What changes financially when you move to Saba?

Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Saba and the Netherlands apply to your situation — which country may tax, which schemes exist and how you become insured. With the source, so you can check it.

Everything about AOW, pension and tax in Saba →

Where does your income come from?

Several answers possible. A mixed pension is the rule rather than the exception.

AOW (Dutch state pension)You receive AOW, or will start receiving it during your move.Occupational pensionPension built up with an employer outside government.Government service pensionABP years as a civil servant, state-school teacher, police or defence.Salary from work thereYou will be employed in the country itself.Self-employed work thereYou will work there as a freelancer or business owner.Rent, dividend or interestIncome from assets held outside your new country of residence.Annuity or substantial interestAn annuity policy, or 5% or more of the shares in a Dutch bv.

This applies to everyone who moves. Tick above what applies to you, and the rest is added.

Health insurance

How do you become insured, and what do you pay for it?

Insured without a policy, premium or excess

Anyone lawfully living or working on Saba is insured by operation of law through Zorg en Jeugd Caribisch Nederland — no policy, no nominal premium, no excess.

Cover is broad, and what Saba Cares cannot do is handled by medical referrals — from Saba almost always to Sint Maarten, for heavier care to Colombia or the Netherlands — including tickets and accommodation. Unlike the European pension countries, there is no CAK construction with S1 forms: pensioners are simply insured as residents, like everyone else. The flip side: the dental package is virtually empty from the age of eighteen.

Source: ZJCN — emigrating to the Caribbean Netherlands: insured by operation of law after registration, on Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius — checked on 2026-10-05

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Note

Between arrival and registration you are uninsured

Registration with the health insurance office is only possible once your residence is settled — and between your arrival and that moment you are uninsured.

The health insurance office itself advises bridging those weeks with temporary insurance: arrange it before departure, not after, and have it cover Sint Maarten too — that is where emergency care from Saba ends up. And be aware that on registration the office demands proof of the end date of your Dutch policy — so request that from your insurer.

Where this comes from: The transition gap and the proof of termination from the knowledge article on healthcare on Saba; the health insurance office describes the bridging as its own advice.

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What the Netherlands doesn't let go of

Which Dutch obligation travels with you?

Your AOW accrual stops on departure — it can be repaired, within one year

This is about the accrual, not the payment. What you've built up until you leave stays yours, but as soon as you're no longer insured in the Netherlands you build up nothing more, and every year until your AOW age costs 2% of your later AOW. If you already receive AOW, this no longer applies.

For most emigrants the insurance ends at the moment of departure; whoever keeps working in the Netherlands or is posted abroad can stay insured. Voluntary continued insurance with the SVB closes the gap, for ten years at most, but only if the application is in within one year of your compulsory insurance ending — and you were insured for at least a year directly before that. The premium depends on your income and is revised annually, so no amount is given here. Put that date in your diary before you go.

reduction per uninsured year: 2% of your AOW
application for voluntary insurance: no later than 1 year after your insurance ends
duration of voluntary insurance: 10 years at most

Source: Algemene Ouderdomswet (General Old Age Pensions Act) — article 13(1) (2% reduction per uninsured calendar year), article 35(1) (voluntary insurance, ten years at most) and article 36(1) (application no later than one year after the compulsory insurance ends) — checked on 2026-10-05

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Note

Your Dutch basic health insurance ends — and you need the proof

Basic health insurance stops when you deregister — and on Saba the health insurance office even asks for proof of the end date when you register.

So request that proof from your insurer at the moment you cancel. What replaces it is unusually simple here — insured by operation of law, without a premium bill — but only from the moment your registration is complete; you bridge the gap before that yourself.

Where this comes from: The registration requirement from the knowledge article on healthcare on Saba.

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This is not tax advice

These are the rules that apply to your situation, not the outcome of them. Saba is constitutionally the Netherlands but a foreign country for tax purposes — out of that split comes a surprisingly favourable picture with two sharp edges. What the rules together mean for your pension and assets is the work of a tax adviser who knows the BES system. Take this list to that conversation: then you know which questions to ask.

Still deciding between countries? Put the rules of two or three countries side by side

And then the journey itself

Knowing which rules apply is the first half. The second is applying them in time: in the right order, with the deadlines watched and the documents at hand.

Start your step-by-step plan for Saba See the destination

Five mails, and you see your whole journey

Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Saba: five mails in a week and a half, with the order, the pitfalls and the real costs. After that one question about where your plans stand, and beyond that only a short update when something in Saba really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.