The step-by-step plan for a life on the road

With this step you choose your route. Then this plan shows you only the steps that apply to you.

This plan is for people who don't settle in one country. There are three ways:

• Travelling. A world trip or sabbatical, alone or with the family, without working on the road.
• Nomad. You work remotely on the road, for an employer, clients of your own or a client abroad.
• Sailing. You live on a boat and sail from port to port.

Whoever works on the road gets steps on tax and insurance for that work. Whoever lives on a boat gets steps on the boat: the flag, your boating licence, VAT and the border. If you sail and also work on the road, choose sailing and read the step on working on the road as well.

Two things apply to all three:

• Each country decides how long you may stay. That's in the travel advice of NederlandWereldwijd, under "Passport, visa, driving licence".
• Within the EU you may, as a Dutch citizen, stay three months in any country without registering as a resident.

Not sure yet? Then choose "don't know yet" in your choices. You'll see all the steps, and choose later.

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.

With this step you see in one overview what changes if you stay registered or deregister. Then you know which steps in this plan will give you the most work.

If you stay registered and are away less than a year:

• Healthcare. Your basic insurance continues. Abroad it reimburses at most what the care costs in the Netherlands.
• AOW. You usually stay insured. The SVB is cautious about that on a world trip; let the SVB assess it.
• Child benefit. Usually continues.
• School. Your child stays of compulsory school age in the Netherlands.
• Tax. You stay liable to tax in the Netherlands, on all your income.

If you deregister:

• Healthcare. Your basic insurance stops. You arrange international insurance yourself.
• AOW. Your build-up stops: every year you're not insured means 2 percent less AOW later. You can insure yourself voluntarily.
• Child benefit. May stop; the SVB looks at where you really live.
• School. The Dutch compulsory education act no longer applies.
• Tax. If you have no new country of residence and keep ties with the Netherlands, the Belastingdienst may still see you as a resident.

If you work on the road, that can change this picture, even if you stay registered. That's in the step on working on the road.

The overwintering check on the site puts your rhythm next to the limits of the municipality, the SVB and a few winter countries. Useful if you're torn between seven and nine months away.

With this step you know what the trip costs, on top of the travelling itself, and everyone is behind the plan.

The items people forget most often:

• Insurance. International health insurance, or travel insurance that covers long enough. Continuous travel insurance has a maximum length per trip, often a few months.
• Voluntary AOW. Whoever deregisters and wants to close the AOW gap pays a premium to the SVB.
• Storage. A storage unit costs money every month, for the whole trip.
• School. You pay for distance learning yourself.
• Visas. Per country, sometimes also for extending.
• Fixed costs in the Netherlands. A house you keep, a car you don't suspend, subscriptions.
• Coming back. A new rental home, a deposit, belongings.

Then talk together about what you want, and what if it disappoints:

• How long are we going, and when do we decide whether to extend?
• Who works on the road, and how much?
• What do the children do for school, and who teaches?
• What's our plan if someone gets ill or homesick?
• Do we come back to the same house, the same town, the same school?

Write the answers down. They decide your choices later in this plan.

With this step you set your departure date. The plan counts back from that day: which step has to start when, and what's already too late.

Choose a date that fits three things:

• School. Leaving at the end of a school year makes coming back easier.
• Notice periods. Work and rent often have a month or longer.
• Your first destination. Rainy season, hurricane season or the sailing season can make a month's difference.

Fill in the date below. You can always move it later.