Leaving from Belgium?To the Belgian plan →See the plan for Belgians moving to Cyprus →This plan is for people leaving the Netherlands.

Step-by-step plan · No visa required

The step-by-step plan for Cyprus

From "we want this" to being settled, in 37 steps. Read phase 1 in full here. Test your departure date along the way. Then you'll know whether you want the rest.

37 steps5 phases65 official sources10 only for your situationchecked on 14 October 2026

Phase 1 starts below ↓The whole plan: € 199 one-off, no subscription.

A plan that keeps track of 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 and your partner tick off what is done. The plan counts back from your departure date and shows 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 Cyprus: the current phase, the open steps, the next step and the deadline bar.

The route

Orientation
5 steps
Open · You are here
Closing the Netherlands
15 steps
In your plan
The move
3 steps
In your plan
Registration in Cyprus
6 steps
In your plan
Arrival
8 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

This phase puts reality next to the brochure. Cyprus is five hours' flying, they speak English at every counter, and the island is famous for its tax. But the new tax treaty with the Netherlands has overtaken the brochures. The island is divided. And water is scarcer there than the sun suggests.

By the end of phase 1 you know the Cypriot chain: the steps you take in a fixed order. You know what the 2021 treaty does to the 5% scheme, the Cypriot flat rate on foreign pension. The choice of region has been made, and the family stands behind the decision.

Doing this together?

Invite your partner with a link. You then each tick your own steps, on your own phone or laptop, and see at every step whether the other has already done it. No account needed.

We only store which step numbers you ticked, under a random code. No name, no email. Anyone with the link can see the ticks. After six months without use we delete it.

Step 1.1

Understand the system: the yellow slip, within four months

Lead time:: reading step
Costs:: none

With this step you know what you have to arrange in Cyprus, and in what order.

As an EU citizen you need no permit. If you stay longer than three months, you do have to register. That gives you a certificate everyone calls the yellow slip.

This is how the application works:

You use form MEU1, at the immigration service of your district.
You do it within four months of arrival.
You go in person, by appointment.
It costs € 20 per person.

Registering late can result in a fine. The slip itself never expires after that.

One Cypriot peculiarity is mentioned by almost no site. For the appointment you need proof of address: your rental contract. That contract only counts once a certifying officer has certified the signatures of landlord and tenant (officially confirmed them). A stamp from the tax office is no longer needed since 1 January 2026, because the stamp duty law was abolished then. So the order is: first the home, then the certification, then the appointment. The step-by-step plan holds that order for you.

The MEU1 and the yellow slip: registering in Cyprus

Checked against the official source

The official sources for this step

Done

Step 1.2

Choose your Cyprus: Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos — and why not the north

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

With this step you choose where on the island you're going to live. Every city has its own character.

Limassol is the engine: shipping, fintech, the highest rents.
Larnaca is the sober middle way, with the biggest airport.
Paphos is the west where many pensioners live: cheaper, greener, British-tinted.
Nicosia is the capital, without sea.

And then the north. Since 1974 the island has been divided. The north is recognised only by Turkey and is no option for this route. There are two reasons for that.

Property in the north often rests on land of owners who fled. You never buy such a house legally safely.
If you enter via Ercan, the airport in the north, the Republic of Cyprus counts that as illegal entry.

Crossing over for a day is simply possible, at the official checkpoints. But live and buy in the south.

Checked against the official source

The official sources for this step

European Commission — the Green Line Regulation

Done

Step 1.3

Get a picture of what it's going to cost

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

In this step you see what the move is going to cost you. The paperwork is cheap here: € 20 per yellow slip.

The money goes mainly to three things:

The home. Limassol is by far the most expensive city, Paphos the cheapest.
The crossing of everything that doesn't fit in a suitcase: a container via the port of Limassol, or the summer ferry for the car.
The international school, if children are coming along.

Work it out with your own choices in the calculator.

