Depends on your supervisor's status, contacts etc apart from uni regulations. In the UK generally I have seen transfer students starting from scratch, (though there are some exceptions), the best person to answer this is your supervisor. He would know the regulations in the country to which you are going, the equations within the school and the department, and his own hold on the rules and regulations (depending on how flexible they are or not).
So all of these factors influence whether you shall be able to do this from first year or second year, and the only person who can give you a clear picture is your sup.