Your first weeks in Luxembourg: one home, four clocks and one number

The first weeks in Luxembourg are manageable once you understand one thing: almost everything hangs on the commune. What it costs is mainly time: the social security card is free, and the big bill of these weeks is the deposit for your home. What it asks for is an order. The find on guichet.lu: at registration you get the certificate straight away, without photo and without an end date, and after your report the national register passes your new address on to ministries and administrations. The trap: the first clock, eight days, starts on the day of arrival, and without a lease you cannot meet it.

Why the home comes first

The bureau de la population wants proof at your report that you really live there: an extract of your lease, the consent of the owner or the occupant, or the deed of purchase. An address with friends therefore only works with their consent as occupants. What must be in the contract and what the deposit may be, you read in renting in Luxembourg.

From that report follows the number everything else hangs on: the matricule, the thirteen-digit national number. Ask straight away at the report for a certificat de résidence for the whole family; the school, the employer and the bank ask for it.

The four clocks

Clock	Deadline	Counter	Starts
Report your arrival	8 days	commune	the day of arrival
Declare your dog	1 month	commune	the move from abroad
Registration declaration	3 months	commune	the day of arrival
Car on Luxembourg plates	6 months	SNCA and customs	the date of your report

In addition there are two deadlines on the side of the institutions. The social security card arrives within three weeks of your affiliation, by post at your official address. And a bank that must offer a basic account opens or refuses at the latest ten working days after a complete application.

What happens at registration?

Within three months you make the registration declaration at the same commune, with proof of your ground of residence: an employment contract, a business permit, or if you do not work, proof of sufficient resources and health insurance covering all risks in Luxembourg. A pension decision or a bank statement counts as proof of resources; the details are in the residence routes to Luxembourg.

You get the attestation d'enregistrement immediately: your name, your address, the date and a number, without photo and without nationality, and valid indefinitely. Documents not in French, German or English must come with a sworn translation; how a multilingual EU form avoids that is explained under the matricule.

Who knows automatically that you are there?

The national register passes on your address, but not to everyone. Ministries and government administrations in principle receive your new address automatically through the national register. Guichet.lu still advises warning the bodies you deal with regularly yourself: some schemes oblige you to report a change yourself, and forgetting can then have consequences. The tax authority ACD does send you a new tax card for your employer by itself after a change of address.

On the Dutch side your DigiD remains your line to the Tax Administration and the SVB; on the Luxembourg side MyGuichet becomes the counter for almost everything. With your DigiD you can log in there as an EU citizen, but for signing — such as the tax return — you need a Luxembourg means, usually LuxTrust. How to arrange that at the bank is in bank account in Luxembourg.

What can wait, and what cannot?

Cannot wait: the report, because eight days pass quickly, and a dog, which must be declared to the commune within a month — with proof of liability insurance, see your dog or cat to Luxembourg. Healthcare belongs early too: whoever comes with an S1 from the CAK registers with the CNS and only then gets their card, see healthcare in Luxembourg.

The car can wait a little: six months is generous, but the route runs past a registration with the SNCA, the customs sticker 705, possibly the inspection and a tax stamp of 50 euros — so do not start on it in the last month. The whole route is in car and driving licence in Luxembourg.

In which order this falls for your family exactly, with the deadlines monitored, is in the step-by-step plan for Luxembourg.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 4 of 5 of the journey, step 4.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Luxembourg or go straight to step 4.1 in the open plan.