Bolivia · Visa required
Emigrating to Bolivia
With a Dutch passport you enter Bolivia without a visa. If you want to stay, you apply in Bolivia for a permanencia at the DIGEMIG, the migration service, for work or family, and after three years for the permanencia definitiva. The law has no retirement visa with a fixed amount. If you bring a container, first get a visa from the embassy in The Hague: only with it do your household goods enter the country tax-free. There's no tax treaty and no working social security treaty. So the Netherlands keeps taxing, a single person gets the AOW for married people, and there's no CAK. From the age of sixty you are entitled to free public healthcare.
€ 399 one-off · 37 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Enter without a visa, then a permanencia at the DIGEMIG and a cédula at the SEGIP; after three years the definitiva
- The clock
- As a tourist at most 90 days a year; an embassy visa of thirty days; within 25 working days to the SEGIP
- Note
- No tax treaty and a social security treaty that never entered into force: the Netherlands keeps taxing, no CAK, and for a single person the married rate of the AOW
Last updated: 16 October 2026
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Five phases, from the first permanencia to the definitiva
This journey turns on a route the law doesn't name and three clocks. The law has a permanencia for work, family, study and health, but no retirement visa: whoever lives off a pension first asks under which purpose the application falls. The clocks are the ninety days a year as a tourist, the thirty days of an embassy visa, and the 25 working days after the decision for your cédula. On top of that there's what the brochure doesn't mention: without the embassy's visa you pay import duties on your household goods, and the 2005 social security treaty never entered into force.
- Orientation
In without a visa, a permanencia to stay, and two treaties that aren't there
In this phase you learn how living in Bolivia works, and what it does to your income and your healthcare. With a Dutch passport you enter without a visa. You stay with a permanencia from the DIGEMIG: transitoria for at most 180 days, temporal for one to three years, and then definitiva. A retirement visa with a fixed amount isn't in the law. There's no tax treaty, so the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW and pension. The 2005 social security treaty never entered into force: whoever goes alone gets the AOW for married people. And there's no CAK, but from the age of sixty there is free public healthcare in Bolivia.Read more
- Your visa
Choosing a route, papers with an apostille, and the visa that exempts your household goods
In this phase you choose your route and get your papers ready. The law has work, family, study and health; with every permanencia you may work. Whoever lives off a pension asks the embassy or the DIGEMIG in writing under which purpose the application falls. Your certificate of conduct, your certificates and your pension statements get an apostille and a Spanish translation. If you bring a container, get a visa de objeto determinado at the embassy in The Hague, for 100 dollars: without that visa the exemption for your household goods doesn't apply. In Bolivia you submit the application to the DIGEMIG, within your days as a tourist or on your visa.Read more
- Closing down the Netherlands
No treaty, no CAK, and the married rate
In this phase you work through the familiar list for closing down the Netherlands, and with this country it weighs heavily. There's no tax treaty. So the Netherlands keeps its tax on your AOW, your government pension, your occupational pension and your annuity, and you get no tax credit. According to the text of the law Bolivia only taxes income from a Bolivian source; have that confirmed for your pension. There's no CAK: if you're younger than sixty, your policy must be accepted before you deregister. Whoever goes alone gets the AOW for married people. And whoever leaves before the AOW age can insure themselves voluntarily within one year.Read more
- The move
Up to 35,000 dollars tax-free, no car older than one year, and a permit for your pet
In this phase you move the household goods, the car and the pet. Your used household goods enter the country tax-free up to 35,000 dollars, with the embassy's visa, if the shipment arrives between one month before and six months after you. Bolivia has no seaport, so the last stretch goes overland. For the car the answer is short: a passenger car older than one year may not enter Bolivia. For your dog or cat you apply in advance for an import permit from SENASAG, with vaccinations within 60 days and a treatment against parasites within 30 days before departure.Read more
- Arrival in Bolivia
25 working days to the SEGIP, then your address, your days, your healthcare and your bank
In this phase, after the DIGEMIG's decision, you arrange your cédula, your healthcare and your bank. Within 25 working days you get your cédula de extranjero at the SEGIP, for 600 bolivianos. Then you report every new address within 48 hours, and you count your days: with a permanencia temporal you may be away for at most 90 days a year without permission. From sixty you register at the health centre in your neighbourhood. You open a bank account with your cédula. Converting your driving licence is only possible with the definitiva, after three years. And foreigners may buy, but not within fifty kilometres of the border.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Bolivia journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 2.5 of your plan
The visa at the embassy in The Hague: needed for your household goods
- Lead time
- count on a few weeks; the visa is valid for 30 days
- Costs
- 100 dollars per visa
In this step you get the visa that makes your container tax-free. You don't need it to get in. But the customs regulation says it plainly: a foreigner who comes to live there imports their used household goods tax-free with the visa de objeto determinado. Without that visa the exemption doesn't apply.