Your budget, worked out

Done

Step 1.4

Take the decision together

Lead time:: three evenings, and weeks to let it sink in
Costs:: none

With this step you decide together whether it will be Cyprus. Cyprus feels like an eternal summer, but a few things deserve an honest conversation before you decide.

Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings. 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 on Cyprus? 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 are we dreading most? What do we do if it disappoints?
Evening 3, the conditions. What has to be in place for each of us to say yes? When do we check together whether it's going well, for example after six and after twelve months? And what would be a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. On the kitchen-table card it all fits on one A4.

On those evenings, take these four points along too:

The water. The island recently went through the worst drought since records began. It runs largely on desalination: seawater made drinkable. Being frugal is a lifestyle there, not a campaign.
The summer heat. The interior reaches forty degrees, for months.
The distance. Five hours' flying is no weekend back.
The scale. There are no trains and buses are limited. Without a car you live on an island that's bigger than it looks.

Also discuss who earns the income in the first months.

Divide the work. Agree who takes on which part of this plan: the papers, 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 your own? Whoever lives on Cyprus and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW, the Dutch state pension. For every 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 an account and money of their own, and how you decide together on large expenses.

Married, registered or living together? That can make a difference for your partner's residence permit, for co-insurance in healthcare and for inheritance. Check at the registration and at your healthcare further on in your plan what applies to you.

Are children coming? How you tell them depends on their age:

Up to about four. Tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed routines, such as 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, such as their room.
Teenagers. Involve them in the decision itself. For them, saying goodbye to friends weighs the most. Agree how they keep in touch and when they'll see their friends again.

On Cyprus you choose between free public education in Greek and a private school in English. What that costs, and when you enrol, is in the article about school with this step.

Who learns the language, and when? At the counters you get by widely in English. But the public school is Greek-speaking, and with it the playground and the parents' evening. Often the partner without work needs the language most, and that's exactly the one without colleagues to practise with. Plan it together, preferably before you leave.

Checked against the official source

The official sources for this step

SVB — you are going to live or work outside the Netherlands: 2% less AOW per uninsured year, and voluntary insurance within a year

Done

Step 1.6

Choose your target date

Lead time:: five minutes, below
Costs:: none

Choose below the date on which you want to be in Cyprus. The step-by-step plan works out whether that's feasible with what still has to happen.

From that moment it watches the deadlines that exist: four months for the yellow slip, the days around the car registration, and if you're buying the six months to deposit the purchase contract with the Land Registry, the Cypriot land register.

When do you want to leave for Cyprus?

Is your situation slightly different?

A partner who stays in the Netherlands, work that carries on, a house you keep, children who stay at school here: I'm happy to talk those through, even before you have the plan. Email me what's going on for you. I read it myself and reply within two working days.

If you then take the plan, I'll work what we discussed into your personal plan.

Email me about your situation → info@vertrekklaar.nl

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

You've read phase 1 of the step-by-step plan for Cyprus. The full plan has another 32 steps ready for you: Closing the Netherlands, The move, Registration in Cyprus and Arrival.

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

The step-by-step plan for Cyprus

€ 199

one-off · no subscription · instant access

Continue with the full plan · € 199

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

✎ I read along

Stuck somewhere? Ask your question at the step. I read it myself and answer within two working days. Or talk to me for fifteen minutes. Usually within a day of that call your situation is in the plan.

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

Phase 2 · Closing the Netherlands0 of 15 steps open

In this phase you wind things up in the Netherlands: the familiar list, with one important lesson about the tax treaty. Until 2024 the Netherlands had no treaty with Cyprus. The new treaty has a threshold of € 15,000. Above it, the Netherlands may keep taxing your whole pension plus AOW. The famous 5% scheme is thereby an empty shell for most Dutch people. What remains is still worth it: no Cypriot inheritance tax, non-dom status for your assets (a favourable arrangement for the income from them, explained later in the plan), and one of the lowest cost levels in the eurozone. Only Dutch inheritance tax still follows a Dutch national for ten years.

