The step-by-step plan for Bermuda

In this step you learn how you may come to live in Bermuda. Bermuda is a British Overseas Territory, with its own laws. It isn't part of the EU. As a Dutch national you therefore have no special rights there.

With a Dutch passport you need no visa. As a visitor you may stay at most six months within any twelve months, or 180 days if that is longer. You need a return ticket. Working isn't allowed, and neither is looking for work.

If you want to live there, you need permission from the Department of Immigration, the immigration service under Bermuda's Ministry of Economy and Labour. There are four routes:

• Work. A work permit, which your employer in Bermuda applies for on your behalf.
• A Bermudian partner. Married to a Bermudian, you may live and work there.
• Own income. The Permission to Reside on an Annual Basis, for whoever has at least 75,000 dollars a year and doesn't work there.
• Investing. The Economic Investment Residential Certificate (EIRC), from 2.5 million dollars.

Two things to know now:

• The nomad programme no longer exists. Work from Bermuda, for people who worked remotely, ended on 28 February 2025. Whoever works remotely for an employer outside Bermuda now chooses the own-income route, from 75,000 dollars a year.
• A retirement route doesn't exist. If you're 67, you can only live there through the own-income route: at least 75,000 dollars a year, about 67,000 euros. With an AOW and an average pension you won't reach that.

In the longer term, too, Bermuda isn't a country where you simply stay. Permanent residence is only possible after twenty years of living there. Bermuda's nationality status, Bermudian status, isn't within reach for a Dutch national.

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

The AOW. The Netherlands has no social security treaty with Bermuda. The AOW does go along, but up to the amount for married people. For a couple nothing changes. Whoever goes alone gets fifty instead of seventy percent of the net minimum wage, net: about 30 percent less. The survivor's benefit (the Anw), allowances, the AIO supplement, the WW and child benefit stop.

The tax. There is a tax treaty, from 2009. It says that only Bermuda may tax your AOW. And Bermuda levies no income tax. So your AOW is untaxed there. Your company pension also goes to Bermuda, except above a limit of 10,000 euros a year. A government pension from ABP remains taxed in the Netherlands. How that works out, you read in phase 3.

Healthcare. Bermuda isn't on the list of treaty countries for healthcare. So there's no CAK. Your Dutch basic insurance stops when you deregister. In Bermuda your employer insures you; if you don't work, you arrange a policy yourself.

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 and how you want to live in Bermuda. What you choose is mainly the way of living: how you get around, what you rent and how far you live from the hospital.

NederlandWereldwijd has no travel advice of its own for Bermuda. The British travel advice on gov.uk is the best background. Read it before you go.

For each place, look at four things:

• Getting around. Only one car may be kept per household, and the speed limit is 35 kilometres an hour. If you live close to your work or the school, you can often do without a car.
• Renting. As a foreigner you rent, for at most five years per contract. Buying is only possible in the most expensive part of the market; that's in phase 5.
• Healthcare. There is one hospital for acute care, the King Edward VII Memorial Hospital (KEMH), and an urgent care centre, the Lamb Foggo Urgent Care Centre.
• The weather. The hurricane season runs from 1 June up to and including 30 November. Check how well a home stands up to storms.

Go and look first. As a visitor you may stay at most six months per twelve months. That way you see the neighbourhood, the prices and the distances for yourself.

In this step you see what the move will cost you. Bermuda is an expensive country. The Immigration fees are the smallest part:

• A work permit costs 1,015 dollars for a year, about 907 euros. Usually the employer pays.
• Permission to Reside costs 275 dollars a year, about 246 euros, or 1,215 dollars for five years.
• A family member with a work permit costs 275 dollars.

The money is in other items:

• Healthcare. Since 1 April 2026 the standard premium is 439.55 dollars per person per month, about 393 euros. That's only the basic cover; a full package costs more.
• The home. Renting is expensive, and as a foreigner you can only buy in the top segment.
• The payroll tax. There's no income tax, but there is payroll tax on your wages, from 0.25 to 12.5 percent.
• Changing money. Whoever lives in Bermuda and buys foreign currency at a Bermudian bank pays 1.25 percent tax. That affects every euro you send to the Netherlands.
• The car. Bringing one is almost never possible. Importing a new car costs 75 percent on the first 10,000 dollars and 150 percent on the rest.

The Bermudian dollar is fixed at one US dollar. We convert at the ECB rate of 23 October 2026: one euro is about 1.12 dollars. A dollar is therefore about 89 euro cents.

In this conversation you decide together whether Bermuda 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 Bermuda? 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.

Bermuda 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 that job, and changing jobs isn't allowed without permission for the first two years. You renew Permission to Reside every year or every five years. Discuss what you do if the ground to stay falls away.
• The costs and healthcare. Bermuda is expensive, and the basic insurance doesn't cover a hospital outside Bermuda. 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 Bermuda 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 Bermuda that makes a big difference. With a work permit a spouse can come along, and so can an unmarried partner in a genuine, lasting relationship. But only the spouse of an employee is insured for healthcare through the employer. If you're married to a Bermudian, you may work there without a work permit; an unmarried partner of a Bermudian may not. A Dutch registered partnership counts as a domestic partnership under Bermudian law. Whether Immigration treats it as a marriage, Immigration hasn't confirmed; check it. 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 Bermuda, and when you register your child, you read in the article about school with this step.

Who speaks the language? In Bermuda everything is in English: the rental contracts, the letters from the government, the doctor and the school. Whoever comes with a work permit usually also shows an English language test. Agree on who still brushes up their English, and whether you start 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:

• With a job: your employer first advertises the vacancy, then processing takes about twenty working days. The application may be made at most three months before your start date.
• Your police certificate, the VOG, is valid for six months from issue.
• You renew Permission to Reside at least sixty days before the end date.
• With a pet: two rabies shots with six to twelve months in between, and the animal is at least ten months old.
• With children: the public schools register in November for the school year that starts in September.