Our residence visas were granted about a month ago.

Two of the four of us are planning to fly over in mid-November, to try to find a place to live and make other preparations prior to actually moving.

Does anyone know if it's possible to make a trip like that without activating our residence visas? I would rather not start the 3-month must-start-work clock ticking until later if I don't have to. We will of course have return air tickets in hand, so it doesn't seem like it should be a problem, but I'd like to know for sure.