A report on tech site Neowin brings confirmation that Microsoft are in the process of streamlining account migration for Xbox Live account holders that move internationally and want to legitimately take their digital goods with them.

Following a testing phase from October last year that required manual processing by Microsoft support staff and could take up to six weeks to complete, the new process reportedly being offered to select beta testers is seemingly completely automated, and permits users to change their account region once every three months (via NeoWIN):

As it stands right now in the pilot program, you can only move your account using the tool once every three months. When you do change regions, your gamer tag, achievements, Microsoft points, and any time left on your Gold subscription will be moved.

While many items will port to other regions, not all of your content and settings will be transferable. Some services which are region locked, such as IPTV services, may not be ported. Xbox Music subscriptions will also not make the cut and any other regional items including promotional material may not be moved as well.

The porting worked quickly and required just a few clicks by the end users. First reports of the new tool are positive and should help all of you out there quickly change regions without any headaches.

While we'd obviously prefer no region restrictions on our online accounts at all, it's good to finally see this long-time gripe finally being properly addressed.