Belgium · No visa required
Emigrating to Belgium
To live in Belgium, you register with the municipality with a complete file. You get annex 19 as proof, and the community police officer checks that you really live there. The same language area, but a different system. The biggest choice: do you keep working in the Netherlands or switch to a Belgian salary? That decides your healthcare, AOW and benefits.
€ 199 one-off · 35 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- EU: register with the municipality, no visa
- The chain
- Annex 19 → community police officer → EU card → mutualiteit
- Note
- Keep working in the Netherlands, and half your Dutch safety net simply comes along
Last updated: 14 October 2026
Will your departure date work? Check it in the free step-by-step plan →
Five phases, from the scenario choice to being settled
This route is short, and the most important decision comes first: will you work in the Netherlands or in Belgium? That answer steers every phase after: your healthcare, your AOW, your benefits and even your holiday pay.
- Orientation
Emigrating next door is still emigrating
In this phase you take the key decision of this route. Do you keep working in the Netherlands, or choose Belgian wages, with double holiday pay and indexation (your salary rises with prices)? You also choose your region, the part of Belgium where you'll live. BIV (the Belgian tax when you register your car), child benefit and registration duties on a purchased home differ considerably per region. And you have the family conversation about school and the first year. Belgium isn't an extension of the Netherlands but a system of its own. There's a registration chain and a community police officer. And since September 2025 the municipality only accepts your application complete.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
What you take along depends on your scenario
In this phase you close things down in the Netherlands. What you take along depends on your scenario. Cross-border workers (you live in Belgium and work in the Netherlands) keep more than they think: the Dutch health insurance with healthcare allowance, the continuing AOW accrual, and via the 90% rule even the mortgage interest relief. Whoever switches completely closes neatly. That includes the protective assessment, a tax assessment that stays open when you leave. Within the EU it gets automatic deferral. If one of you works in the Netherlands, the child benefit doesn't stop but is ranked: the country of work pays first, the country of residence tops up. And for your pension one number steers everything: the € 25,000 threshold in the tax treaty.Read more
- The move
No customs, but a thirteen-week deadline for the car
In this phase you move and sort out the car and the home. The drive itself stays within the EU: no forms, no container. The work is in the car and the home. For the car you get the BPM (the Dutch car tax) back and pay BIV to the region. In between is a hard deadline of thirteen weeks. In three low-emission zones every Dutch plate has to register in advance. For the home: the deposit belongs in a blocked account, never cash. The rental contract has to be registered. And buying waits until you know the region.Read more
- Registration in Belgium
Annex 19, the community police officer, the card
In this phase you register and sort out your digital access and your healthcare. The chain is short but precise. First you register with the complete file. You then get your national register number (the Belgian citizen service number) on day one, even though many people think otherwise. Then comes the residence check by the community police officer, and the EU card of around twenty euros. After that come the digital keys: itsme (the Belgian login app), MyMinfin (your tax portal) and eBox (your digital government mailbox). Last to connect is healthcare: the mutualiteit, with your S1 or E104 form. And in Flanders there's the care premium, which almost every newcomer misses.Read more
- Arrival
Settled quickly, but becoming Belgian takes longer
In this phase daily life gets going. The Belgian pay package has its own logic: double holiday pay, indexation, and the holiday trap of year one (you then have hardly any holiday days yet). You enrol at school digitally, within fixed periods. In Brussels Dutch-speaking parents get 65% priority. You need a Belgian account for Bancontact (the Belgian debit card) and the direct debits. In your first year you file two tax returns. You may keep your driving licence. The deadlines of your card go in the diary.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Belgium journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 1.2 of your plan
Choose your scenario: cross-border work or a Belgian salary
- Lead time
- an evening — this is the decision of this route
- Costs
- none
This step is where you choose the scenario that decides everything else. In Belgium your emigration is a menu of choices. The question is: will you work in the Netherlands or in Belgium?
If you keep working in the Netherlands, you stay socially insured there. That means:
- Your AOW accrual (the Dutch state pension) simply continues.
- You keep your Dutch health insurance and your healthcare allowance.
- The Netherlands taxes your salary.
If you switch to a Belgian employer, everything moves with you:
- Your healthcare runs through a mutualiteit (a Belgian health fund) instead of a health insurer.
