Dominican Republic · Visa required
Emigrating to the Dominican Republic
For the Dominican Republic you apply for a residence visa at the consulate general in The Hague, and within thirty days of arrival for your residence at the DGM. With a pension of 1,500 dollars a month that's well within reach. What's harder is what isn't there: no tax treaty, no AOW treaty and no healthcare treaty. So the Netherlands keeps taxing, a policy replaces the CAK, and whoever goes alone gets the lower AOW for married people.
€ 399 one-off · 35 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Residence visa at the consulate in The Hague, then residence at the DGM
- The clock
- The visa can be used for 60 days; within 30 days of arrival to the DGM
- Note
- No tax treaty and no treaty country: the Netherlands keeps taxing, a policy instead of the CAK, and for a single person the married rate of the AOW
Last updated: 15 October 2026
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Five phases, from the consulate to the first renewal
This journey turns on one law and three clocks. The law is Ley 171-07, for whoever comes with a pension or lives off capital: 1,500 or 2,000 dollars a month, and that income is exempt from Dominican tax once the finance ministry approves it. The clocks are the sixty days in which you must use the visa, the thirty days after arrival for the DGM, and the year after which you renew your card. On top of that there's what the brochure doesn't mention: the Netherlands has no tax treaty, no social security treaty and no healthcare treaty with this country.
- Orientation
Pensionado, rentista or investor, and a country outside every treaty list
In this phase you learn how living in the Dominican Republic works, and what it does to your income and your healthcare. Whoever comes with a pension becomes a pensionado at 1,500 dollars a month. Whoever lives off capital, also before the AOW age, becomes a rentista at 2,000 dollars, secured for at least five years. Both go through the DGM's desk for investors, without temporary residence first. There is no tax treaty: the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW and pension, and you get no tax credit. There is no healthcare treaty, so no CAK, the body that arranges your healthcare in treaty countries. And whoever goes alone gets the AOW for married people.Read more
- Your visa
A pension statement with an apostille, and an application in The Hague
In this phase you apply at the consulate general in The Hague for the Visa de Residencia. You show your pension or your fixed income, with a statement from each payer: your details, your length of service, your position and the amount. With it come your birth certificate, your marriage certificate and a certificate of conduct. Everything gets an apostille, which has only worked between the Netherlands and the Dominican Republic since 2017, and a sworn Spanish translation. The fees are 200 dollars. The ministry in Santo Domingo decides, in 10 to 20 working days. Then the visa can be used for sixty days, for one entry.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
No treaty, no CAK, and the married rate
In this phase you work through the familiar list for closing down in the Netherlands, and with this country it weighs heavily. There is no tax treaty. So the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW, your government pension, your occupational pension and your annuity, and there's no exemption from payroll tax. On the Dominican side your pension is exempt from tax, if Hacienda approves the exemption. There is no CAK, so your policy has to be accepted before you deregister. Whoever goes alone gets the AOW for married people. And whoever leaves before the AOW age builds up no more AOW: within one year you can insure yourself voluntarily.Read more
- The move
Household goods free of duties, and a car at most five years old
In this phase you move the household goods, the car and the pet. As a pensionado or rentista you import personal and household goods free of import duties, with your residence card or the DGM's approval letter. That exemption applies only to the main applicant. For the car there's a hard limit: a used car may only enter the country if it is at most five years old, and the vehicle year closes on 30 June. If it's young enough, Ley 171-07 gives a partial exemption. The pet needs a health certificate from an examination within 72 hours before departure, endorsed by an official vet, and a rabies vaccination between thirty days and twelve months old.Read more
- Arrival in the Dominican Republic
Thirty days to the DGM, then cédula, bank, healthcare, licence and the renewal
In this phase you arrange your residence, your numbers, your bank and your healthcare after landing. Within thirty days you file your application with the DGM, with a medical examination and a guarantee policy. Then you get your cédula at the JCE, the Dominican identity card. You open an account into which your pension is paid, because at the renewal you prove that. You exchange your driving licence at INTRANT, for 1,900 pesos. You register with the DGII, and before 31 March you file your first return. If you buy land to build on yourself, you first request its legal status from the land registry. After a year you renew your card.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Dominican Republic journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 3.2 of your plan
Know where you pay tax: without a treaty the Netherlands keeps its tax
- Lead time
- one good conversation with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours, depending on your situation
In this step you find out which country taxes which income. For most destinations a treaty divides that. Here there is none.
