Ask any family a few months into a relocation what drove where they ended up living, and the honest answer is usually the school, not the office commute or the apartment. Once a school is set, the home search narrows to wherever its bus routes or a reasonable drive actually reach. That makes school admissions one of the earliest decisions in a family relocation, not a detail to sort out after arrival.
Curriculum, first
Most internationally mobile families target schools offering an international curriculum, commonly the International Baccalaureate (IB), Cambridge's IGCSE and A-Levels, or an American curriculum, over India's CBSE or ICSE boards, mainly for continuity if the family might move again. Each major Indian city with an expat population has a handful of well-regarded international schools, and demand for the strongest of them generally exceeds supply, particularly at popular entry grades like the start of primary or the transition into secondary school.
The timeline, realistically
India's academic year typically runs April to March, which doesn't line up neatly with the June or August starts common elsewhere, so admissions cycles and seat availability can look different from what a family's used to. Popular schools often build waitlists well in advance of the academic year, and admission mid-year is possible but seat availability varies a great deal by grade and by school. The practical rule: start the school search as soon as a move is even roughly likely, not once the move date is confirmed. Three to six months of lead time before arrival is a reasonable minimum for a competitive school; longer is better for sought-after grades.
What the process actually involves
Requirements vary by school, but commonly include previous school transcripts and report cards, a transfer certificate from the current school, immunisation records, copies of the child's passport and visa, and in many cases an entrance assessment or interview, sometimes for both the child and the parents. Some schools also require a formal waitlist deposit once a seat is offered, with its own deadline.
Where this connects to the move
Because school admissions timelines rarely wait for a visa to clear first, we usually run the school search in parallel with the visa and FRRO process, not after it, so a family isn't choosing between a good school and a fast move. It's also why we handle school finding as part of the same relocation engagement as the home search, rather than treating it as a separate errand for the family to manage alone.