The step-by-step plan for Nigeria

In this step you see which route you have. With Nigeria that mostly depends on who you are, and for a retiree also on your age.

Who are you?	The route	Visa needed?	What you get
Nigerian, also with a Dutch passport alongside	returning on your Nigerian passport	no	your own status
Married to a Nigerian	the N1A permanent residence visa	yes	four years' stay and a free CERPAC
Employee of a Nigerian employer	the STR visa through the expatriate quota	yes	a CERPAC as residence and work permit
Retired, 65 or older	the N5B retirement visa	yes	two years' stay, without work
Investor, from 250,000 dollars	the N3A investors visa	yes	three years' stay
Younger than 65, without any of these ties	no route	—	—

The duration is what the NIS names per visa. The law says at most two years per permit, renewable (Immigration Act, section 37, subsection 2). Ask when you apply which duration you'll get.

Four things to know straight away:

• With a Dutch passport you always need a visa. You apply at the Nigerian embassy in The Hague, or as an e-visa with the NIS, the Nigeria Immigration Service.
• As a tourist you come for at most 30 days. The tourist e-visa is valid for a single entry and can't be extended. So you arrange living there in advance, with the visa of your route.
• Your passport is still valid for at least six months when you apply, with two blank pages.
• The travel advice. NederlandWereldwijd gives the advice of 06-07-2026, still valid on 17-10-2026: colour code red for large parts of the north and the south-east, orange for the rest of the country. This plan is for whoever has a reason to go: family, a partner, work. See step 1.4.

In this step you see what emigrating to Nigeria does to your tax, your AOW and your healthcare. There's a tax treaty, but no treaty for the AOW and healthcare.

Tax. The Netherlands and Nigeria have a tax treaty from 1991, in force since 9 December 1992. According to the Belastingdienst table of January 2026:

Income	Who may tax	Treaty article
AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA and WW	the Netherlands	19, paragraph 2
Pension from government service, such as ABP	the Netherlands	19, paragraph 2
Occupational pension from a pension fund	Nigeria	18, paragraph 1
Pension your former employer pays itself, such as a self-administered pension	the Netherlands	18, paragraph 1
Annuity	the Netherlands	18, paragraph 2

Nigeria taxes a resident on their income from everywhere. How that works out is in steps 3.2 and 3.3.

The AOW. Nigeria isn't one of the 36 countries with which the Netherlands has a social security treaty. The government wrote in 2024 about those other countries: "Naar die landen worden geen uitkeringen geëxporteerd, met uitzondering van het AOW-pensioen ter hoogte van de gehuwdennorm" (no benefits are exported to those countries, except the AOW at the married rate). For a couple nothing changes. Whoever goes alone drops from 70 to 50 percent of the minimum wage. An AOW supplement for a younger partner stops, because outside the Netherlands you only get it in a treaty country (article 8a). And an Anw benefit doesn't go along.

Healthcare. Nigeria isn't on the list of treaty countries for healthcare. So there's no CAK. Your Dutch basic insurance stops when you deregister. In Nigeria health insurance is mandatory for every resident under the 2022 law. See step 3.1.

Your AOW build-up stops. Whoever lives outside the Netherlands is usually no longer insured. Every year until your AOW age then costs 2 percent of your later AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. The application has to be in within one year.

In this step you see what your route does to your nationality. With Nigeria two laws play a part: the Dutch Nationality Act and chapter III of the Nigerian Constitution.

Are you a Nigerian by birth, and also Dutch?

• Nigeria lets you keep that second nationality. Section 28 of the Constitution only takes Nigerian citizenship away from whoever isn't a Nigerian by birth.
• The Netherlands asked for renunciation when you naturalised. That's the renunciation requirement of article 9. There are exceptions, among them if you're married to a Dutch national, or were born in the Netherlands and live here.
• The thirteen years. If you live with both nationalities for thirteen years in a row outside the EU, you lose your Dutch nationality. Unless in that time you get a new Dutch passport, an identity card or a declaration of Dutch nationality. See step 5.8.

