Leaving from Belgium?To the Belgian plan →See the plan for Belgians moving to Finland →This plan is for people leaving the Netherlands.
Finland · No visa required
Emigrating to Finland
For Finland you need no permit, but three registrations in a row: Migri, DVV and Kela. Between them sits a digital catch-22 the regulator itself warns about. Before you decide, do one sum: Finnish car tax has had no relocation exemption since 2015. Here's how the happiest country in the world really works.
€ 199 one-off · 35 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- EU: register, no visa
- The chain
- Migri → henkilötunnus → kotikunta → Kela
- Note
- The car exemption was abolished. Do the sum before you decide
Last updated: 14 October 2026
Will your departure date work? Check it in the free step-by-step plan →
Five phases, from the car sum to the verokortti
In Finland it's all about order and deadlines. You declare the car within five days. Within one month you join a fund (a Finnish unemployment fund), and that saves your Dutch unemployment years. And you go through the registration chain in one round, as long as you keep to the right order.
- Orientation
Three registrations, and one sum up front
In this phase you get to know the Finnish order, and you do the car sum. Finland has no permit but a chain of registrations. At Migri (the Finnish immigration service) you record your right of residence. At DVV (the agency for the Finnish population register) you arrange the kotikunta, your municipality of residence. That opens healthcare and school. At Kela (the Finnish social insurance institution) you arrange your social security. Then that sum, because it makes Finland different: the car tax hasn't had a relocation exemption since 2015. So bringing a petrol car rarely pays, and an electric one almost always does. And you have the honest conversation about the language, the light and the distance.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
The treaty that lets the Netherlands tax too
In this phase you work through the familiar list: healthcare, benefits, deregistration, documents. There's one surprise in it that almost nobody sees coming. The tax treaty from 1995 lets the Netherlands keep up to 20 percent withholding tax on your company pension. Withholding tax is tax the Netherlands deducts up front. Finland taxes as well, as country of residence. The country-of-residence factor (which sets your healthcare contribution via the CAK) is 0.8148. Your certificates travel without an apostille (an extra stamp of authenticity), as a multilingual extract. And if you leave on early retirement, one deadline applies: November 2026.Read more
- The move
No customs, but a sea in between
In this phase you plan the move itself. Within the EU that's administratively nothing, but Finland lies beyond the Baltic. The direct ferry from Travemünde takes a good day. The alternative runs via Sweden. The dog has a Finnish peculiarity: a tapeworm treatment one to five days before arrival, and then into the Finnish dog register within four weeks. And the car gets its calendar: the export at the RDW, the BPM refund (car tax you get back on export), and the thirteen weeks attached to it.Read more
- Registration in Finland
The chain in the right order
In this phase you go through the chain, in a fixed order. First the home: a free market, with a legal deposit of at most three months. Then Migri, where the personal code now comes automatically. Then the kotikunta at DVV. After that you break the catch-22: the bank wants to see your registrations first, the government wants your bank codes online. This is how you get out. You're legally entitled to an account, with a decision within ten banking days. The ID card from the police has a chip you log in with. And the verokortti (the Finnish tax card) prevents your employer from withholding 60%. Whoever knows the order gets through it in one round.Read more
- Arrival
Two deadlines, three healthcare ceilings
In this phase you settle into living and working, and deadlines start running right away. You declare the car within five days, and within three months it's on Finnish plates. Within one month you join a työttömyyskassa, a Finnish unemployment fund. Otherwise your twelve insured months start from zero. After that it's mostly knowing how the system works. Healthcare has three annual ceilings. School is free, with a hot meal. Language training is free as long as you've lived there less than three years. And winter tyres belong in the legal window from November through March.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Finland journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 4.5 of your plan
Bank account: break the catch-22 in the right order
- Lead time
- account within 10 banking days; bank codes after your registrations
- Costs
- none
In this step you arrange a Finnish bank account and the bank codes: your bank's login credentials, which in Finland you also use to log in to the government. Along the way you hit the notorious Finnish catch-22. The online government wants bank codes, and the bank first wants to see your registrations.
