The step-by-step plan for your new country

With this step you know what this plan arranges for you, and which rules apply to your new country.

This plan is about the Dutch side of your departure: your health insurance, your AOW build-up, allowances and benefits, your tax, deregistering and wrapping up. It's for whoever doesn't need the plan for a country. You've already left and are still registered, you're moving to a country without a plan of its own, or the side of your new country is already arranged through your work or your partner.

What isn't in it:

• Your registration and your right of residence in your new country.
• Healthcare there, if you don't stay insured through the Netherlands.
• The tax treaty with your new country, worked out for your situation.
• The move itself.

One question decides a lot: will you live inside or outside the EU? Within the EU, the EEA (the EU plus Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and Switzerland, European rules on social security apply. They decide in which country you're insured, and what goes with you. Outside it, everything depends on a treaty between the Netherlands and that country, and without a treaty little goes with you.

What that means in practice:

• Healthcare. With a Dutch pension or a Dutch benefit, you arrange your healthcare within the EU through the CAK, with an S1 form. Outside it, that's only possible in a treaty country, such as the United Kingdom, Turkey or Morocco. Elsewhere you arrange insurance yourself.
• Benefits. An incapacity benefit (WIA, WAO or WAZ) goes with you within the EU, the EEA and Switzerland. Outside it, only to a country with a treaty. Unemployment benefit (WW) goes with you for three months at most, and only within Europe.
• The AOW. What you've built up goes with you everywhere. Without a treaty you only get the amount for married people.
• Child benefit. Outside Europe, taking it with you is in principle no longer possible. Often you get child benefit from your new country.
• Tax. An assessment the Netherlands imposes on departure over your pension or your private limited company (bv) automatically gets a deferral within the EU and the EEA. Outside it, you apply for the deferral.

Each step says what the difference means for that step. Fill in in your choices whether you'll live inside or outside the EU.

With this step you know whether you have to deregister. It hinges on one number.

The law says: whoever can reasonably expect to spend at least two thirds of a year outside the Netherlands declares their departure. Two thirds of a year is eight months.

This is how the rule works:

• It's about what you expect in advance, not about counting afterwards.
• The months needn't be consecutive. Two stretches of five months within a year count too.
• A registration or residence document in your new country changes nothing. It's about where you actually live.
• Whether you keep your house in the Netherlands doesn't matter.
• The rule applies per person.

Whoever emigrates is above that line by definition. So for you it isn't a choice. What you never do: stay registered while you're away more than eight months. That builds up a claim to pay back healthcare costs and allowances, retroactively.

One thing to know: your health insurance and your AOW don't depend on your registration, but on where the SVB considers you to live. If you're away for less than a year and temporarily, you usually stay insured, even if you deregister. Whoever settles in another country no longer is. The next phase covers that.

Will you live part of the year in the Netherlands? The rule applies then too. Four months here and eight there already falls under the duty to deregister. Five months here gives a margin.

With this step you're no longer registered at an address where you no longer live. That also ends the risk of allowances or healthcare costs running on that you'd later have to pay back.

Late isn't too late to still do it. The rule is that you deregister before you leave: from five days before up to the day itself at the latest. If you already live abroad and are still registered, NederlandWereldwijd says: contact your municipality. How it works then differs per municipality.

This is how you go about it:

• Search your municipality's website for "departure abroad" or "reporting emigration", and get in touch.
• Give your actual departure date, and ask which date the municipality records as the date of departure.
• If not the whole family left, you have to come in person. Ask whether that can work differently from abroad.
• Give your address abroad, if you have one.

The international proof of deregistration. You only get it if the date of deregistration is also your departure date. That usually won't work in your case. If an authority in your new country asks for it, you request an international extract afterwards from one of the 19 municipalities with an RNI desk. It arrives by post within three weeks.

Can there be a fine? The municipality can impose an administrative fine if you didn't declare your departure. Municipalities set the amount in their own rules, often € 200 or € 325, and a fine is only possible if you're to blame. So report it now rather than later.

Your BSN (citizen service number) stays valid. After deregistering, your details are in the RNI, the register for Dutch people who live outside the Netherlands.

With this step you put right everything that kept running with your registration, and you don't miss the deadline for voluntary AOW. One rule applies everywhere: give your actual departure date, not the day you deregister.

Voluntary AOW: the deadline is already running. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB for the AOW (the Dutch state pension) and the Anw (the survivors' benefit). You have to apply within a year of the date you started living or working outside the Netherlands. That period has been running since your actual departure, not since your deregistration. So work out how much time you have left, and apply now if you want it. The date the SVB receives your application counts as the date of registration. Don't wait with the Anw either. How the insurance works is in the step on your AOW build-up.

Your health insurance. Your Dutch health insurance ends automatically on the day your duty to be insured ends. That's not the day you deregister, but the day you no longer live in the Netherlands under the rules. An insurer can therefore end the insurance retroactively, and then only reimburses costs from before that end date. What that means:

• Give your insurer your actual departure date.
• Healthcare costs after that date may be at your own expense.
• If you're away for less than a year and temporarily, you often simply stay insured. The SVB decides that, not the municipality.

Allowances. Report your departure to Dienst Toeslagen (the Benefits Agency), with the actual date. Allowance for the time you already lived outside the Netherlands usually has to be paid back. The sooner you report it, the smaller that amount.

Benefits. Your deregistration isn't a notification to the UWV or the SVB. If you receive a benefit, report your departure yourself, with the actual date. What goes with you to your country is in the step on benefits.

Did you have income, a business of your own or a house in the Netherlands? Then put your situation once to a tax adviser who knows both countries. For the year of departure you file a separate return, and the date you emigrated counts in it.

In this step you see what the Dutch side of your departure costs. The calculator above works with your own choices.

The biggest items are often not one-off, but keep running:

• Healthcare. Insurance that covers the gap between your Dutch end date and your cover in your new country. Or, through the CAK, a treaty contribution deducted from your pension or benefit.
• Voluntary AOW. In 2026 the premium is 17.9 percent of your income, with a minimum of € 569 and a maximum of € 5,693 per year. For the Anw a small amount is added.
• Storage. A storage unit costs money every month, as long as your things are in it.
• What keeps running in the Netherlands. A house you keep, a plan for your 06 number, a bank account with a fee for living abroad.
• Advice. A conversation with a tax adviser who knows both countries, if you have a house, a bv or a pension.

There's something on the other side. Whoever stops allowances on time and lines up their health insurance avoids a claim to pay back. And for the year you leave, you often get money back with the M return.

With this step you fix the date you're working towards. The plan counts back from that day: which step has to start when, and what's already too late.

Do you still have to leave? Then choose your departure date. Watch two things:

• Notice periods. Work and rent often have a month or longer.
• Your healthcare. Your Dutch end date has to line up with your cover in your new country. Preferably report your moving date to your insurer two months in advance.

Have you already left? Then choose the date by which you want the deregistration and the notifications done. Keep that date close. Every week you stay registered, allowance may still be running. And the deadline for voluntary AOW is already running.

Fill in the date below. Filling it in completes the step, and you can always move it later.