You apply for the visa at the embassy in The Hague, on the Nassauplein. The embassy asks for:
- a completed form, a sworn statement;
- a passport still valid for at least six months;
- a document about what you're going to do in Bolivia, and an invitation where needed;
- a statement about your criminal record from the country where you live, from 16;
- proof that you have enough money: a bank statement or a credit card, except for family;
- a recent passport photo of 4 by 4 with a red background;
- a yellow fever vaccination if you're going to an area where it occurs.
The visa gives you thirty days to take your next step at the DIGEMIG; ask the embassy from which date they count. So plan it just before you leave.
What this step rests on
- Bolivian embassy in The Hague — the visa de objeto determinado and its requirements
- Bolivian embassy in The Hague — the consular fees: 100 dollars for a visa de objeto determinado
- Aduana Nacional — the customs regulation, articles 191 and 194: foreigners import their household goods tax-free with the visa de objeto determinado
- Decreto Supremo 1923 of 2014, article 9 — the visa de objeto determinado for work, health and family is valid for 30 days
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Bolivia.
This is step 2.5 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 BoliviaEvery step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Bolivia: 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 Bolivia change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, and now and then we send one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
What will your move to Bolivia cost? Work it out →Also want to know whether your departure date is feasible? Take the departure scan: seven questions, and you see your whole plan in miniature →
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Bolivia? 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 Bolivia 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
In December 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 Bolivia
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Healthcare in Bolivia: the SUS from age sixty, the Cajas for employeesBolivia gives foreigners aged sixty and over who are not insured through an employer free care in public healthcare, the SUS. Anyone working as an employee falls under short-term social security. A Dutch health insurance through the CAK does not exist there: Bolivia is not a treaty country.
- Residence routes to Bolivia: from visitor to permanencia definitivaAs a Dutch citizen you may stay in Bolivia for 90 days without a visa. Anyone who wants to stay applies to the Dirección General de Migración for a permanencia temporal, for one, two or three years. After at least three years the permanencia definitiva follows. The migration law has no separate pension route with a fixed income amount.
- Working in Bolivia: with any permanencia, never as a touristAnyone with a permanencia in Bolivia may work, as an employee or self-employed. As a tourist you may not do paid work. The minimum wage in 2026 is Bs 3,300 a month. If you work independently as a professional, the tax authority asks for a Bolivian professional title; having a foreign degree recognised costs Bs 1,200.
- AOW, pension and tax in Bolivia: no treaties, but a source-based taxThe Netherlands and Bolivia have no tax treaty and no social security agreement in force. The Netherlands therefore keeps taxing your AOW and your pension, and a single person receives the AOW for married people. Bolivia only taxes income from a Bolivian source, so under the law a pension from the Netherlands falls outside it.
- Car and driving licence in Bolivia: a used car can hardly get inBolivia prohibits the regular import of passenger cars older than one year, and of diesels up to and including 4,000 cc too. Your Dutch car may stay as a tourist vehicle for 90 days at most. Your licence is valid with an international driving permit; converting it is only possible with a permanencia definitiva.
- Pet to Bolivia: first an import permit from the SENASAGA dog or cat only enters Bolivia with an import permit from the SENASAG, the Bolivian veterinary service, which you apply for before the animal leaves. According to the SENASAG the vaccinations must be given within 60 days before departure, the deworming within 30 days. Have the rabies blood test done in the Netherlands, in case you ever return.
All 13 articles about Bolivia
- Household goods to Bolivia: duty-free up to US$ 35,000, but only with the right visa
- Banking and payments in Bolivia: an account with your cédula, declare your cash
- The first weeks in Bolivia: stamp, permanencia, cédula and bank
- Buying a house in Bolivia: what is allowed, what is not, and the 50-kilometre border zone
- Renting in Bolivia: alquiler or anticrético, and what the law gives you as a tenant
- Children and school in Bolivia: a school year from February to December
- Registration and numbers in Bolivia: the SEGIP cédula and the NIT
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Bolivia: 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.