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Step-by-step plan · Within the Kingdom

The step-by-step plan for Bonaire

From "we want this" to being settled, in 35 steps. Read phase 1 in full here. Test your departure date along the way. Then you'll know whether you want the rest.

35 steps5 phases69 official sources7 only for your situationchecked on 9 September 2026

Phase 1 starts below ↓The whole plan: € 299 one-off, no subscription.

What it looks like

Not a PDF, not a checklist. A plan that knows what needs to happen now.

Every step sits in its place in the order, with the lead time, the counter and the official source. You tick off, your partner ticks along, and the plan counts back from your departure date: what has to start when, and what is running now.

Below is phase 1, exactly as it appears in the plan.

The dashboard of the step-by-step plan for Bonaire: the current phase, the open steps, the next step and the deadline bar.

The route

  1. Orientation

    5 steps

    Open · You are here

  2. Winding up the Netherlands

    14 steps

    In your plan

  3. The move

    3 steps

    In your plan

  4. Registration on Bonaire

    6 steps

    In your plan

  5. Arrival

    7 steps

    In your plan

Phase 1 is the question "can we, and do we want to?". From phase 2 the arranging begins.

Phase 1 · Orientation

5 of 5 steps open

Bonaire is the Netherlands — and precisely because of that everyone misses the rules: the admission law also applies to Dutch citizens, your healthcare, AOW and allowances do stop, and the social safety net you're used to doesn't exist there. This phase corrects the mistake before it costs money.

By the end of phase 1 you know what does and doesn't move with you from the Netherlands, you know the safety-net gap, and the family stands behind the decision.

Step 1.1

Understand the system: the Netherlands, but not the Netherlands you know

Lead time:
reading step
Costs:
none

Bonaire has been a special municipality of the Netherlands since 2010 — and still this is a real emigration. The admission law (WTU-BES) explicitly also applies to Dutch citizens born outside the islands: you're "admitted by operation of law", but only with housing and sufficient means — and the IND really does test that. You deregister from the Dutch BRP, your health insurance stops, the currency is the dollar and the taxes are a system of their own. The chain this step-by-step plan guards: IND declaration → register within five days → sédula → health insurance → bank.

Checked against the official source

The official sources for this step

Step 1.2

Look the safety net in the eye before you decide anything

Lead time:
an evening, and the honest conversation about it
Costs:
none

This is the pitfall of this route, so it comes before everything. On Bonaire there's no unemployment insurance, and the only safety net — the onderstand (social assistance) — requires that you're an "island child" or have lived on the island for five uninterrupted years. So whoever loses their job in year one is entitled to nothing; only in 2027 does a temporary provision of at most three months arrive. And the pension tells the same honest story: your AOW accrual (the Dutch state pension) stops and the Caribbean AOV starts at zero, with a two percent reduction per missed year. Count on a buffer of at least six months' fixed costs, and on a pension gap you deliberately close — or accept.

Checked against the official source

The official sources for this step

Step 1.3

Get a picture of what it's going to cost

Lead time:
1-2 hours with the calculator
Costs:
none

The paperwork is manageable — the IND declaration costs 171 dollars, the sédula about ten — but the crossing isn't: the container, the flights and the first months on an island where rents are in dollars and groceries at import prices. And the car is a sum of its own, with an ownership requirement of twelve months as the hinge. Work it out with your own choices.

Step 1.4

Take the decision together

Lead time:
no fixed one; take your time
Costs:
none

Bonaire feels like coming home in the sun — and four things deserve an honest conversation. The price level: wages are well below the Dutch level while electricity, rent and groceries are above it; the minimum wage wasn't raised by tens of percent in two years for nothing. The scale: one hospital, one secondary school, and studying means your children leaving. The language: Papiamentu is the everyday language, and whoever learns it belongs sooner. And the distance: family is a nine-hour flight away, with five to six hours' time difference. Also discuss who carries the income in the first months — without a safety net that question weighs heavier than ever.

Step 1.6

Choose your target date

Lead time:
five minutes, below
Costs:
none

Choose below the date on which you want to be standing on Bonaire. The step-by-step plan works out whether that's feasible with what still has to happen — and says so honestly if it gets tight. A target date is yours: you can always move it, and moving it is a perfectly good outcome.

Phase 1 read

You know what you're getting into. Now the arranging begins.

You've read phase 1 of the step-by-step plan for Bonaire. The full plan has another 30 steps ready for you: Winding up the Netherlands, The move, Registration on Bonaire and Arrival.

The plan counts everything back from your departure date, watches your deadlines and documents, and shows only the steps that apply to you.

The step-by-step plan for Bonaire

€ 299

one-off · no subscription · instant access

Continue with the full plan · € 299

Also included: deadlines watched · documents with expiry dates · only your steps · your partner ticks along · all cancellation letters · questions to Auke.

✎ Auke reads along

Stuck somewhere? Ask your question at the step. Auke reads it himself and answers within two working days.

