What does emigrating to Bolivia 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. The application itself is affordable: a visa de objeto determinado costs 100 dollars at the embassy in The Hague, the cédula de extranjero 600 bolivianos. The money sits in three other items: the health policy that replaces the CAK if you're younger than sixty, the move to a country without a coast, and the car, which may not come along if it's older than one year. One thing we state honestly. The DIGEMIG's fees for the permanencia we couldn't read at an official source; that item has no amount.
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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
€ 3.100 – € 8.000
Where does that difference come from?
- The first months€ 2.000 – € 5.000
Below you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 300 – € 700
- De verhuizing
- € 600 – € 1.400
- De eerste maanden
- € 2.100 – € 5.900
Every item, one by onePer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- The visa de objeto determinado at the embassy€ 85 – € 100
- The cédula de extranjero at the SEGIP€ 40 – € 60
- VOG, apostilles and official translations(estimate)€ 200 – € 500
The amount depends on the number of documents. A couple with birth certificates, a marriage certificate, two VOGs and the statements from the SVB and the pension fund quickly reaches eight documents. A VOG for a visa or immigration costs € 41.35 through the municipality. An apostille from the court costs € 27 per document; Bolivia has been part of the apostille convention since 7 May 2018. Every document that isn't in Spanish you have translated; there's no fixed rate anywhere for that translation, count on a few tens of euros per document. On top comes the medical certificate the DIGEMIG asks for on the spot.
De verhuizing
- Flights(estimate)€ 600 – € 1.400
The spread sits in the season and the luggage: whoever travels with two extra suitcases pays the top. The amount is for one way from Amsterdam to La Paz or Santa Cruz, with one or two changes.
De eerste maanden
- The first months(estimate)€ 2.000 – € 5.000
This item consists of rent paid in advance, furnishing what didn't come along, and the months in which you still have double costs. Rents vary widely between La Paz, Santa Cruz, Cochabamba and a smaller city. A health policy isn't in it; whoever is under sixty and not employed adds that themselves. Count in the currency risk too: your income comes in euros, life runs in bolivianos, and since April 2026 that rate floats.
- Bank, phone, adviser and the first offices(estimate)€ 150 – € 600
Small money, but it's here because in the first weeks it all comes at once. It's about a Bolivian account, a local SIM card, the copies and translations you hand in again at every office, and an adviser for your first questions about tax. It's also here because the bank charges a rate when transferring your pension that you want to know in advance.
- Getting a Bolivian driving licence(estimate)€ 30 – € 250
Deliberately no amount here
The permanencia at the DIGEMIG
There's deliberately no amount here. The DIGEMIG, the Bolivian migration service, charges its fees in UFV, a unit of account that moves with inflation; you pay in bolivianos at that day's value (Decreto Supremo 1923, article 6). The amounts per permanencia are in a ministerial resolution we couldn't read as text, and the DIGEMIG pages with the trámites don't load outside Bolivia. Ask for the amount at the office or at the embassy in The Hague. Count per person, because every family member gets their own permanencia.
Taking the car
There's deliberately no amount here, and no question about it. Since 1 January 2016 a passenger car older than one year, counted from the model year, may not enter Bolivia through the regular import. A car on diesel up to and including 4,000 cc may not either, not even with four-wheel drive (Decreto Supremo 2232 of 2014). A car doesn't belong to household goods either (customs regulation, article 192). So count on selling in the Netherlands and buying again in Bolivia. You don't get the bpm back: that refund only applies on registration in another EU country, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway.
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
Note: buying isn't simply allowed here
Within fifty kilometres of the border a foreigner may not own land, a house, water or subsoil, not even through a company, except for a state necessity that a law sets with two thirds of the votes (Constitution, article 262). A foreigner can never acquire state land (article 396).
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 16 October 2026.
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From range to your own budget
The calculator above works with a few questions, but the journey itself knows more. In Vertrekklaar the same model calculates with your real situation: who's coming, which route, and whether the household contents and the pet come along. It also watches the clocks: the ninety days as a tourist, the thirty days of the embassy's visa, and the 25 working days after the decision for your cédula. A one-off € 399, no subscription.
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