The emigration penalties should be removed right now, as in the announcement.
The 'new mode' where there's an emigrate link from the account page should start on the 14th of December (as specified by 'in a couple weeks' in the actual Announcement) when we close the continents. This is also when we plan to have had the elections in new realms complete; the elections in the new realms begin on the 11th of December.
The new realms will be created quite shortly. Feel free to start emigrating now, if you wish.
