- Lead time:
- three evenings, and weeks to let it sink in
- Costs:
- none
With this step you look together at whether Estonia suits you. You end up
with a few conditions on paper that you both stand behind.
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 Estonia? 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 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.
On paper Estonia is close, in practice far away. What can make it hard:
- It is 2,100 kilometres away.
- The winter is darker than the Dutch one. In December it's dusk in Tallinn at half past three.
What's on the other side:
- The digital government saves months of hassle.
- Nature begins where the city ends.
Discuss it honestly. Talk as well about how often you want to go back.
Driving takes two days. Flying goes via a connection, or with a low-cost
carrier to Riga.
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 can both see what's done.
Is one of you going without an income of your own? Whoever lives in
Estonia 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 who carries the income in
the first months, whether the partner without an income 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. If you're both Dutch, each of you lives in Estonia in your
own right. If your partner has a nationality from outside the EU, they
live there as your family member. If they stay longer than three months,
they get a residence card of their own. A spouse always counts as a family
member, a registered partner if Estonia treats that partnership as
equivalent to marriage. If you live together unmarried, you prove a durable relationship
and Estonia assesses it itself.
In healthcare too, marriage counts. Whoever is within five years of
retirement age and is maintained by an insured spouse is treated in
Estonia as equivalent to an insured person. Check at your healthcare
further on in your plan what else 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 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 Estonia every child gets a school place, usually at a school near your
home address. You arrange it with the municipality. Most schools teach in
Estonian.
Who learns the language, and when? Estonian is related to nothing,
except Finnish. English works excellently in the cities, but at school the
language is mostly Estonian. Often the partner without work needs the
language most, and precisely that partner has no colleagues to practise
with. Plan it together, preferably before you leave.
