Emigrating with your partner: the conversation, dividing the work and your papers

What if one of you goes without an income of their own?

The partner who comes along is still, to the Dutch government, an emigrant with a file of their own. According to the SVB, anyone who goes to live outside the Netherlands is "usually no longer insured" for the AOW, the state pension, and the Anw, the benefit for surviving dependants.

• For every year you are not insured, you later get 2% less AOW.
• You can take out voluntary insurance with the SVB. You have 1 year for this, from the moment you are no longer insured.
• With little or no income you pay the minimum premium in 2026: € 569 for the AOW and € 3 for the Anw.

Voluntary insurance does not automatically cover the whole family. The SVB writes: "Your partner must take out voluntary insurance themselves." If only the working partner takes out insurance, the partner without an income builds up nothing. After that one year, the chance is gone.

Also talk about the money itself: does the partner without an income keep an account of their own, and how do you decide on large expenses? Deregistering, healthcare and the house are covered in Partner coming along without a job.

Does it matter whether you are married, registered or living together?

For your residence in the EU and for your nationality it does. For the AOW it does not: there, each of you stands alone.

What	Married	Registered partner	Living together
Family member under the EU residence directive	yes	if the new country treats the partnership as equivalent to marriage	no, but easier residence in a duly attested durable relationship
Keeping Dutch nationality when you take your partner's nationality	yes	yes	the law only mentions marriage and registered partnership
Voluntary AOW insurance	each separately	each separately	each separately

Your residence in the EU. Under the European residence directive (2004/38), the new country facilitates entry and residence for a partner in "a durable relationship, duly attested". Outside the EU, each country decides for itself who may come along as a partner.

Your nationality. If you voluntarily take another nationality, under the Netherlands Nationality Act you usually lose the Dutch one. Not if you are "married to a person who holds that other nationality"; a registered partnership counts as marriage in this act. According to the guidance on the act, that exception does not apply when two Dutch spouses acquire another nationality on the same day. Then they both lose their Dutch nationality.

Your estate. If you live abroad as a Dutch national, according to the Rijksoverheid "the law of the country where you live" applies to your estate. If you want Dutch inheritance law, you record that choice in a will at the notary.

How do you tell the children?

That depends on their age:

• Up to about four: tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed habits going, such as the bedtime routine and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school: tell them well in advance and let them look along, with photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, such as their room.
• Teenagers: involve them in the decision itself. For them, saying goodbye to friends weighs heaviest. Agree how they keep in touch and when they will see their friends again.

If your child's other parent lives in the Netherlands, first read Emigrating with children after a divorce.

Who learns the language, and when?

Whoever works practises the language with colleagues. Whoever comes along without a job has none, and needs the language most: at the doctor's and at school. Agree who learns what, and preferably start before you leave, together.

In Vertrekklaar this belongs to the phase Closing down the Netherlands of the journey: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See how the step-by-step plan works.