Moving to Switzerland: what you arrange and what it costs

For moving to Switzerland as a Dutch citizen you need no visa: the agreement on the free movement of persons between Switzerland and the EU gives you the right to live and work there. You do register with your municipality within fourteen days of arrival for a residence permit, take out Swiss health insurance within three months, and your removal van crosses a real customs border, because Switzerland is not in the EU. Anyone who wants to emigrate to Switzerland mostly needs to do the maths: the country is close by, but the fixed costs work differently from home.

Do you need a visa or a permit?

No visa, but a permit, and which one you get depends on your employment contract. With a contract shorter than twelve months you get an L permit, valid for as long as the contract runs. With twelve months or longer, or an open-ended contract, you get a B permit that is valid for five years and can be renewed. You register with the municipality within fourteen days of arrival, and in any case before you start work, bringing your ID and your employment contract. If you work in Switzerland for no more than three months per calendar year, you need no permit, only a notification.

There is an advantage for Dutch citizens. The Swiss migration office SEM grants the permanent C permit after five years of regular and uninterrupted residence to nationals of countries with a settlement treaty, and the Netherlands is on that list. No such treaty exists for nationals of the other EU countries. What the C gives you is covered in living in Switzerland: the permit and the Dutch advantage.

Why is health insurance the biggest cost?

Everyone who takes up residence in Switzerland must be insured no later than three months after arrival. If you do so in time, cover starts on the day you moved there, and the insurer reimburses costs retroactively to that day. If you are late, cover only starts when you join, and if the delay is inexcusable you also pay a premium surcharge.

The three months are not a deferral. Because cover reaches back to your arrival, so does the premium. Sign in the third month and you immediately pay three months of premiums.

Family policies do not exist: every family member, every child included, is insured separately. The official average premiums for 2026:

Who	Average premium per month (2026)
Adult aged 26 and over	CHF 465.30
Young adult aged 19 to 25	CHF 326.30
Child	CHF 122.50
Family of two adults and two children	CHF 1,175.60

The premium varies by insurer, by place of residence and by the deductible you choose; how that works is explained in Swiss health insurance.

What do housing and the move itself cost?

For a rented home, the Swiss Code of Obligations lets the landlord ask for a deposit of at most three months' rent, held at a bank in a savings account in your name, not the landlord's. More on the rental market in renting in Switzerland.

Your household goods enter free of duty if you genuinely move your residence to Switzerland, have used the items yourself for at least six months and keep using them; that applies to your car as well. At the border you present form 18.44, and that can only be done during the opening hours of a customs office for commercial goods. As an EU citizen you do not have to show an assurance of a permit: an employment contract, a rental contract or your proof of deregistration is enough.

One item disappears that you would have when moving within the EU: the BPM refund on export. You only get it if your car is permanently registered in an EU country or in Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway, and Switzerland is not one of them. The details, from the inventory list to the Swiss number plate, are in your car and household goods to Switzerland.

What	Deadline or amount
Registering with the municipality	within 14 days of arrival, before you start work
Taking out health insurance	no later than 3 months after arrival, cover from arrival
Rental deposit	at most 3 months' rent, in an account in your name
Household goods duty-free	used yourself for at least 6 months, form 18.44
BPM refund on export	not for Switzerland
C permit for Dutch citizens	after 5 years of uninterrupted residence

What changes in the Netherlands?

If you spend more than eight months of a one-year period outside the Netherlands, you must deregister from your municipality; if you don't, you risk a fine. You can do so from five days before departure until the day itself at the latest. Ask for an international proof of deregistration: you need it straight away at the Swiss border as evidence of your move.

Once you leave you are usually no longer insured for the AOW, and every year you are not insured, you later receive 2% less AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily, but you have one year from the moment you stop being insured to sign up, and as a rule it can run for at most ten years. What you have already built up stays: the SVB later also pays the accrued AOW into a non-Dutch account. How that fits with your Swiss pension and taxes is covered in AOW, pension and tax in Switzerland.

Where do you start?

With the sums, not the removal van. A family with two children pays well over CHF 14,000 a year in health premiums alone on average; set that against a Swiss gross salary before you sign.

In Vertrekklaar this is phase 1 of 5 of the journey, step 1.3: the same steps, but for your situation — in your order, tickable, and with the deadlines watched. See the whole journey to Switzerland or go straight to step 1.3 in the open plan.