Know your rights:
- As a legal EEA resident you're legally entitled to a basic payment account.
- The bank decides within ten banking days.
- The supervisor says explicitly that a henkilötunnus may not be a condition for it.
- The bank may defer only the bank codes themselves, until you're in the population register.
The structural way out is the Finnish ID card from the police. Apply for it as soon as your kotikunta is done. It costs € 59, or € 53 when applied for electronically. The chip carries a citizen certificate. With it you log in to the government, even without a bank.
Your Dutch DigiD works via the European link, but only with a handful of services. Don't count on it.
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Finland.
This is step 4.5 of 37. The other 36 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 37 steps for FinlandWhat you get for € 199
All 37 steps to Finland, for your situation
In order, with the office and the official source at every step. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear.
Your deadlines in one place
For each step you see the latest date to start, and you get a heads-up before something is due or expires. Your documents sit in the vault, with their dates.
A plan that stays right
Twice a month we check the sources. If something changes, it's in your plan and you get a message.
The step-by-step plan for Finland
€ 199
one-off · 37 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Finland: 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 Finland 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.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Finland? 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 Finland 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
On 2 January 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 Finland
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Staying in Finland: EU registration with Migri, and what you have to showAs a Dutch citizen you need no permit in Finland, but if you stay for more than three months, you register your right of residence with Migri: € 53, and only once you live there. What you have to show for each ground, why there is no fixed income threshold, and when your right of residence becomes permanent after five years.
- AOW and pension in Finland: the treaty with the 20% ruleThe tax treaty with Finland dates from 1995 and calculates differently from the newer treaties: the AOW remains taxed exclusively in the Netherlands, but on your occupational pension the Netherlands may keep up to 20 per cent source tax — alongside the Finnish tax as country of residence. What that means for your net monthly income, and which registrations around your pension you have to arrange yourself.
- Your car to Finland: the exemption that no longer existsFinland levies car tax at the first registration, and the relocation reduction has been abolished completely — which many stories still miss. How the autovero calculates, why an electric car stands at 0%, and the clocks that determine the procedure: five days in Finland, thirteen weeks in the Netherlands.
- Your dog or cat to Finland: the tapeworm clock, and the dog register within four weeksWithin the EU your dog or cat travels on the pet passport, with a microchip and a rabies vaccination. Finland adds one requirement for dogs: a tapeworm treatment by a vet abroad, one to five days before arrival. After that the dog must be in the Finnish register within four weeks, and that register asks for Finnish login codes.
- Your household goods to Finland: no customs, but alcohol rules, medicines and the Åland exceptionWhoever moves from the Netherlands to Finland does not have to declare household goods and pays no VAT or customs duty. What does have rules: alcohol, which you must transport yourself, medicines, of which you may bring a year's supply, and the ferry via Åland, where the EU limits for alcohol suddenly no longer apply.
- Banking and paying in Finland: your right to an account, and the bank codes that keep you waitingAs a legal resident of the EEA you have the right to a basic payment account in Finland, and a bank may only refuse it for anti-money laundering reasons. But the bank codes Finland uses to log in to government services may be postponed by the bank until you have a personal identity code. How to break that squeeze, with the police ID card as a second key.
All 15 articles about Finland
- Henkilötunnus and kotikunta: the number is not the gate
- Renting in Finland: a deposit of one to three months, and one month's notice
- Tax for newcomers in Finland: the 25 % key employee regime, and when the ordinary rate is better
- Buying a house in Finland: usually you buy shares — and that is your fiscal luck
- Your first weeks in Finland: three counters, one order, and the clocks that start at once
- Your driving licence in Finland: valid until the expiry date, and the two-year rule that does not apply to you
- School in Finland: free with a hot lunch, compulsory education to 18, and the preparatory class that is not a right
- Working in Finland: the fund, the collective agreement and the 60% trap
- Healthcare in Finland: the kotikunta as the key, and two ceilings on your own contributions
Also applies to your move
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The step-by-step plan for Finland: 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.