2.1Arrange your healthcare: the basic insurance stops on moving daystart 2-3 months before departure; the CAK application takes about 4 weeks
2.2Pension and the new treaty: the € 15,000 thresholdthe sum is an evening; work it out before every decision
2.3The tax wind-up: M return and the protective assessmentthe M return follows in the year after departure
2.4Stop allowances and child benefitan hour
2.5Deregister with the municipalitypossible from 5 days before departure, up to and including departure day
2.6DigiD, bank and your vote: keep the lines to the Netherlandsan afternoon
2.7Documents: multilingual extractsextracts within a week
2.8Partner comes along without a job of their ownonly if this applies to you
2.9Partly staying in the Netherlands: the eight-month ruleonly if this applies to you
2.10The house in the Netherlands: sell, let or keeponly if this applies to you
2.11Children staying in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the houseonly if this applies to you
2.12Cancel what stops: job, rent, energy, subscriptions and schoolstart three months before departure; most notice periods are one month
2.15Prepare your child for the moveonly if this applies to you
2.13Stay reachable: DigiD, your phone number, your bank and your postarrange it before you leave; afterwards it takes weeks
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 · € 199

Phase 3 · The move0 of 3 steps open

You reach Cyprus in five hours' flying. But everything that doesn't fit in a suitcase goes by sea: the household goods by container via Limassol. The car comes with a peculiarity: the passenger ferry from Greece only sails in the summer season. And the island drives on the left. That weighs in the question of whether the car should come at all.

3.1Plan the journey: flying for you, the sea for the restquotes 4-6 weeks ahead; the ferry only in the summer season
3.2The car: driving on the left, and the question of whether it should comeonly if this applies to you
3.3The pet: EU passport and a chip that can be readonly if this applies to you

Phase 4 · Registration in Cyprus0 of 6 steps open

This phase has a fixed order, and it only works that way: first the home, then the certified signatures on the rental contract, and only then the appointment for the MEU1, your registration as a resident. After that come the tax number via Tax For All, healthcare via GeSY and the bank, which has checked everything twice since 2013. You have four months. That's ample, but the appointment diaries aren't.

4.1Find your home and have the signatures certifiedsearching 2-6 weeks; the certification is a counter visit
4.2The MEU1: the yellow slip, within four monthsthe appointment is the wait; the slip follows with a complete file
4.3The tax number: the TIC via Tax For Allonline; count on days to a few weeks
4.4GeSY: register and choose a GPthe registration is digital; the choice of GP decides your access
4.5The bank account: expect questions, and have the answers readydays to weeks, depending on the file
4.6Utilities and the proof of residencea week

Phase 5 · Arrival0 of 8 steps open

The papers are in; now it becomes a life. The car gets a Cypriot number plate and the return its annual pension choice. And the island has its own lessons. Never buy without checking the title deed, the proof of ownership. Cross the Green Line, the dividing line with the north, only at the checkpoints. And learn to live with water as a precious thing.

5.1The car: registering at the DRTonly if this applies to you
5.2Work: Limassol pays, the rest is modestongoing
5.3Tax in practice: the annual choice and the non-domthe return follows annually via Tax For All
5.4Family: school in English or Greekonly if this applies to you
5.5Buying: never without a title deed checkwhen the time comes; the deposit clock stands at six months
5.6The divided island: the rules of the Green Linereading step
5.7The small print: water, heat and the rhythmspread over the first year
5.8Help your child settle in: the first monthsonly if this applies to you

10 of these 32 steps only appear when your answers call for them: a pet, a car, a partner without a job, children staying in the Netherlands.

Every step on one list, free

Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Cyprus: 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 Cyprus change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.

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. You can check that yourself in phase 1 above. What you buy is the work around it: which of the 32 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. It then leaves out what doesn't apply to you, and adds what only fits your situation. 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 Cyprus: 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.

Buy the plan for Cyprus · € 199 Read more about Cyprus first