What does emigrating to the United States cost?
Two items make emigrating to the United States expensive, and both are particular to this destination. The issuance fee on the E visa, per person and often forgotten. And health insurance with no public safety net underneath. Three questions give an honest range for your situation. For every item you see whether it's a checked rate or an estimate.
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A rough indication for your situation
A few short questions, and you get a range instead of an amount. That's deliberate: an exact figure would suggest a precision nobody has.
Count on a total of
€ 8.100 – € 26.200
Where does that difference come from?
- Leaving the car behind and buying locally€ 4.000 – € 12.000
- Landing and getting started€ 3.000 – € 9.000
Below you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 200 – € 2.500
- De verhuizing
- € 4.300 – € 12.900
- De eerste maanden
- € 3.600 – € 10.800
Every item, one by onePer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- Visa application (MRV fee)€ 150 – € 300
- Issuance fee (reciprocity)€ 0 – € 2.000
- Documents, apostilles and translations(estimate)€ 60 – € 250
De verhuizing
- Flights(estimate)€ 350 – € 900
The amount depends on the season and on whether you fly with extra luggage. The band covers a one-way trip from Amsterdam to the American east coast, booked well in advance. The west coast costs more than the east coast.
- Leaving the car behind and buying locally(estimate)€ 4.000 – € 12.000
The band is a second-hand car in reasonable condition in the US. Whatever your Dutch car fetches comes straight off it. This item is deliberately included as a cost rather than a saving. Importing a European car founders on American safety and emissions requirements. Cars younger than 25 years must meet all FMVSS standards, the American safety standards for vehicles. Customs itself warns against sellers who claim otherwise. So you sell your car here. And in the US you need transport again almost immediately, because outside a handful of cities a car is no luxury.
De eerste maanden
- Health insurance (first months)(estimate)€ 600 – € 1.800
This is the item that makes America more expensive than any other destination. That is why it stands on its own here. There is no treaty route via the CAK, which in some countries lets you stay insured through the Netherlands, and no public safety net. You insure yourself through your employer or buy a plan yourself. The average benchmark premium, the premium of a standard plan, for a forty-year-old in 2026 was around $625 per month per adult. That is before the deductible. The figure comes from KFF, an independent research institute, not a government source. This band covers three months. With an employer plan it comes out far lower, with self-arranged insurance without subsidy higher.
- Landing and getting started(estimate)€ 3.000 – € 9.000
This item covers the time until you are up and running: temporary accommodation until you have a home, the deposit, furnishings that did not fit in the container, and the first weeks without income. In the US the deposit is usually one to two months' rent. Without an American credit history, your payment record in the US, landlords often ask for more. Expect utility and phone companies to ask you for deposits too. They pile up in precisely the month when everything comes at once.
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 2 to 5% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 5.000 to € 12.500.
How much you pay depends strongly on the state and on your financing. There is no transfer tax as we know it. You do pay closing costs, the extra costs of the transfer. They consist of title insurance (insurance on the ownership title, 0.4 to 1% of the purchase price), escrow (an independent party that holds money and documents until the transfer), valuation, inspection and the lender's charges. Together 2 to 5%, varying widely by state. A large part of the costs is tied to the financing, not to the property. If you buy in cash without a mortgage, half of those items fall away.
Note: buying isn't simply allowed here
For a Dutch national buying a house in a city, restrictions almost never come into play. Federally there is no restriction at all: you need neither a green card (a permanent residence permit) nor a visa to buy. Since 2023, however, about twenty states have passed a new law restricting purchases, and other states have tightened their existing rules. These rules concern buyers from specific countries (chiefly China, Russia, Iran and North Korea) or farmland and land near military sites.
An order of magnitude based on averages, not a quote. The real amounts depend on your occupation, your route, the season and dozens of choices you still have to make.
Rates checked on 11 September 2026.
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One thing you can sort out today
Closing down the Netherlands is the same work for everyone, wherever you're going. With the letter pack you enter your details once, and every cancellation and notification letter is ready: health insurance, rent, employer, bank, pension fund. Each comes with the date by which it has to go out. € 49 one-off, and it's also included in every plan.
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From range to your own budget
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