The step-by-step plan for Guyana

In this step you learn how you may stay in Guyana. With a Dutch passport you need no visa. Both NederlandWereldwijd and the Guyanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs say so.

How long you may stay is in the Immigration Act. On arrival the immigration officer gives you a stay of at most three months. He writes down what for: as a visitor, for work, for business, for medical treatment or for another temporary purpose. The Chief Immigration Officer can extend the stay, up to at most three years after the day you came in.

The desk is the Immigration Support Services, the immigration service of the Ministry of Home Affairs. The e-portal has these applications, each with an extension:

• a visit;
• work, through an employer in Guyana;
• business, with a sponsor or company in Guyana;
• study, at a recognised school.

On top of that there's the landing permit, the permission to enter for work, business or study, which you apply for before your journey.

A route for retired people isn't among them. Many countries have a stay on a pension or fixed income, like Colombia or Panama. Guyana doesn't: on the ministries' sites and in the immigration law you won't find an income threshold that lets you stay.

In this step you see what emigrating to Guyana does to your tax, your AOW and your healthcare. For each of the three the answer is the same: there's no treaty.

Tax. Guyana isn't in the Belastingdienst's table of treaty countries, of January 2026. The treaty database lists with Guyana only an air transport treaty, a forestry agreement and declarations on the Ariane rockets. So the Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW, your pension and your annuity. And Guyana taxes you as soon as you're resident there: after more than 183 days in the year. How that works out is in steps 3.2 and 3.3.

The AOW. Guyana isn't among the 36 countries with which the Netherlands has a social security treaty. The AOW does go along, but up to the married rate. For a couple nothing changes. Whoever goes alone drops from seventy to fifty percent of the net minimum wage.

Healthcare. Guyana isn't on the list of treaty countries for healthcare either. Only French Guiana is there, under France. So there's no CAK. Your Dutch basic insurance stops when you deregister. See step 3.1.

Your AOW build-up stops. Whoever lives outside the Netherlands is usually no longer insured. Each year until your AOW age then costs 2 percent of your later AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily at the SVB. The application has to be in within one year.

In this step you choose where you want to live. Most desks are in Georgetown: the Immigration Support Services in the GPO building on Robb Street, and the Guyana Revenue Authority, the tax authority, on Camp Street. Whoever wants to live further away drives to the capital for every application.

At every place, look at three things:

• The road to the desks. Your extensions and your work permit go through Georgetown. Work out how long it takes you.
• Healthcare. The Georgetown Public Hospital is the country's main referral hospital. Ask at every place where the nearest hospital is, and whether your policy works there.
• Traffic. Guyana drives on the left. Ride along for a few weeks before you get behind the wheel yourself.

Your scouting trip can be your first stay right away. With a Dutch passport you need no visa, and you get at most three months. If you want to stay longer, apply for the extension in time. See step 2.2.

In this step you see what the move will cost you. On the side of the desks Guyana is cheap. An extension of your visit costs 5,125 GYD, about 22 euros. A tax number costs 1,000 GYD, and from age 65 nothing.

The money sits in three other items:

• The health policy that replaces the CAK, and comes back every year.
• The move across the ocean. On your household goods you pay import duty, unless you get settler status. See step 4.2.
• The car, because a Dutch car has the steering wheel on the left and as a rule won't be registered in Guyana. You sell it here and buy another one there.

In this conversation you decide together whether Guyana fits, and when. Three things come with this country that you have to see together.

• The grounds to stay. Without work, business, study or a Guyanese partner you're a visitor, with at most two extensions. Know beforehand on what grounds you're staying, and what happens if they fall away.
• The AOW. The drop to the married rate only affects whoever goes alone. If one of you dies, the other becomes single. Even then it stays the lower AOW for as long as you live in Guyana.
• The distance. Family and grandchildren in the Netherlands you no longer see just in passing. Agree on how often you come back, and who pays for the trip.

Choose the day you want to leave. The plan counts back from that date: when your employer has to file the application, when your papers have to be ready and when you deregister.

Count two clocks. If you go for work, the vacancy is first in the newspaper for three months, and after that processing takes a month. And after arrival your stay ends on the date in your passport. You apply for an extension before that date.