How do I move an account from an existing organization to another organization in AWS Organizations?

Resolution

Prepare for the move

Before you move your AWS accounts, take the following actions.

Check AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) permissions

To migrate an account, you require the correct IAM permissions applied to the respective organization.

To leave an organization, you require the organizations:DescribeOrganization and organizations:LeaveOrganization permissions. To invite an account to join an organization, you require the organizations:DescribeOrganization and organizations:InviteAccountToOrganization permissions.

To accept or decline an invitation, you require the organizations:ListHandshakesForAccount, organizations:AcceptHandshake, and organizations:DeclineHandshake permissions. If your account is already a member of an organization, then you also require the organizations:LeaveOrganization permission.

If the migrating account doesn't already have the AWS Organizations service-linked role, then AWS Organizations creates this role automatically when the account accepts the invitation. However, to accept the invitation, you require the iam:CreateServiceLinkedRole permission.

Also, check that IAM policies or service control policies (SCPs) don't prevent you from migrating the account.

Verify account and billing readiness

Important: If you have a pricing agreement with AWS and you want to move your management account to a different organization, then contact your AWS account manager.

Before you move your accounts, take the following actions:

• Review and update the tax information for accounts that you want to move from one organization to another.
• Confirm that the Support plan for the migrating account matches the management account of the new organization.
• To share AWS resources with an account you want to move, turn on resource sharing with AWS Organizations.
• Check that you don't reach your Organizations quota for the number of accounts in your organization.

Note: The account that purchased a Savings Plan or Reserved Instance owns the plan. If you leave the organization, then any Savings Plan and Reserved Instance remains on the purchasing account.

For information about billing requirements, see Effective billing date, account activity, and volume discounts.

Check your backup reports

You can't access the reports after you move the member accounts. Confirm that you have backups of reports from the member accounts that you must keep before you move the accounts. For information about reports, see What are AWS Cost and Usage Reports? and Using Detailed Billing Reports. For reports that you want to keep, see Analyzing your costs and usage with AWS Cost Explorer.

Move accounts between organizations

You can directly migrate an account from one organization to another without first making it a standalone account.

Note: The new organization's service control policies (SCPs) and resource control policies (RCPs) apply to the account that you move to the new organization.

Complete the following steps for each member account:

1. Send an invitation from the management account of the new organization to the migrating account.
2. Accept the invitation to join the new organization from the migrating account.

To join the old organization's management account to the new organization, complete the following steps:

1. Remove the member accounts from the organization.
2. Delete the old organization.
3. Invite the old management account to the new organization as a member account.

If you can't leave the organization, then contact AWS Support.

Related information

Migrate an account to another organization with AWS Organizations

How do AWS Support plans work in an organization in AWS Organizations?