Did you renounce Nigerian citizenship when you naturalised? Then you're no longer Nigerian. Renunciation goes through the Federal Ministry of Interior, and the President has the declaration registered (section 29). A way back to citizenship isn't in the Constitution. But the Immigration Act lets the Minister give a permanent residence permit to a Nigerian by birth who renounced (section 37, subsection 12).

Are you Dutch and becoming Nigerian? That's possible by registration or by naturalisation.

• Registration is open under section 26 to "any woman who is or has been married to a citizen of Nigeria": a woman who is or was married to a Nigerian. For a man that route isn't there.
• Naturalisation requires among other things fifteen years of living in Nigeria (section 27).
• Your Dutch nationality. Under the Nationality Act you lose it if you voluntarily acquire another nationality. Unless you're married to someone who holds Nigerian nationality (article 15, paragraph 2). That exception only applies if your spouse is already Nigerian. If you naturalise together, on the same day, you both lose it.
• The Nigerian condition. Nigeria requires on registration and naturalisation that you give up your other nationality. Unless you hold it by birth (section 28, subsection 2). So whoever is Dutch by birth doesn't have to.

Your children. A child born outside Nigeria with a Nigerian parent is a Nigerian by birth (section 25).

The IND can't say in advance whether you'll lose your nationality. On the NederlandWereldwijd site there's a questionnaire that goes through your situation.

In this step you choose where you'll live, with the travel advice beside you.

The travel advice. NederlandWereldwijd writes, last changed on 06-07-2026 and still valid on 17-10-2026: "De kleurcode van het reisadvies is rood voor grote delen van het noorden en het zuidoosten van Nigeria. Wat uw situatie ook is: reis niet hierheen." (The colour code is red for large parts of the north and the south-east of Nigeria. Whatever your situation: don't travel there.) Red are:

• in the north and the Middle Belt the states of Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Kaduna, Jigawa, Bauchi, Gombe, Yobe, Borno, Adamawa and Kano, except the city of Kano;
• in the south-east the states of Enugu, Anambra, Imo and Abia;
• the border areas of the north-west with Benin and Niger, and the border area with Cameroon;
• the coastal area in the Niger Delta.

For the rest of Nigeria colour code orange applies: "Reis alleen hierheen als het noodzakelijk is" (only travel there if it's necessary). It isn't safe to go there on holiday. In a red area the Dutch embassy can't help you, in an orange area less well.

At every place, look at three things:

• The roads. Kidnappings are increasing throughout Nigeria according to the travel advice, especially along the main routes between cities. Violence such as kidnappings and robberies is rising most in the states of Adamawa, Kaduna, Kogi, Kwara, Nasarawa, Niger, Plateau, Taraba, Benue and Oyo.
• Healthcare. Healthcare is limited. Whoever ends up in hospital sometimes has to be moved to another country. Ask at every place where the nearest hospital is.
• Your health. The GGD names malaria, and recommends among other things a vaccination against yellow fever. Book an appointment at a travel vaccination clinic in good time.

Who you can call. The Dutch embassy in Abuja has no consular section. For consular questions you go to the consulate-general in Lagos, on Victoria Island. In an emergency NederlandWereldwijd can be reached day and night on +31 247 247 247. Sign up for the Information Service: then you get an email when the travel advice changes.

LGBTIQ+. Sexual acts between people of the same sex are prohibited in Nigeria, and carry long prison sentences, the travel advice writes. Weigh that up if it matters for you or your family.

In this step you see what the move will cost you, and you decide together whether Nigeria fits.

The costs. The visa itself isn't the big item on most routes. For an employee the CERPAC is. Beyond that the money is in the move by sea, rent in advance, and health insurance you pay yourself. See the calculator.

The conversation. Three things to look at together:

• Each person's route. If one of you is Nigerian, the other needs a visa of their own. See the step about partner and children in phase 2.
• Safety. Read the travel advice together, and agree where you will and won't go.
• The distance. Family and grandchildren in the Netherlands you no longer see in between. Agree how often you'll come back.

Choose the day you want to leave. The plan counts back from that date: when your papers must be legalised, when you apply for the visa and when you deregister.

Count two clocks. A residence visa is valid for 90 days from issue according to the NIS: within that time you enter. And after arrival you arrange your CERPAC, your residence card.