What does emigrating to Bermuda cost?
Answer a few short questions and you have an honest range for your situation. For every item it says whether it's a checked rate or an estimate. Immigration's fees are the smallest item: a work permit for a year costs 1,015 dollars, and living on your own income 275 dollars a year. The money sits in three other items: the health policy, which in Bermuda costs about 440 dollars per person a month and much more for over-65s; the rent; and the move across the ocean. One thing we state honestly. The fees of the investor route sit outside the range: 2,755 dollars to the government and, since the end of September 2026, 10,000 dollars to the Bermuda Business Development Agency, together about 11,400 euros, on top of the 2.5 million investment.
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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
€ 8.300 – € 36.100
Where does that difference come from?
- Health insurance, first year€ 2.300 – € 17.000
- The first months€ 5.000 – € 15.000
Below you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 250 – € 1.700
- De verhuizing
- € 600 – € 1.600
- De eerste maanden
- € 7.400 – € 32.800
Every item, one by onePer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- Your permission to reside from Immigration€ 150 – € 1.100
- Extending your visit, for whoever first comes as a visitor€ 0 – € 150
- VOG, certificates, apostilles and the medical certificate(estimate)€ 100 – € 400
The amount depends on your route and the number of documents. Every route asks for an original police certificate (for the Netherlands the VOG), no older than six months, from every country where you lived in the last two years. On top of that come certified copies of your passport, your birth and marriage certificate and your diplomas. An apostille isn't explicitly asked for anywhere, but Bermuda does recognise it; ask Immigration which certification they accept. Whoever comes to live there for the first time hands in a medical certificate, and sometimes a chest X-ray. Two character references and three passport photos complete it. There's no fixed rate at an official source for the medical certificate and the X-ray; count on a few tens to a few hundred euros per person.
De verhuizing
- Flights(estimate)€ 600 – € 1.600
The amount is for one way from Amsterdam to Bermuda, with a change in London or in the United States. If you come as a visitor, you need a return or onward ticket that's valid the whole time; then you pay the top. The rest of the spread sits in the season and the luggage.
De eerste maanden
- Health insurance, first year(estimate)€ 2.300 – € 17.000
Bermuda isn't on the CAK's list of treaty countries: your Dutch healthcare doesn't continue. If you work in Bermuda, your employer must insure you and a non-working spouse for at least the Standard Health Benefit. The standard premium for that has been 439.55 dollars per person per month since 1 April 2026, about 393 euros; the employer may deduct at most half from your pay. Children aren't part of that duty. If you don't work there, you insure yourself. Whoever is 65 or older and hasn't lived in Bermuda for ten years yet pays 1,528.48 dollars a month with FutureCare, about 1,366 euros. The basic cover only applies in Bermuda: you add cover for a hospital off the island. The bottom is an employee, the top a couple over 65 living on their own income.
- The first months(estimate)€ 5.000 – € 15.000
This item consists of the deposit, the first month's rent, furnishing what didn't come along, and the months in which you still have double costs. Bermuda is expensive; we didn't find an official comparison of rents. On a rental contract you pay stamp duty: 1.05 percent of the rent over the first three years, and 0.5 percent of the rent after that. If you rent for three years or more, you also pay land tax. Exchanging costs money: whoever lives in Bermuda and buys foreign currency at a local bank pays 1.25 percent tax. Count the exchange-rate risk too: your Dutch income comes in euros, life runs in dollars.
- Bank, phone, passport photos, tax adviser and the first desks(estimate)€ 150 – € 600
Small money, but it all comes at once in the first weeks. It's about a Bermudian bank account (at HSBC with a first deposit of at least 100 dollars), a phone contract, the passport photos and copies you hand in at every desk, and a conversation with a tax adviser. Cash above 10,000 dollars you declare on arrival in Bermuda; when leaving the EU you declare 10,000 euros or more.
- Getting a Bermudian driving licence, with an exam€ 0 – € 200
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 11 to 20% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 27.500 to € 50.000.
As a foreigner you pay two things. First the licence to be allowed to buy: 12.5 percent of the purchase price for a house, 8 percent for an apartment (condo) (Land-Holding Charges Regulations 2007). Then the stamp duty on the deed: 2.1 percent on the first 100,000 dollars, rising to 7.35 percent above 1.5 million dollars, within 30 days of signing. The band adds those two up for the homes you may buy as a foreigner. The lawyer comes on top; we didn't look that up. The licence rules were last changed in 2019 and the stamp duty in 2023: ask your lawyer whether that still holds.
Note: buying isn't simply allowed here
Without Bermudian status you're a 'restricted person'. Buying is then only allowed with a licence, and only above a threshold for the annual rental value (ARV, the value the government sets for land tax): 126,000 dollars for a house and 25,800 dollars for a condo. That's the top end of the market. Buying land without a house isn't allowed. According to the Since 2015 you may only buy an ordinary condo with permanent residence (PRC), a residential certificate such as the EIRC, or as the spouse, child or parent of a Bermudian owner (BIPA section 92(2)); so not with only a work permit. Estate agents' sites often don't mention that requirement. What is possible then is a unit in a hotel or holiday development, with a licence of 6.5 percent for your own use. Renting for up to five years is allowed without a licence.
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 26 October 2026.
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