.
Step 4: enter a local payment method
Apple immediately redirects you to a billing configuration screen. To finalize the migration you have to enter a payment method (credit card, debit card, or in some regions a verified mobile carrier billing arrangement) issued inside your new country.
- The card itself must be issued by a bank operating in the new country.
- The billing address you type must match a real address in that country, including the correct postal code format.
- The phone number on the billing screen must also be a local number.
If any of those three is mismatched, Apple flags the transaction and the country change fails. The most common mistake is keeping the home country phone number from the old account; swap it to the new local number on this screen.
Step 5: confirm and reset your environment
Tap Done. The change is instant. Close and re-open the App Store. The currency, top charts, and available apps refresh to the new country. Some apps your old country had may not be available in the new one (this is especially true for banking apps, regional streaming services, and some games), and they will disappear from your purchase history view though the apps you already installed on the device continue to work until you delete them.
If you canceled iCloud+ storage during the prep, re-subscribe now from Settings, your name, iCloud, Manage Account Storage. Pick the tier and pay in the new local currency.
Apple Cash, Apple Card, and Wallet
A few region-specific Apple services do not transfer. Apple Cash and Apple Card are US-only and will be deactivated on your account if you move to a country outside the US, including any remaining Apple Cash balance, which must be transferred to a US bank account before the migration. Wallet passes (boarding passes, tickets) stay, but new ones may be issued in the new region's standards. Plan to use the migration as a clean-out for old credit cards and store cards you no longer need.
What does not need to change
Your Apple Account email stays the same. Your iCloud Photo library, files, contacts, and mail continue to work. Your Apple Account billing history is preserved even though it is now in a different region. Your devices stay paired and signed in.
The takeaway
The country change is a five-minute settings flow that requires an hour of preparation. Drain credits, cancel subscriptions, wait out the billing period, add a local phone number, then run the change with a local card and a local billing address ready. Done in that order, the migration is painless. Skip a step and Apple will block the change with no clear error message about why.
