Your first weeks in Morocco: ninety days, one order, and the bank you cannot choose again later

The first weeks in Morocco turn on one clock. As a Dutch national you enter without a visa, and the immigration law gives you ninety days from entry to apply for a carte d'immatriculation. That is enough, if you work in the right order: first an address, then the application, then the bank, then healthcare. Whoever picks the bank too early or wrongly runs into a rule that cannot be repaired later. Whoever also holds Moroccan nationality skips the residence application and works with their CNIE.

What has to happen within ninety days?

The law exempts every foreigner aged eighteen or over from a residence card as long as they are in Morocco for ninety days at most on a valid travel document. After that you must have a carte d'immatriculation, or at least the receipt of your application: that replaces the card for the time being. You must be able to show the card or the receipt within 48 hours if the administration asks for it.

The card is valid for one to ten years, according to the reasons you give. If it is refused, you must leave the country within fifteen days of the notification. Which mention you apply for and what you bring is in the residence routes to Morocco.

Issue can depend on a visa you obtain before you leave. The law lets the administration make the card conditional on a residence visa of more than three months. So ask the prefecture where you will live, before you leave, whether it requires that visa. Whoever only hears that in Morocco loses weeks of their ninety days to a journey back.

Why does the address come before everything?

Because the law instructs you to declare a change of residence to the Moroccan authorities, and because every counter after this asks for proof of address. If you rent, that is your lease: law 67-12 requires a written contract with a fixed date for every rental of more than thirty days, with a deposit of two months at most and a signed receipt for every payment. Have a description of the condition drawn up at the handover of the keys; without that description the home is deemed received in good condition. Everything about that is in renting in Morocco.

Which bank account do you open first?

The wrong choice here costs the most. The exchange instruction of the Office des Changes lets banks open, for foreigners living in Morocco, an ordinary dirham account, an account in convertible dirhams and a foreign currency account. Pension that came in on the ordinary account may be moved back to a convertible account over the last twelve months, but only at the same bank. So open both accounts at one bank, in the first weeks, and only then have your pension transferred.

Two smaller clocks. Foreign banknotes you bring in are in principle exchanged within thirty days; from 100,000 dirhams in cash you declare at customs. If a bank refuses you, after a registered application you can ask Bank Al-Maghrib to designate a bank. The details, including the complaint deadlines, are in banking and payments in Morocco.

How do you activate your healthcare?

If you came with a Dutch statutory pension or benefit, you registered with the CAK before leaving; the CAK takes four weeks at most. You then receive form 121, and you hand that in at an office of the CNSS. Only then are you in the Moroccan basic package, the AMO, with GP, hospital and medication. The form in your drawer is not insurance.

Your partner and children without their own income can be co-insured, but the CNSS has to approve that. For care in the Netherlands or other countries the form gives no entitlement; for that you take out travel or supplementary insurance. The treaty contribution is deducted monthly from your pension. What your entitlement does and does not cover is in healthcare in Morocco.

Which clocks are still running after that?

Clock	Period
Apply for a residence card after entry	90 days
Show the card or receipt when asked	48 hours
Leave the country after a refusal	15 days
Exchange foreign banknotes	30 days after entry
Pension from the ordinary to the convertible account, at the same bank	the last 12 months
Processing of your CAK application	4 weeks at most
Driving on your Dutch licence	1 year from your residence

The last clock does not yet matter in the first weeks, but it does start running: on your Dutch licence you may drive for one year, counted from your residence in Morocco, and after that an exam awaits. So do not start on it in month eleven; how it works is in your driving licence in Morocco. What happens to the car and the household goods is in your household goods and car to Morocco, and the whole journey in order at /marokko.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 5 of 5 of the journey, step 5.1: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Morocco or go straight to step 5.1 in the open plan.