Not ready yet? Send yourself your date and phase 1 →

Phase 2 · Winding up the Netherlands0 of 14 steps open

Here the mistake bites hardest: because Bonaire is "the Netherlands", nobody expects anything to stop — but the health insurance, the AOW accrual and all the allowances do end, and the protective assessment falls under the stricter non-EU regime. Two windfalls stand against that: your AOW goes with you at the full rate, and Bonaire may tax it as your country of residence — at the milder BES rate.

  1. 2.1Arrange your healthcare: cancel with proof, and insure the transitioncancel as of the emigration date; arrange bridging cover in advance
  2. 2.2AOW and pension: the accrual stops, the benefit travels wellan afternoon of research, and one conversation with a tax adviser
  3. 2.3The protective assessment: the strict regime applies hereprepare now; the assessment comes after the emigration year
  4. 2.4Stopping allowances: all of them, and yourselfan hour, online
  5. 2.5Deregister — and take the proof with youpossible from 5 days before departure, up to and including the day of departure
  6. 2.6DigiD, Berichtenbox and the bank: arrange it nowan afternoon
  7. 2.7Documents: recent certificates, no apostille1-2 weeks for requesting extracts
  8. 2.8Partner comes along without a job of their ownonly if this applies to you
  9. 2.9Living partly in the Netherlands: the eight-month ruleonly if this applies to you
  10. 2.10The house in the Netherlands: sell, rent out or keeponly if this applies to you
  11. 2.11Children staying in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the houseonly if this applies to you
  12. 2.12Cancel what stops: job, rent, energy, subscriptions and schoolstart three months before departure; most notice periods are one month
  13. 2.13Stay reachable: DigiD, your phone number, your bank and your postarrange it before you leave; afterwards it takes weeks
  14. 2.14Student debt, remote work or your own business: what moves with youreport it before you leave; the consequences run for years
Open all steps · € 299
Phase 3 · The move0 of 3 steps open

The crossing is the big expense, and customs wants its papers in advance: the exemption permit for the household contents, the twelve-month sum for the car, and for the dog a vaccination clock of three weeks. Whoever plans this in parallel with phase 2 doesn't lose a month.

  1. 3.1The container: apply for the exemption before shippingquotes 4-6 weeks ahead; sailing 3-8 weeks
  2. 3.2The car: the twelve-month sumonly if this applies to you
  3. 3.3The pet: three weeks' clock, no titre testonly if this applies to you
Phase 4 · Registration on Bonaire0 of 6 steps open

The chain is strict in order and in pace: home → IND declaration → register within five days with the whole family → sédula → health insurance → bank. The declaration takes two months on average; the registration clock after it counts five days. Plan nothing through it.

  1. 4.1Find your home: scarce, in dollarscount on weeks to months; start before departure
  2. 4.2The declaration of admission by operation of lawthe IND aims for 2 months; legally at most 6
  3. 4.3Within five days: register at Burgerzakenthe clock is five days after the IND approval
  4. 4.4The sédula: your identity card, carried from the age of twelveapplication after registration; ± 2 weeks' delivery time
  5. 4.5Register with the health insurance — which otherwise runs by itselfa counter visit as soon as the sédula or declaration is there
  6. 4.6Bank account: the dollar household in order1-2 weeks as soon as the sédula is there
Phase 5 · Arrival0 of 7 steps open

You exist — now the systems run, and almost nothing happens by itself: you have to apply for the child benefit, tax works via a portal of its own, and the car wants clearing within the permit period. After that the island is yours — with one hospital, one secondary school and electricity at fifty cents per kilowatt-hour.

  1. 5.1Clear the container and the carclearance days to 2 weeks after the ship's arrival
  2. 5.2Work: check your contract for what's not in itreading step at the first contract
  3. 5.3Healthcare in practice: the island has limits, the package has wingsreading step
  4. 5.4Family: apply for what doesn't come by itselfonly if this applies to you
  5. 5.5Tax: the system of its own, via the portal of its ownreading step; the return runs via MijnCN
  6. 5.6The dollar household: electricity, water and the exchangearrange contracts in the first week
  7. 5.7Driving licence and the last threads with the Netherlandsreading step

7 of these 30 steps only appear when your answers call for them: a pet, a car, a partner without a job, children staying in the Netherlands. That is the difference between a step-by-step plan and a checklist.

Three questions

Can't I find all this for free?

Yes. Everything in the plan comes from official sources, and they're listed at every step. Phase 1 above is the proof. What you buy is the work around it: which of the 30 following steps apply to you, in which order, with which deadline, and a nudge when something needs doing.

Does this apply to my situation too?

The plan first asks who is coming along, what is coming along and how you're leaving the Netherlands. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear; steps that only apply to you do. Is your situation slightly different from what's written? Ask your question at the step; you'll get an answer within two working days.

What if the rules change after I buy?

Then your plan changes with them. Twice a month we check every source; whatever changes is in your plan the same week, with the date. Your access lasts for your whole departure.

Ready to begin?

The step-by-step plan for Bonaire: 35 steps, your documents and your costs in one place, with the timing watched. Pay once, and it's yours.

Start your step-by-step plan · € 299Read more about Bonaire first