- You build up a Belgian rustpensioen, Belgium's statutory pension. Your AOW stays at what you had already built up.
- You get a payslip with a logic of its own. The charges are higher, but you also get double holiday pay, a thirteenth month and automatic indexation: your salary rises with prices by itself.
Work out both scenarios before you sign anything. The difference is bigger than any gross salary suggests.
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Belgium.
This is step 1.2 of 37. The other 36 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 37 steps for BelgiumWhat you get for € 199
All 37 steps to Belgium, for your situation
In order, with the office and the official source at every step. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear.
Your deadlines in one place
For each step you see the latest date to start, and you get a heads-up before something is due or expires. Your documents sit in the vault, with their dates.
A plan that stays right
Twice a month we check the sources. If something changes, it's in your plan and you get a message.
The step-by-step plan for Belgium
€ 199
one-off · 37 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
- Destination changes? Within 30 days I switch your plan to another country free of charge
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What will your move to Belgium cost? Work it out →
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Belgium: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Belgium change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Belgium? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Belgium starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
On 2 January we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on Belgium
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Working and earning in Belgium: double holiday pay, indexation and the real net salaryThe Belgian gross salary lies in two directions: the tax burden is higher than Dutch people expect, but against it stands a package that appears nowhere on the payslip of the vacancy — double holiday pay, an end-of-year bonus, meal vouchers and automatic indexation. Plus the trap of your first year: holiday rights are built up in the year before. And for whoever starts their own business: the social contributions, the recognition of diplomas and the expat regime that is almost never for Dutch people.
- AOW, pension and tax in Belgium: the treaty and the € 25,000 thresholdWithin the EU your accrued AOW goes with you, and the accrual even continues if you keep working in the Netherlands. The real story is in the tax treaty: the notorious € 25,000 threshold in the pension article, the mortgage-interest relief you can keep as a cross-border worker — and the new treaty from 2023 that is still not in force.
- Renting in Belgium: the deposit in your name, the inventory report and the nine-year contractRenting in Flanders is governed by one decree, and it protects the tenant better than most landlords let on: the deposit is at most three months and sits in an account in your name, the inventory report is compulsory, the landlord registers the contract, and you can always leave with three months' notice. What the nine years mean, what the first year costs on leaving, and which clock runs in the first month.
- Your car to Belgium: BPM back, paying BIV — and check the LEZ firstWhen you move to Belgium you get the residual BPM back from the Netherlands — provided you are registered in Belgium within thirteen weeks. Against that stands the BIV, which each region calculates completely differently, and three low-emission zones where every Dutch plate has to register in advance. The chain from RDW to registration plate, in the right order, with the costs and the clocks.
- Your dog or cat to Belgium: the EU passport, and the eight days that start after the borderThe border is the easy part: a dog or cat travels to Belgium on the EU pet passport, with a microchip and a rabies vaccination that is valid after 21 days. The obligation almost nobody knows starts after arrival: a dog staying in Belgium for more than six months must be registered in DogID within eight days, and a cat belongs in CatID, in Brussels with its sterilisation status.
- Your household goods to Belgium: no customs, but eight working days, one month and a registration duty for the vanA move to Belgium is a drive within the EU: no customs declaration, no inventory list, no import tax. The clocks come after the drive: the new address within eight working days at the municipality, the inventory report in the first month, the fire insurance on day one, and the low-emission zone where every foreign registration plate registers in advance, the removal van included.
All 13 articles about Belgium
- Your first weeks in Belgium: the complete file, the neighbourhood officer within fifteen days and the six months for the care fund
- Settling in Belgium: bijlage 19, the neighbourhood officer and the complete file
- Bank and payments in Belgium: your Dutch IBAN may not be refused, and the basic banking service costs at most € 20.34
- The mutualiteit, the co-payment and the S1: how healthcare works for Dutch people in Belgium
- Buying a house in Belgium: the compromis binds at once, and your region sets your tax
- Your driving licence in Belgium: registering is free, exchanging only after 185 days
- Children and school in Belgium: compulsory from five, applying in a window and the Groeipakket of € 190.66
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Belgium: 37 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.