The step-by-step plan for England

In this step you learn how the route to England works. That way you know straight away whether there's a way in for you, and which ways there aren't.

There's no free movement to the United Kingdom anymore: as a Dutch citizen you can't simply live and work there. The main route is the Skilled Worker visa, the visa for skilled employees. It works in a fixed order:

• First you get a confirmed job offer from an employer that the Home Office (the British interior ministry) has recognised as a sponsor.
• Only then do you apply for the visa.

GOV.UK, the British government's website, says it literally: you must have a job offer before you apply. So whoever wants to move first and look for a job afterwards has no route in this corridor.

For some people there's a different route:

• If you work in healthcare, look at the Health and Care Worker variant. The fees are lower and you pay no health surcharge (IHS, the Immigration Health Surcharge). If you go as a care worker or senior care worker, your partner and children can usually not come along as dependants, family members on your visa.
• If you're a recognised leader in science, culture or tech, there's Global Talent.

And what there isn't: a working holiday or youth route for Dutch citizens. The Youth Mobility Scheme isn't open to EU citizens, whatever older blogs claim.

In this step you see whether your occupation qualifies and whether the pay in your field is high enough. If the wage English employers pay in your field doesn't meet the threshold, you know that now. And not after months of applying.

The visa sets two requirements at once:

• Your occupation is on the list of eligible occupations. As a rule that's work at degree level (in British terms RQF 6).
• Your salary is at least £41,700 a year, or the going rate for your occupation code if that's higher. The going rate is the usual wage for that occupation.

Look up your occupation in the official list. It's about the task description, not your Dutch job title.

The thresholds were raised sharply in July 2025. So don't count with amounts from older sites. Lower thresholds exist: £33,400 for new entrants under 26 and for occupations on the Immigration Salary List, the list of shortage occupations. Even then the going-rate test still applies.

In the list, also look at the level next to your occupation code:

• Higher skilled. Then you can apply for the visa, and your partner and children can come along as dependants.
• Medium skilled. Then the visa is only possible if your occupation is also on the Immigration Salary List or the Temporary Shortage List (a temporary list of shortage occupations). And then your partner and children can usually not come along from abroad.

In this step you learn what English the visa asks for and how you prove it.

Since 8 January 2026 the Skilled Worker visa asks for English at level B2. At that level you hold a conversation independently and fluently. Many sites still mention B1, but that's outdated.

Dutch citizens aren't exempt. The exemption list only has countries where the majority speaks English.

You prove the level in one of these ways:

• With a SELT test (Secure English Language Test) at an approved provider.
• With a degree (a higher-education qualification) taught entirely in English. You have that confirmed by Ecctis, the British body that assesses foreign qualifications.

In this phase you don't have to book anything yet. But do know that the test is on your path. Later it sits on the critical path of your application: the application can only move on once the result is in.

In this step you see what the journey will cost you. That way the job offer that comes later can be a real decision financially too.

The English route has one cost item everyone underestimates: the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS). That's a health surcharge you pay with your visa. It's £1,035 per adult per year, and you pay it up front for the whole visa duration.

For a family of four coming for five years that alone is well over £18,000. That comes on top of the fees, the language test, the move and the first months' rent.

The calculator works with your own choices and shows where the big amounts are.

In this step you decide together whether you're going. You end up with a few conditions on paper that you both stand behind. This is the moment to still be able to say no. After phase 2 that costs money.

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, with a week in between:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find in England? 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: starting again with a new school, new healthcare and a new network? What do we do if it disappoints?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What has to be arranged 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 sheet.

England comes with one question that needs to be on the table. The residence hangs on one job. Which of you carries the visa, and with it that job? And what does it mean if that job stops?

Divide the work. Agree who takes on which part of this plan: the papers for the visa, 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 can both see what's done.

Is one of you going without an income of your own? Whoever lives in England and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW. For every year you're not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. From the moment you're no longer insured, you have one year to take out voluntary insurance with the SVB. Also discuss whether that partner keeps an account and money of their own, and how you decide together on big expenses.

Married, registered or living together? It can make a difference for your partner's residence permit, for co-insurance in healthcare and for inheritance. Your partner and children under 18 can come along as dependants: family members on your visa. That applies with a job listed as higher skilled on the occupation list. If your job is listed as medium skilled, or you're going to work as a care worker or senior care worker, your partner and children can usually not come along from abroad. GOV.UK then names only two exceptions:

• You have already been continually employed in the UK on this visa in such a job: for medium skilled since before 22 July 2025, as a care worker since before 11 March 2024.
• It concerns a child born in the UK.

Anyone leaving the Netherlands now usually doesn't fall under these. So check this point at your occupation code too, before you apply for jobs.

As a partner counts a marriage or registered partnership that is recognised in the UK. If you're not married or registered, you show in the application that you've been living together for at least two years. Or that you've been in a relationship for two years but can't live together for a good reason. For dependants the following also applies:

• Each family member pays their own fees and their own IHS.
• There's an additional funds requirement: £285 for your partner, £315 for the first child and £200 per further child.
• Your partner may work freely in the UK.
• In the dependant requirements GOV.UK mentions no language requirement. That lies only with you as the main applicant.

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

• Up to about four: tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed habits, like 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, like their room.
• Teenagers: involve them in the decision itself. For them, saying goodbye to friends weighs heaviest. Agree how they keep in touch and when they see their friends again.

In England most children start school in the September after their fourth birthday. You apply for a place through the local council, the council where you're going to live. You can already do that from the Netherlands.

Who learns the language, and when? In England everything is in English: the GP, the school, the neighbours. The language requirement only applies to you. Still, the partner without work often needs the language most, and precisely that partner has no colleagues to practise with. Is the English of one of you rusty? Then plan together how to brush it up, preferably before you leave.

Choose below the date on which you want to be in England. The step-by-step plan works out whether that's feasible with what still has to happen. If it gets tight, it says so honestly.

Be realistic about the one part that can't be planned: the job search with a licensed sponsor, a recognised employer. The visa itself is surprisingly fast after that.

A target date is yours: you can always move it, and moving it is a perfectly fine outcome.