The step-by-step plan for Andorra

In this step you learn how you may come to live in Andorra. Andorra is a small country in the Pyrenees, between France and Spain. It is not a member of the EU, but it does use the euro. As a Dutch national you therefore have no right to simply stay, as you have in Spain or France.

With a Dutch passport or an ID card you need no visa. As a tourist you may stay at most ninety days, counted within the 365 days after your entry. Working isn't allowed.

If you want to live there, you need a residence permit from the Servei d'Immigració, the immigration service, which falls under the Andorran police. Every permit comes from an annual quota: the government sets per type how many are issued, and first come, first served. There are five routes:

• Employed work. A contract of indefinite duration with a company in Andorra. 2026 quota: 900 places.
• Your own business. You set up an Andorran company and pay 50,000 euros. 2026 quota: 200 places.
• Partner. Family reunification with a partner who has already lived and worked there for three months.
• Passive residence. Living without work, with an investment of at least one million euros. 2026 quota: 163 places.
• Remote work. The permit for whoever works over the internet for clients outside Andorra. Quota: 100 places.

Two things to know now:

• Spaniards, French and Portuguese go first. Their countries have a treaty with Andorra. After them come EU citizens such as the Dutch, and then the rest. The quotas run out, and are set anew roughly every six months.
• A retirement route doesn't exist. If you're 67 and want to live there on your AOW and pension, passive residence is the only way. Since 13 February 2026 that requires an investment of one million euros, plus 50,000 euros you don't get back. With an AOW and an average pension you won't reach that. Be honest about that, now.

The EU is getting closer, but not yet. Andorra and the EU signed an association agreement on 19 October 2026. It isn't in force yet: the European Parliament, the member states and Andorra itself still have to agree. Until then the Andorran immigration rules apply in full. Don't count on it in your planning.

No Dutch embassy. There is no Dutch embassy or consul in Andorra. The embassy in Paris is responsible. You get a new passport in Paris, in Madrid, at VFS Global in Barcelona or at a Dutch border municipality.

In this step you see what emigrating to Andorra does to your AOW, your tax and your healthcare.

The AOW. The Netherlands has no social security treaty with Andorra. The AOW does go along, but up to the amount for married people. For a couple nothing changes. Whoever goes alone gets net fifty instead of seventy percent of the net minimum wage: about 30 percent less. The survivor's benefit (the Anw), an allowance and the AIO supplement don't go along. Unemployment benefit and child benefit stop.

Tax. There is a tax treaty, from 2023, which has applied since 1 January 2025. It says the Netherlands may keep taxing your AOW, your company pension, your annuity and an ABP pension. Andorra also taxes you as a resident, at 10 percent with 24,000 euros exempt, and deducts the Dutch tax from that. How that works out, you read in phase 3.

Healthcare. Andorra isn't on the list of treaty countries for healthcare. So there's no CAK. Your Dutch basic insurance stops when you deregister. If you work in Andorra, you're insured with the CASS, the Andorran social security. If you live there without work, you need your own policy.

Your AOW build-up stops. Whoever lives outside the Netherlands is usually no longer insured. Each year until your AOW age then costs 2 percent of your later AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. The application must be in within one year.

In this step you choose where in Andorra you want to live. The country is small, and divided into seven parishes, the parròquies: Canillo, Encamp, Ordino, La Massana, Andorra la Vella, Sant Julià de Lòria and Escaldes-Engordany. Each parish has its own municipal government, the comú. That's where you'll register, and where you pay your municipal taxes.

Look at four things for each place:

• The altitude and the winter. Andorra lies in the mountains. From 1 November up to and including 15 May winter equipment on the car is compulsory. The higher you live, the longer the winter.
• The distance to the hospital. There is one hospital, the Hospital Nostra Senyora de Meritxell in Escaldes-Engordany. For serious care you go to Barcelona or Toulouse.
• Work and school. Most work is in Andorra la Vella and Escaldes-Engordany. There are schools in every parish, but not of every system.
• Renting. A lease in Andorra lasts at least five years. Buying as a foreigner is only possible with a permit; that's in phase 5.

Go and look first. As a tourist you may stay ninety days. That way you see the neighbourhood, the prices and the distances yourself. Travel by road: Andorra has no airport of its own. The nearest are La Seu d'Urgell (small), Barcelona and Toulouse.

