A life on the road · No fixed destination
Travelling without a new home country
For those who travel the world, work along the way or live on a boat, and settle nowhere. There's no new country that takes over your healthcare, your taxes and school. So you choose yourself what stays in place in the Netherlands. Everything hangs on one limit: if you're away for more than eight months in a year, you deregister. If you're away for less, you stay registered, keep your health insurance and your child stays of compulsory school age in the Netherlands.
€ 299 one-off · 37 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Three routes: travelling without work, working along the way as a digital nomad, or living on a boat
- The limit
- Away for more than eight months a year: deregister. Less: you may stay registered
- Note
- Whoever deregisters loses their basic health insurance and their AOW build-up. Whoever stays registered keeps a child of compulsory school age
Last updated: 25 October 2026
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Five phases, from the big choice to coming back
This journey starts with one question: will you stay registered in the Netherlands, or deregister? Whoever is away for less than eight months a year stays registered and keeps their health insurance, their AOW build-up and child benefit. But the child stays of compulsory school age, and extra leave outside the holidays is at most ten days per school year. Whoever goes for longer deregisters and arranges international health insurance and the voluntary AOW themselves. What the travel guides don't say: deregistering with the municipality isn't the same as emigrating for the Tax Administration.
- Orientation
Your route, the eight months, and what it costs
In this phase you choose how you travel: without work, working as a digital nomad, or on a boat. You decide whether you stay registered, with the municipality's eight-month rule. You set side by side what that choice does to your healthcare, your AOW, child benefit, school and your taxes. And you map the costs people forget most often: insurance, storage and education.Read more
- Your base in the Netherlands
An address, healthcare, AOW and taxes, if you live nowhere
In this phase you arrange what a new country would otherwise take over. A correspondence address or the RNI, the register for Dutch people abroad. Topping up your basic health insurance, or international insurance if you deregister. Where you pay tax if you live nowhere, and the voluntary AOW insurance. If you work along the way, you find out where you pay tax and contributions. And DigiD, passports and your international driving permit, because you can only get the latter while you're registered.Read more
- Wrapping up the Netherlands
Cancel, suspend or leave in place
In this phase you work through the familiar list: work, rent, energy and subscriptions. You choose what happens to the house, and whether your belongings go into storage. You can suspend the car with the RDW, for one to three years. If your pet comes along outside the EU, you have the rabies blood test done in the Netherlands before you leave. And whoever deregisters does so from five days before departure.Read more
- On the road
School, what each country allows, and the eight months
In this phase it's about what keeps coming back. Compulsory schooling and distance learning through a school affiliated with Stichting NOB. Per country how long you may stay, and your medicine certificates. Every year you count your months and file your tax return. If you live on a boat, you arrange the sea letter, your boating licence with ICC and your marine radio, the VAT statement and the reporting duty with the Royal Marechaussee.Read more
- Coming back, or staying somewhere
Register within five days, healthcare within four months
In this phase you close the trip. If you come back to stay, you register with your municipality within five days and take out health insurance within four months. The school decides the level with the report from the road. And if you find a country along the way where you want to stay, a new plan begins: with a residence permit, and that country's healthcare and taxes.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the journey to a life on the road, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 1.2 of your plan
Eight months: do you stay registered or deregister
- Lead time
- one decision, before you commit to anything else
- Costs
- none
In this step you choose whether you stay registered in the Netherlands. This is the most important choice in the plan: your healthcare, your AOW, child benefit and school depend on it.
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. NederlandWereldwijd explicitly names the world trip.
This is how the rule works:
- It's about what you expect in advance, not about counting afterwards.
- The eight months needn't be consecutive. Two stretches of five months within a year count too.
- Whether you keep your house in the Netherlands doesn't matter.
- The rule applies per person.
If you're away less than eight months, you stay registered. You keep your BSN, your health insurance, your AOW build-up and child benefit. But your child stays of compulsory school age in the Netherlands, and for a family that's often the biggest hurdle. A later step covers it.
If you're away more than eight months, you have to deregister. A correspondence address with family is no way out then: whoever is away more than eight months within a year can't stay registered, not even at a correspondence address.
What you never do: stay registered while you know you'll be away longer. That builds up a claim to pay back healthcare costs and allowances, retroactively.
Fill in your choice in your choices ("Will you stay registered in the Netherlands?"). The plan then adjusts itself.
What this step rests on
- BRP Act, article 2.43 — declaring departure when at least two thirds of the year is spent outside the Netherlands
- NederlandWereldwijd — when do I have to deregister: also on a world trip, and the 8 months needn't be consecutive
- RvIG — away more than 8 months, you also can't stay registered at a correspondence address
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for a life on the road.
This is step 1.2 of 37. The other 36 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 37 steps for a life on the roadWhat you get for € 299
All 37 steps to a life on the road, for your situation
In order, with the office and the official source at every step. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear.
Your deadlines in one place
For each step you see the latest date to start, and you get a heads-up before something is due or expires. Your documents sit in the vault, with their dates.
A plan that stays right
Twice a month we check the sources. If something changes, it's in your plan and you get a message.
The step-by-step plan for a life on the road
€ 299
one-off · 37 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
- Destination changes? Within 30 days I switch your plan to another country free of charge
- Stuck on a step? You get a personal answer within two working days
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for a life on the road: 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 a life on the road 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.
Closing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to a life on the road starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
On 2 January we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base for the road
The articles closest to travelling without a new home country: deregistering, your health insurance, your AOW and your bank.
- On a world trip: stay registered or deregister?If you're outside the Netherlands for more than eight months in a year, you have to deregister, on a world trip too. If you're away for less, you stay registered. That one choice decides your health insurance, your AOW, child benefit and compulsory schooling.
- Digital nomad: where do you pay tax and where are you insured?Legally, you work in the country where you sit behind your laptop. That country may often tax your wages, except under the 183-day rule. And anyone who works only outside the Netherlands for three months can lose their Dutch insurance for health care and AOW.
- Health insurance on a world trip: keep, top up or replaceIf you stay registered and are away for less than a year, you keep your basic insurance, but abroad it pays at most the Dutch rate. If you deregister, it stops and you arrange international health insurance yourself.
- Compulsory schooling on a world trip: what is allowed with your child?If your family stays registered, your child stays of compulsory school age in the Netherlands, and extra time off is at most ten days per school year without the school attendance officer. If you deregister, the Dutch Compulsory Education Act no longer applies. Distance learning is possible through Stichting NOB.
- Sailing the world under the Dutch flag: sea letter, ICC and customsFor a long-distance sailing trip you need a sea letter as proof that your yacht is Dutch, a boating licence with ICC, a registered marine VHF radio and proof that VAT was paid. Every time you sail across the Schengen border, you report to the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee.
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for a life on the road: 37 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.