Finland · administrative route
Emigrating to Finland
The happiest country in the world asks no permit — it asks order. Three registrations in a row (Migri, DVV, Kela), a digital catch-22 the regulator itself warns about, and one sum you do before the decision: the Finnish car tax hasn't had a relocation exemption since 2015. This page shows how it really works.
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- 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: August 2026
The journey
Five phases, from the car sum to the verokortti
A route of orders and clocks: the declaration within five days for the car, one month for the fund membership that saves your Dutch unemployment years, and the registration chain that you go through in one round in the right order.
- 1
Orientation
Three registrations, and one sum up front
Finland has no permit but a chain: the right of residence at Migri, the kotikunta at DVV that opens healthcare and school, and Kela for social security. In this phase you learn that order — and do the sum that makes this route 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. Plus the honest conversation about the language, the light and the distance.
- 2
Closing the Netherlands
The treaty with the double hand
The familiar list — healthcare, benefits, deregistration, documents — with one surprise almost nobody sees coming: the tax treaty from 1995 lets the Netherlands keep up to 20 percent withholding tax on your company pension, alongside the Finnish tax as country of residence. The country-of-residence factor is 0.8148, the certificates travel apostille-free in the multilingual model, and whoever leaves on early retirement knows one deadline: November 2026.
- 3
The move
No customs — but a sea in between
Within the EU moving is 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 the Finnish peculiarity — a tapeworm treatment one to five days before arrival, and then into the register within four weeks — and the car gets its calendar: RDW export, BPM refund, and the thirteen weeks attached to it.
- 4
Registration in Finland
The chain in the right order
Home first (free market, legal deposit of at most three months), then Migri — where the personal code now comes automatically — then the kotikunta at DVV, and then breaking the catch-22: the account you're legally entitled to within ten banking days, the ID card from the police with login chip, and the verokortti that prevents the 60% withholding. Whoever knows the order gets through it in one round.
- 5
Arrival
Two clocks, three ceilings
Declare the car within five days and on Finnish plates within three months; within one month a member of a työttömyyskassa, otherwise your twelve insured months start from zero. After that it's knowledge of the system: healthcare with three annual ceilings, free school with a hot meal, free language training as long as you've lived there less than three years, and winter tyres in the legal window from November through March.
Look inside
This is what one step of your plan looks like
Not a brochure but the real thing: this is one of the steps of the Finland journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters 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
The notorious Finnish catch-22: the online government wants Finnish bank codes, 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 — decision within ten banking days, and the supervisor says explicitly that a henkilötunnus may not be a condition for it. Only the bank codes themselves may the bank defer until you're in the population register. The structural way out: as soon as your kotikunta is done, apply for the Finnish ID card at the police (€ 59, electronically € 53) — the chip carries a citizen certificate with which 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.
This is step 4.5 of 32. The other 31 are ready for you — each with the same sources, the same counters and a planning that watches your dates.
What it costs
A rough indication for your situation
A few short questions, and you get a range instead of an amount. That's deliberate: an exact figure would suggest a precision nobody has.
Count on a total of
€ 2.600 – € 7.900
Where does that difference come from?
- De eerste maanden€ 2.500 – € 7.000
Open the breakdown below: there you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 50 – € 200
- De verhuizing
- € 100 – € 650
- De eerste maanden
- € 2.500 – € 7.000
View the itemsPer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- EU-registratie bij Migri€ 50 – € 55
- Finse ID-kaart van de politie(estimate)€ 0 – € 60
- Akten en eventuele vertalingen(estimate)€ 0 – € 80
De verhuizing
- Reis(estimate)€ 100 – € 650
Finland ligt achter de Oostzee: de directe ferry Travemünde–Helsinki vaart dagelijks en doet er ruim een etmaal over (autopakket voor twee personen met binnenhut vanaf zo'n € 595 per enkele reis, seizoensafhankelijk), het alternatief loopt via Zweden met de nachtboot Stockholm–Helsinki of Turku. Wie zonder auto reist, vliegt doorgaans goedkoper.
De eerste maanden
- De eerste maanden(estimate)€ 2.500 – € 7.000
De huurmarkt is vrij — geen wachtrijen zoals in Zweden — met een wettelijke borg van maximaal drie maanden (gebruikelijk één à twee) en vrijwel altijd een verplichte inboedelverzekering. In Helsinki kost een vrije-sectorappartement gemiddeld ruim € 21 per vierkante meter per maand, in steden als Oulu een derde minder. Tel de dubbele lasten van de zoekweken mee, het elektriciteitscontract dat je zelf afsluit, en de eerste loonstrook die zonder verokortti op 60% inhouding staat — dat geld komt terug, maar niet in maand één.
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 2 to 4% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 5.000 to € 10.000.
De varainsiirtovero hangt af van wát je koopt: 1,5% voor een asunto-osake (aandelen in een woningvennootschap, de gebruikelijke vorm voor appartementen) en 3% voor een huis met grond. Bij een appartement telt ook het aandeel in de schuld van de vennootschap mee in de grondslag, dus reken met de schuldenvrije prijs. De vrijstelling voor starters geldt sinds 2024 alleen nog voor appartementen.
An order of magnitude based on averages, not a quote. The real amounts depend on your occupation, your route, the season and dozens of choices you still have to make.
Rates checked on 22 August 2026.
Your complete, personal cost picture — with your route, your documents and your deadlines — you get in Vertrekklaar.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Who may tax your pension once you live in Finland, is there a favourable regime, and how do you become insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you see which rules apply to you — with the source.