What that means under Dutch law:
- AOW and a government pension are benefits from a Dutch public body. They stay taxed in the Netherlands.
- Occupational pension and annuity whose premiums you once deducted stay taxed in the Netherlands too.
- An exemption from payroll tax, as you apply for it in a treaty country, has no basis here. So your pension fund and the SVB withhold payroll tax.
Two things change for you:
- No tax credit. Whoever lives in a country like the Dominican Republic is, according to the Belastingdienst, only entitled to the entrepreneur's deduction and the tax-free capital in box 3. That changes your net pension.
- Your savings. A Dutch bank account or an annuity insurance taken out in the Netherlands is no longer taxed in box 3. Real estate in the Netherlands is.
Take this list to a tax adviser and have them calculate what you'll have left net. You need that number before you give notice on your rental.
What this step rests on
- NederlandWereldwijd — no tax treaty with your country of residence, then the Netherlands has the right to tax
- Belastingdienst — Verdragsstaten IB niet-ingezetenen, January 2026
- Income Tax Act 2001, article 7.2 paragraph 2 under d and e — pension, annuity and public-law benefits of a non-resident taxpayer
- Belastingdienst — which deductions and credits you have if you live outside the Netherlands
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Dominican Republic.
This is step 3.2 of 35. The other 34 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 35 steps for Dominican RepublicEvery step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Dominican Republic: 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 Dominican Republic 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 Dominican Republic 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 Dominican Republic? 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 Dominican Republic 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 the Dominican Republic
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Healthcare in the Dominican Republic: no CAK, no S1, so you insure yourselfThe Netherlands has no healthcare treaty with the Dominican Republic, so there is no CAK route and no S1 form. Your Dutch basic insurance ends when you leave. The Dominican system is open to foreigners with legal residence, but runs mainly through an employer. For those who come without a job, the public insurer SeNaSa offers a voluntary plan, and the migration service itself asks for insurance.
- Residence routes to the Dominican Republic: first the visa in The Hague, then the card in Santo DomingoAnyone who wants to live in the Dominican Republic applies for a residence visa at the Dominican consulate in the Netherlands, then arranges the residence card with the migration service on the spot. For retirees and people with a steady income from assets there is a separate law, with an income test of 1,500 or 2,000 dollars a month. The visa can be used for 60 days, and after arrival you have 30 days.
- Working in the Dominican Republic: the work visa, the 80 percent rule and what a pensionado may doAnyone coming to work for a Dominican employer applies in the Netherlands for a work visa, the NM1, and the employer has the contract registered with the Ministry of Labour. At least 80% of a company's staff must be Dominican, with exceptions for managers and technicians. Pensionados and rentistas may do paid work, but they simply pay tax on their wages.
- AOW, pension and tax in the Dominican Republic: no treaty, so the Netherlands keeps taxingThe Netherlands has no tax treaty with the Dominican Republic. So the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW state pension, your occupational pension and your annuity, without exemption and usually without tax credits. The Dominican Republic does not tax a foreign pension, and those who fall under the law for pensionados also get that in writing. And outside a treaty country a single person receives the AOW for married people.
- Car and driving licence in the Dominican Republic: five years old is the limit, and you convert your licence in Santo DomingoA used car may only enter the Dominican Republic if it is at most five years old, and the vehicle year closes every year on 30 June. Pensionados and rentistas get a partial exemption from import duties for one car. Your Dutch driving licence is valid in the country; as a resident you convert it at the INTRANT in Santo Domingo, for RD$ 1,900.
- Your dog or cat to the Dominican Republic: a health certificate, rabies and 72 hoursA dog or cat may enter the Dominican Republic with a health certificate from a veterinarian, signed by an official veterinarian in the country of departure. The rabies vaccination must be at least 30 days and at most 12 months old, and the examination takes place in the 72 hours before departure. In the Netherlands that means an appointment with the NVWA.
All 13 articles about Dominican Republic
- Your household goods to the Dominican Republic: free of import duty, once, and only if you stay
- Bank and payments in the Dominican Republic: your pension must demonstrably come in
- The first weeks in the Dominican Republic: thirty days for the migration service, and what comes next
- Buying land or a house in the Dominican Republic: title certificate, survey and 3% transfer tax
- Renting in the Dominican Republic: the new 2025 tenancy law, rule by rule
- School in the Dominican Republic: first have the Dutch school reports recognised
- Registration in the Dominican Republic: residence card, cédula and RNC, in that order
Also applies to your move
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The step-by-step plan for Dominican Republic: 35 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.