Before you start

International health insurance with medical evacuation, arranged before arrival
Passport and visa for hospital registration
Vaccination records, including typhoid and hepatitis A discussion with a doctor
A cyclone plan for your building, and a view on your address's slope stability

Step-by-step

1
Arrange insurance with evacuation cover before you arrive
Expatriate policies underwrite at purchase. Check the evacuation limit, whether it covers a companion, and whether prior authorisation is required — in Bangladesh the evacuation clause is the part most likely to be used for anything serious. Note that evacuation from Chattogram runs through Shah Amanat International or via Dhaka, so ask how your insurer handles a non-capital origin.
OnlineWho: YouBefore arrival
2
Register at a private hospital before you need one
Chattogram's private hospitals handle routine and much serious care competently and cheaply. Register in advance, and choose partly on whether the hospital is realistically reachable from your home at the hour you would need it — port-road congestion here does not follow an office rush-hour pattern.
In personWho: YouMonth 1
3
Take the cyclone season seriously and know your building's plan
Chattogram sits on the Bay of Bengal, whose funnel shape amplifies storm surge, and cyclone seasons run either side of the monsoon. Know your building's structure, keep a few days of water and power backup, and follow Bangladesh Meteorological Department signals rather than social media. This is a live seasonal risk here and simply is not one inland.
In personWho: YouBefore the pre-monsoon season
4
Treat monsoon landslides as a health risk where you live, not a news item
Heavy rain repeatedly triggers landslides and wall collapses on Chattogram's cut hill slopes, with fatalities in bad runs — more than twenty deaths in a single three-day spell. If your flat is below or on a cut face, ask about drainage and retaining works before signing, and stay off those roads during a red warning.
In personWho: You
5
Take water, food and mosquito precautions from day one
Filtered or bottled drinking water is universal practice including in Bangladeshi households. Discuss typhoid and hepatitis A vaccination with a doctor before arrival, and take dengue seriously: the Aedes mosquito bites in daylight, so repellent during the day and removing standing water on balconies is ordinary housekeeping, not fussiness.
In personWho: You
6
Know that 999 covers ambulance as well as police and fire
The National Emergency Service on 999 is a single toll-free number operated by Bangladesh Police covering accident, crime, fire and ambulance, nationwide. Fire Service & Civil Defence also runs a hotline on 16163. Both are worth programming.
In personWho: You

Documents you’ll need

Insurance policy and card with evacuation cover confirmed
Passport and visa
Vaccination records
Generic-name prescription list for ongoing medication
Employer group scheme details, if applicable

Things most newcomers don’t know

Chattogram's air is markedly better than Dhaka's, and over a multi-year posting that is a substantive health difference.

On the morning of 6 November 2025, Dhaka recorded an air quality index of 177 and ranked eighth worst in the world; Chattogram recorded 99 on the same morning, while Khulna hit 229 and Rajshahi 167. Coastal ventilation and a thinner surrounding brick-kiln belt do most of that work. It is not clean by WHO standards and Bangladesh remains among the most polluted countries in the world, but the gap between the capital and the port city is large, consistent and rarely mentioned to people choosing between Bangladeshi postings.

Source: Prothom Alo, 6 November 2025 air quality readings

Evacuation cover is the part of the policy most likely to matter, and origin matters too.

Private hospitals here handle routine and much serious care well and inexpensively. For complex surgery, oncology and some specialist paediatrics, the established pattern among both the expatriate community and affluent Bangladeshis is treatment in Bangkok, Singapore or India. From Chattogram that means Shah Amanat International or a transfer via Dhaka, so ask your insurer specifically how a non-capital evacuation works, what the limit is, whether a companion is covered, and whether prior authorisation is required.

Source: community-reported

Cyclone and landslide exposure are Chattogram problems that no Dhaka-derived guide will prepare you for.

The Bay of Bengal's funnel shape amplifies tropical cyclone storm surge onto this coastline, and the city's hills mean heavy monsoon rain produces landslides and retaining-wall collapses in the hillside settlements — a single bad spell has killed more than twenty people in three days, and the local observatory has logged over 400 mm of rain in 24 hours. Both are seasonal and predictable. Neither appears in guidance written for the capital, which is where most Bangladesh advice comes from.

Source: Prothom Alo; Bangladesh Meteorological Department

999 is one national number for police, fire and ambulance — genuinely simpler than the regional norm.

Bangladesh's National Emergency Service, operated by Bangladesh Police, is toll-free and covers accident, crime, fire and ambulance on a single number everywhere in the country. Compared with Pakistan's split between 15, 1122, 16 and 115, or Nepal's 100/101/102, that is a real administrative advantage and means one number to teach a household. Fire Service & Civil Defence also maintains 16163 for fire specifically.

Source: Bangladesh Fire Service & Civil Defence; Directorate General of Health Services

Common mistakes to avoid

Buying insurance without checking how evacuation works from a city that is not the capital.
Renting on a cut hillside without asking about drainage and retaining works.
Treating cyclone warnings as background noise because the last few missed.
Treating dengue as a traveller's risk rather than a household one.
Arriving with brand-name prescriptions and no generic equivalents.

Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.