For pensioners
Retiring to Spain
For pensioners, Spain is one of the easier destinations. Your healthcare runs through the S1 form, which gives you as a Dutch pensioner access to Spanish healthcare, and the AOW you have built up comes along in full. The order does matter, though, and a few choices are expensive afterwards. Below are the articles for your situation, in the order to read them.
Start with your healthcare, because that is where a deadline sits that is easy to miss. Anyone moving to Spain on a Dutch pension arranges healthcare through the CAK. That is the Dutch body for the healthcare of people who live abroad on a Dutch pension or benefit. With the S1 you then enter the Spanish system. That route is expected to narrow sharply on 1 November 2026: only new applicants with AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong will still get in. Stopping before your AOW age? Then read that article first, and only pick your date after that. Let your Dutch insurance end on the day your new cover starts. The European health card is not cover for people who emigrate.
Then your money. Your accrued AOW comes along in full. If you have not reached AOW age yet, every year outside the Netherlands costs you 2% of accrual. Voluntary continuation with the SVB closes that gap, and you can only sign up in the first year after the end of the compulsory insurance (usually the day you leave). The Netherlands does not count days: the tax authority looks at where your life is. Spain does treat you as a resident after more than 183 days in a calendar year. Your AOW, your company pension and a government pension each have their own rule. Keep your Dutch bank account and your DigiD, because you will need them for your tax return.
Finally the paperwork, in the right order. You get the NIE, the identification number for foreigners, at your registration in Spain. That appointment is scarce, so make sure your file is complete in one go. The empadronamiento is your registration at the town hall. It is free and takes a quarter of an hour, and without it you get no health card and no registration certificate. If you rent from a distance, learn the signs of fraud first. Renew your driving licence in your country of residence, and not quietly in the Netherlands at your old address.
Still deciding between countries? To the pension comparer
Your healthcare: everything turns on it
Emigrating on early retirement: the CAK route is expected to close as of 1 November 2026
Whoever moves to the EU or Switzerland with a Dutch pension arranges their healthcare via the CAK. That door is closing to a crack: as expected, from 1 November only new applicants with AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong will be admitted. Early retirement and RVU fall outside it — whoever is already a customer keeps their rights.
Updated 26 September 2026
Cancelling your health insurance without a gap
Your Dutch basic insurance is tied to living or working in the Netherlands and stops being a given on emigration. The art is to have the end date match your new cover — and to know which route belongs to your situation.
Updated 26 September 2026
The Spanish healthcare system: three routes in, and one safety net that costs money
Whoever works in Spain is automatically in public healthcare, pensioners come in with the S1 — and since 2018 legal residents without work have access too. For whoever falls under nothing there's the convenio especial: € 60 a month, with one important exception. And at the pharmacy you contribute, with a monthly ceiling that for pensioners can be as low as € 8.23.
Updated 26 September 2026
Taking medicines across the border: certificates, supply and the 90-day ceiling
For medicines under the Opium Act you need a certificate — and the Dutch system only carries you for three months. What you arrange with the CAK, what Australia wants to see at the border, and why finding a local doctor simply belongs to your first weeks.
Updated 15 October 2026
Your money and your pension
Your Dutch pension abroad: what travels with you, and who taxes it
The accrued AOW travels in full to the EU and to Australia — the latter thanks to a 2001 treaty. Your company pension too, but where you pay tax on it depends on the tax treaty, and you arrange the exemption yourself.
Updated 14 October 2026
Your AOW accrual stops on departure — and you have one year to repair that
Every year outside the Netherlands costs you 2% AOW (the Dutch state pension), for life. The SVB has a voluntary continuation that closes that gap — but signing up is only possible in the first year after the end of the compulsory insurance (usually the day you leave), and almost everyone misses that deadline.
Updated 25 September 2026
Where do you pay tax when you live in Spain?
Almost everyone thinks it's about 183 days. That's not right: the Dutch Belastingdienst looks at your actual circumstances, and you can be in Spain for well over half a year and still live in the Netherlands for tax purposes.
Updated 26 September 2026
Keeping a bank account and DigiD: the two lines you never cut
After your deregistration you still need the Netherlands for years — for the M return, refunds and your pension. Within the EU your bank account is a right, towards Australia a favour from the bank. And your DigiD you arrange before departure, not after.
Updated 26 September 2026
Your paperwork, in the right order
The NIE: where and when you get it
If you are going to live in Spain, you get your identification number when you register in Spain. The consulate in Amsterdam only issues an NIE to people staying less than three months, and such a consular NIE is not valid for residing.
Updated 17 October 2026
Empadronamiento: the registration everything else hangs on
Your registration at the Spanish town hall is a legal duty for everyone who lives in Spain, and the certificado is the condition for your registration certificate, your health card and your children's school. Yet it's the step people get stuck on the longest.
Updated 26 September 2026
Renting in Spain: five years of protection, one month's deposit, and the costs the landlord bears
Spanish tenancy law protects you better than its reputation: five years of security of tenure, a deposit capped by law, and since 2023 the agency fees are the landlord's. Plus the scam signals you need all the more as a foreigner.
Updated 25 September 2026
Your driving licence in Spain: the two-year myth, and what's really required
"After two years you have to exchange it" — for Dutch citizens that isn't true: that rule only applies to licences that are (almost) indefinitely valid. Your licence simply stays valid until the expiry date; *then* you renew in Spain, with a medical.
Updated 25 September 2026
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