See the financial conditionsThe departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Finland: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that only a short update when something in Finland really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Read on
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.
Arrival
- 2 min
Buying a house in Finland: usually you buy shares — and that is your fiscal luck
A Finnish flat is almost never real property: you buy shares in an asunto-osakeyhtiö, the housing company that owns the building. That saves half the transfer tax (1.5% instead of 3%) and the whole land registry process. If you do buy a real house with land, the rule is: first pay the varainsiirtovero, then apply for lainhuuto within six months. The old exemption for the first owner-occupied home no longer exists since 2024 — don't fall for outdated advice.
Updated 28 August 2026
- 3 min
Working in Finland: the fund, the collective agreement and the 60% trap
Three things shape your first working months in Finland: the verokortti that prevents a withholding of 60 per cent, the fund membership you have to arrange within one month to keep your Dutch WW years, and the collective-agreement system that guards wages even without a statutory minimum wage. Plus the reassurance: the employer pension runs by law here, by itself.
Updated 22 August 2026
- 3 min
Healthcare in Finland: three ceilings and a card that comes by itself
Finnish healthcare has two keys that are often confused: the kotikunta opens the health centre, the Kela card takes care of the pharmacy. Above that hang three statutory annual ceilings that together form your maximum healthcare risk. How the system works, what it costs in 2026, and which amounts circulate online out of date.
Updated 28 August 2026
Leaving the Netherlands — for every destination
- 2 min
Keeping a bank account and DigiD: the two lines you never cut
After your deregistration you still need the Netherlands for years — for the M return, refunds and your pension. Within the EU your bank account is a right, towards Australia a favour from the bank. And your DigiD you arrange before departure, not after.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
The protective assessment: the bill that travels with you, and that never expires for one item
On emigration the Netherlands imposes an assessment on your pension, your annuity and your substantial shareholding that you don't have to pay — as long as you do nothing that makes it collectable. For pension and annuity it usually lapses after ten years. For a substantial shareholding it doesn't: that one remains valid indefinitely.
Updated 27 August 2026
- 2 min
Emigrating with children after a divorce: the consent that comes before everything
With joint custody you can't just go abroad with the children — you need the consent of the other parent, or substitute consent from the court. What the court weighs, and why leaving without consent is legally child abduction.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Emigrating on early retirement: the CAK route is expected to close as of 1 November 2026
Whoever moves to the EU or Switzerland with a Dutch pension arranges their healthcare via the CAK. That door is closing to a crack: as expected, from 1 November only new applicants with AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong will be admitted. Early retirement and RVU fall outside it — whoever is already a customer keeps their rights.
Updated 16 August 2026
- 2 min
The M form: the tax return for the year in which you emigrated
For the year of your departure you lived partly inside and partly outside the Netherlands, and a separate return goes with that. Nowadays it can be done online — but you have to think of it yourself, because an invitation rarely comes by itself.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 2 min
Your AOW accrual stops on departure — and you have one year to repair that
Every year outside the Netherlands costs you 2% AOW (the Dutch state pension), for life. The SVB has a voluntary continuation that closes that gap — but signing up is only possible in the first year after departure, and almost everyone misses that deadline.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Your Dutch pension abroad: what comes along, and who levies
The AOW (the Dutch state pension) travels fully to the EU and to Australia — the latter thanks to a treaty from 2001. Your company pension too, but *where* you pay on it depends on the tax treaty, and the exemption you arrange yourself.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Cancelling your health insurance without a gap
Your Dutch basic insurance is tied to living or working in the Netherlands and stops being a given on emigration. The art is to have the end date match your new cover — and to know which route belongs to your situation.
Updated 28 August 2026
- 2 min
Taking medicines across the border: certificates, supply and the 90-day ceiling
For medicines under the Opium Act you need a certificate — and the Dutch system only carries you for three months. What you arrange with the CAK, what Australia wants to see at the border, and why finding a local doctor simply belongs to your first weeks.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 9 min
Partner comes along without a job of their own: deregistering, healthcare, AOW and the house
Your partner has a job, a visa or a right of residence there; you come along without a job of your own. Administratively you're then no passenger: the deregistration, the end of your health insurance and your AOW accrual apply to you separately. What you get back if you arrange it well, what it costs if you let it slide — and why "just staying registered" isn't an option.
Updated 7 September 2026
- 2 min
Stopping allowances on emigration: do it yourself, and in time
Housing allowance, healthcare allowance, childcare allowance and child budget don't stop by themselves on the day you leave. Whoever lets them run gets a reclaim months later — this is what you arrange per allowance.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 3 min
Deregistering with the municipality: when exactly, and what stops then
Deregistering from the BRP is only possible from five days before departure, and is compulsory as soon as you're away for more than eight months a year. What stops at that moment, what stays, and which piece of paper you have to ask for right away.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 6 min
When does your pension stay taxed in the Netherlands? The three pots and the three conditions
"Your pension is taxed in your new country of residence" is right by approximation and not in the details. Your AOW, your company pension and your government pension each follow a rule of their own, and with the company pension the Netherlands can still levy if three conditions apply at once. This article explains which three, and which four questions you have to answer for your own situation.
Updated 27 August 2026
Ready to begin?
Thirty-six journeys are fully ready — Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Canada, Panama, United States, Suriname, China, Dubai, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand: your step-by-step plan, your documents and your costs in one place, with the timing watched. Pay once, and it's yours.