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Step-by-step plan · No visa required

The step-by-step plan for Estonia

From "we want this" to being settled, in 32 steps. Read phase 1 in full here. Test your departure date along the way. Then you'll know whether you want the rest.

32 steps5 phases56 official sources8 only for your situationchecked on 9 September 2026

Phase 1 starts below ↓The whole plan: € 199 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 Estonia: the current phase, the open steps, the next step and the deadline bar.

The route

  1. Orientation

    5 steps

    Open · You are here

  2. Closing the Netherlands

    14 steps

    In your plan

  3. The move

    3 steps

    In your plan

  4. Registration in Estonia

    5 steps

    In your plan

  5. Arrival

    5 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

Administratively, Estonia is the lightest country on this site — if you know the order. One registration gives you five years' right of residence, and the ID card that follows it is the key to almost every service. This phase teaches you how that system fits together, and clears up one persistent misunderstanding straight away.

By the end of phase 1 you know what free movement arranges for you, how the Estonian digital system works, roughly what the journey costs, and whether the family stands behind the decision.

Step 1.1

Understand what free movement arranges — and what e-Residency is not

Lead time:
reading step
Costs:
none

As a Dutch citizen you need no visa and no permit: you may enter Estonia and stay there freely for three months. If you stay longer, you register your place of residence — and that one registration gives you the temporary right of residence, valid for five years and automatically extended after that as long as your address in Estonia stays registered. No application, no assessment, no quota.

And then the misunderstanding that clings to this destination: e-Residency is not a right of residence. Estonia sells a digital identity worldwide with which you run an Estonian company remotely — a fine product, but it doesn't give you the right to live there, and as an emigrant you don't need it either. Whoever really moves gets an ordinary ID card that can do everything the e-Residency card can, and more.

Checked against the official source

The official sources for this step

Step 1.2

Know the digital system: the ID card is the key

Lead time:
reading step
Costs:
none

Estonia is the only country in the world with almost its entire government online: tax returns, prescriptions, your medical file, the population register, a legally valid signature — everything runs on the ID card with PIN codes. That changes the nature of this journey: where in Spain or Germany you go from counter to counter, in Estonia you do almost everything digitally after one physical visit to the PPA for your card.

The flip side: without that card you barely exist administratively. The order of phase 4 — residence, card, then the rest — is therefore not a suggestion but the path. What you can already do now: bear in mind that every service you'll need later (bank, healthcare, school) leans on this card, and plan the PPA visit as the first appointment after arrival.

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 here costs tens of euros: the registration is free, the ID card € 45 per adult. The money is in the move over 2,100 kilometres, the deposit and the first months — and since 2025 in an item many guides don't know yet: the Estonian motor vehicle tax, with a one-off registration fee if you bring your car. Work it out with your own choices before you start on anything.

Step 1.4

Take the decision together

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

Estonia is close on paper and far in practice: 2,100 kilometres, a language related to nothing except Finnish, and a winter that's darker than the Dutch one — in December it's dusk in Tallinn at half past three. On the other side: English works excellently in the cities, the digital government saves months of hassle, and nature begins where the city ends. Discuss it honestly, including the question of how often you want to go back — driving is two days, flying goes via a connection or a low-cost carrier to Riga.

Step 1.6

Choose your target date

Lead time:
one moment, and it may shift later
Costs:
none

Set a date on which you want to have left. Not because it's fixed, but because the two clocks of this journey — fourteen days for your address, five working days for the car — only take on meaning against a departure date, and because the housing search is the only real unknown.

Vertrekklaar works out for you whether it fits, and says so honestly if it doesn't. Shifting is always allowed — the date is yours, not the tool's.

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 Estonia. The full plan has another 27 steps ready for you: Closing the Netherlands, The move, Registration in Estonia 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 Estonia

€ 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 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 · Closing the Netherlands0 of 14 steps open

The familiar closing list — with one Estonian windfall almost nobody knows: the lowest healthcare contribution of all corridors on this site for whoever is insured via the CAK.

  1. 2.1Arrange your healthcare: report, and the lowest country-of-residence factor on the sitestart 3 months before departure
  2. 2.2AOW and pension: what continues and what stopsan afternoon of research; registering is possible up to 1 year after departure
  3. 2.3The tax wind-up: M return, and a treaty without a country pagepreparation now; the return follows after the emigration year
  4. 2.4Stopping child benefit and allowancesreport as soon as the moving date is fixed
  5. 2.5Deregister with the municipality — on the departure day itself15 minutes at the counter or online
  6. 2.6DigiD, bank and your vote: keep the lines with the Netherlandsan evening
  7. 2.7Documents: multilingual extracts, no apostille needed1-2 weeks
  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 · € 199
Phase 3 · The move0 of 3 steps open

Within the EU moving isn't a customs matter — the move itself is here mainly a logistical sum over 2,100 kilometres. The real pitfall is the car, because the Estonian arithmetic on that dates from 2025 and almost every guide is older.

  1. 3.1Plan the move: no customs, but 2,100 kilometresquotes 1-2 weeks; plan 6-8 weeks ahead
  2. 3.2The car: the arithmetic is new, and it starts before departureonly if this applies to you
  3. 3.3The pet: EU passport, doneonly if this applies to you
Phase 4 · Registration in Estonia0 of 5 steps open

One registration opens everything, but the order matters: first a home, then register the address, then the ID card — and with that card the rest of this journey consists mainly of logging in.

  1. 4.1Find your home — the registration is waiting for itweeks to months; start before departure
  2. 4.2Register your place of residence: within 14 days, and it opens everythingonline in minutes, at the counter in a quarter of an hour
  3. 4.3The ID card: apply within a month, and then everything is possibleapplication in person at the PPA; card ready within a few weeks
  4. 4.4Connect the healthcare: via your work, or via the CAKthe employer arranges the registration; cover after a 14-day waiting period
  5. 4.5Open a bank account — with your ID card it's a small jobwith an ID card often the same week
Phase 5 · Arrival0 of 5 steps open

The last counters — of which in Estonia only one is a real counter. The car has the tightest deadline of the whole journey; the rest is logging in with your new card.

  1. 5.1The car on Estonian plates: five working daysonly if this applies to you
  2. 5.2Taxes: the flat tax, and a return in minutesreading step now; the first return comes in February
  3. 5.3School: enrol with the municipality, and weigh the language honestlyonly if this applies to you
  4. 5.4Your driving licence: nothing is required, exchanging is allowedno action needed until your driving licence expires
  5. 5.5Choose a GP and get to know the e-health systemregister with a perearst with an open list

8 of these 27 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 27 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 Estonia: 32 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 · € 199Read more about Estonia first