The step-by-step plan for Morocco

With this step you know which journey you're on. That depends on your nationality: do you hold Moroccan nationality alongside the Dutch?

Law 02-03 is the Moroccan aliens law. It regulates the entry and residence of foreigners. If you also hold Moroccan nationality, you are not a foreigner in Morocco and you fall outside that law. Then for you:

• You don't need a carte d'immatriculation, the Moroccan residence card.
• There's no renewal clock: you don't have to renew a card on time.
• There's no mention of purpose, the note on the card of why you're in Morocco.

That distinction is not theoretical. Moroccan nationality passes by descent, and you cannot give it up. So many Dutch people have it without ever having done anything with it. For them this journey starts with applying for or renewing the Moroccan identity card, not with a residence application.

Not sure whether you hold Moroccan nationality? Then find that out first, before everything else. The rest of this plan turns out differently depending on the answer. The Moroccan consulate can establish whether you're in the registers.

In this step you see how your pension is taxed there and how your healthcare is arranged. On two points it turns out differently than most Dutch-language pages claim.

The tax. The Netherlands and Morocco concluded their tax treaty in 1977. That treaty has no social security article: an article that decides where benefits such as the AOW are taxed. As a result the AOW falls under the residual article, the article for income that isn't covered anywhere else in the treaty. That article places the tax entirely with Morocco. Your occupational pension goes the same way.

A government pension is the exception. That covers ABP, and everything that comes from past employment with the government. Such a pension may under the treaty be taxed in both countries. So a former civil servant has a very different picture here from someone with only AOW and occupational pension. And that difference is nowhere to be found.

Healthcare. Morocco is on the official list of treaty countries: countries with which the Netherlands has a treaty that also covers healthcare. It works like this:

• You register with the CAK, the Dutch agency that arranges your healthcare abroad, and you receive a treaty form.
• With that form you register at the Moroccan healthcare institution.
• The treaty contribution is withheld from your Dutch pension.

So you don't need a lifelong private policy.

In this step you choose where you'll live. Look beyond the places you know from holidays. Morocco as a holiday country and Morocco as a home are two different countries.

• Tangier, Agadir and Marrakesh have the facilities, the flights and the Dutch communities.
• The Rif and the Middle Atlas have the family and the prices. But there you also have the winters, and the distance to a hospital that provides the care your treaty entitlement gives you access to.

Factor one thing into that choice that doesn't stand out on holiday. Where you live decides which care you can actually reach. Your treaty entitlement is a right to the public system. It doesn't apply to the private clinics where many Dutch people end up in practice.

In this step you see what the move is going to cost you. Applying is cheap in Morocco: the residence card costs tens of euros, not thousands.

The money sits in two other items:

• The first months in the new place.
• The car. That is no side issue here; phase 4 explains why.

Work it out with your own choices in the calculator.

In this step you decide together. You end up with a few conditions on paper that you both stand behind. With Morocco this conversation has a shape it doesn't have with other countries.

For part of the families this isn't an emigration but a return. Sometimes that holds for one generation and not for the other. Children who grew up in the Netherlands then move to the country of their parents, not to their own.

Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings. One conversation is too short for a decision like this. Agree on three evenings, with a week in between:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find in Morocco? What are we leaving behind here? Would that really be different there?
• Evening 2, what we give up. Who and what will we miss? What are we dreading most? What do we do if it disappoints?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What has to be arranged for each of us to say yes? When do we check together whether it's going well, for example after six and after twelve months? And what would be a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. On the kitchen-table card it all fits on one A4 sheet.

Discuss the money too. Phase 3 explains the tax reduction on your pension. That reduction means that part of your wealth stays in Morocco after the transfer. That is a decision for two, not for one.

Divide the work. Agree who takes on which part of this plan: the papers for your residence, the house and the cancellations, the school, the move. That way not one of you carries everything. Invite your partner into your plan; then you can both see what's done.

Is one of you going without an income of your own? Whoever lives in Morocco and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW. For every year you're not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. From the moment you're no longer insured, you have one year to take out voluntary insurance with the SVB. Also discuss whether that partner keeps an account and money of their own, and how you decide together on big expenses.

Married, registered or living together? It can make a difference for your partner's residence permit, for co-insurance in healthcare and for inheritance. Check at your residence and at your healthcare further on in your plan what applies to you.

Are children coming? How you tell them depends on their age:

• Up to about four: tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed habits, like the bedtime ritual and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school: tell them well in advance and let them look along: photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, like 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 see their friends again.

Many Dutch families choose one of the 44 recognised French schools. They have one admission round a year. For 2026-2027 you applied online from 5 January to 11 March. Whoever arrives in the summer has missed that round.

Who learns the language, and when? At the French schools the curriculum is French, with Arabic alongside. If one of you speaks the language from home, the weight lies with the other. Often the partner without work needs the language most, and precisely that partner has no colleagues to practise with. Plan it together, preferably before you leave.

In this step you choose your target date: the date you want to move. From that date you count everything back.

Keep these deadlines in mind:

• The tightest deadline is in phase 2. Within ninety days of arrival the application for your residence card must be lodged.
• What starts earliest is in phase 4: the pet. There the preparation is already under way before your departure date is fixed.