What changes financially when you move to Morocco?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Morocco and the Netherlands apply to your situation: which country may tax you, which schemes exist and how you get insured. With the source, so you can check it yourself.
This applies to everyone who moves. Tick above what applies to you, and the rest will appear.
What you have to show
Which financial requirements does the country set before you may stay?
The residence card requires means, an address and a medical certificate
If you stay longer than ninety days, you need a residence card: the carte d'immatriculation. You apply for it within ninety days of entry, with the police or the gendarmerie of your place of residence.
The deadline applies to lodging the application, not to the issue of the card. That helps, because gathering the documents takes more time than those ninety days suggest. Count at least on your passport, passport photos, proof of your home address in Morocco, proof that you can support yourself, and a medical certificate. The exact list differs per mention (the reason for your stay shown on the card) and per prefecture. Ask for it at the prefecture where you're going to live. Do you hold Moroccan nationality alongside the Dutch? Then you fall outside this law and need no card.
- lodge the application
- within 90 days of entry
- validity of the card
- 1 to 10 years, renewable
What the Netherlands doesn't let go of
Which Dutch obligation travels with you?
Your AOW accrual stops on departure, repair is possible within one year
This is about the accrual, not the payment. What you've built up until you leave stays yours. But as soon as you're no longer insured in the Netherlands, you build up nothing more. Every year until your AOW age then costs 2% of your later AOW. If you already receive AOW, this no longer applies.
For most emigrants the insurance ends at the moment of departure. If you keep working in the Netherlands or are posted abroad, you can stay insured. Voluntary continued insurance with the SVB closes the gap, for ten years at most. That only works if your application is in within one year of your compulsory insurance ending. And you must have been insured for at least a year directly before that. The premium depends on your income and is revised every year. That is why no amount is given here. Put that deadline in your diary before you go.
- reduction per uninsured year
- 2% of your AOW
- application for voluntary insurance
- no later than 1 year after your insurance ends
- duration of voluntary insurance
- 10 years at most
Source: Algemene Ouderdomswet (General Old Age Pensions Act) — article 13(1) (2% reduction per uninsured calendar year), article 35(1) (voluntary insurance, ten years at most) and article 36(1) (application no later than one year after the compulsory insurance ends) — checked on 2026-09-19
Read the whole storyFor inheritance and gifts the Netherlands counts you in for ten more years
The Inheritance Tax Act (Successiewet), the law on inheritance and gift tax, pretends an emigrated Dutch national still lives in the Netherlands for ten years. That applies on death and to gifts.
If you die within ten years of leaving, your heirs pay Dutch inheritance tax, as if you still lived here. What you give away in those years, to your children for example, falls under Dutch gift tax. So review your will and your gift plans before you leave. For a gift in the first year after you leave, this even applies to everyone who lived in the Netherlands, also without Dutch nationality.
- deemed residence
- 10 years
This is not tax advice
These are the rules that apply to your situation. What they add up to is not shown here. With Morocco it all turns on one missing article. The treaty of 1977 has no article on social security. So your AOW (the Dutch state pension) falls under the residual article, instead of under a rule of its own. That way your AOW and your occupational pension go to Morocco, but not your government pension. Which combination you have decides your net monthly income. Take this list to a tax adviser who knows both countries.
Still deciding between countries? Put the rules of two or three countries side by side
Then actually doing it
Knowing which rules apply is the first half. The second is applying them in time: in the right order, without missing a deadline, and with your documents at hand.
Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Morocco: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Morocco change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.