In this step you see what the move is going to cost you. Andorra uses the euro, so there's nothing to convert. The Immigració fees are small for most routes:

• Work or your own business costs 190.96 euros for the first permit, and 22.61 euros per renewal.
• Family reunification costs 22.61 euros per person.
• Passive residence costs 3,000 euros, plus 1,000 euros per family member, and 500 euros per renewal.

The money is in other items:

• The payment. Your own business requires 50,000 euros with the AFA, the Andorran financial regulator, which you don't get back. Passive residence requires 50,000 euros plus 12,000 euros per family member, also not refunded, on top of an investment of one million euros.
• Healthcare. As an employee you pay 6.5 percent of your salary to the CASS. As a self-employed person 22 percent over a chosen base, in the first year from 146.99 euros a month. Without work you pay for your own policy.
• The home. Renting with a deposit of at most two months. Buying as a foreigner has cost an extra tax of 6 percent since 13 February 2026, on top of the transfer tax.
• The car. Taking it along is possible if it's younger than six years. The Andorran registration costs 250 euros.
• Living. The minimum wage has been 1,568.66 euros a month since 1 July 2026. Prices rose by 4.5 percent year on year in September 2026.

In this conversation you decide together whether Andorra fits, and when. You record what each of you needs in order to say yes.

Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings for it. One conversation is too short for a decision like this. Agree on three evenings, a week apart:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find in Andorra? What are we leaving behind here? Would that really be different there?
• Evening 2, what we give up. Who and what will we miss? What do we dread most? What do we do if it disappoints?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What must be arranged for each of us to say yes? When do we look together at whether it's going well, for example after six and after twelve months? And what is a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. On the kitchen-table card everything fits on one A4.

Andorra comes with two things you need to look at together on those evenings:

• The route and the duration. Your residence is never forever. With a work permit it depends on a permanent contract, and in the first year you may not change sector. Passive residence and the nomad permit you renew every two or three years, and the money has to stay in Andorra. Discuss what you do if the ground to stay falls away.
• The mountains and healthcare. Andorra is small and high, with one hospital. For serious care you go to Barcelona or Toulouse. Agree on what you do if one of you becomes seriously ill, and how you would travel then.

Divide the work. Agree on who takes on which part of this plan: the papers for your residence, the house and the cancellations, the school, the move. That way not one of you carries everything. Invite your partner into your plan; then you both see what's done.

Is one of you going without an income of their own? Whoever lives in Andorra and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW. For each year you're not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. You have one year for that, counted from the moment you're no longer insured. Also discuss whether that partner keeps their own account and own money, and how you decide together about large expenses.

Married, registered or cohabiting? In Andorra that makes a big difference. Family reunification exists for the spouse and for the partner from a unió estable de parella, a registered partnership. But for that Andorra wants a certificate from its own Registre Civil; a Dutch partnership certificate isn't enough. How you get a Dutch partnership registered there isn't on the site; ask Immigració before you leave. Whoever merely cohabits has no right to family reunification. See at your route further on in your plan what applies to you.

Are children coming along? How you tell them depends on their age:

• Up to about four. Tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed routines, like the bedtime ritual and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school. Tell them well in advance and let them look along: photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, like their room.
• Teenagers. Involve them in the decision itself. For them saying goodbye to friends weighs heaviest. Agree on how they keep in touch and when they'll see their friends again.

How school works in Andorra, and which of the three systems you choose, you read in the article about school with this step.

Who speaks the language? Catalan is the only official language. Spanish and French are understood everywhere, but the letters from the government, the contracts and the school are in Catalan. Whoever comes with a work permit must show Catalan at level A1 at the first renewal and A2 at the second. Agree on who starts before departure.

Choose the day you want to leave. The plan counts back from that date: when the papers from the Netherlands must be in, when you apply for your residence and when you deregister.

Count on five clocks:

• Your criminal record certificate and your certificates may be at most three months old at the application, and need an apostille.
• The quotas are set roughly every six months and run out. Submit your application as soon as a new decree appears.
• With your own business: after the reservation you have six months to complete the investment and the company.
• With a car: within six months after your permit it must be on Andorran plates, and it may be at most six years old.
• With children: the school year starts in September; registration goes through the Ministry of Education.