The step-by-step plan for Scotland

In this step you learn how you may come to live in Scotland. That way you know right away whether there is a way for you, and which ways there are not.

Scotland is part of the United Kingdom (UK). The visa is handled by the British immigration service, UK Visas and Immigration (UKVI), for the whole UK. Since Brexit there is no free movement: as a Dutch national you may not simply live or work there.

As a visitor you need no visa, but you do need an ETA: a digital travel authorisation of £20. You can then usually stay up to six months. GOV.UK says literally what you cannot do as a visitor:

• "do paid or unpaid work for a UK company or as a self-employed person": work, paid or unpaid, for a British company or as a self-employed person.
• "claim public funds (benefits)": claim a British benefit.
• "live in the UK for long periods of time through frequent or successive visits": live in the UK for long periods by coming often or again and again.

Half a year here and half a year there is therefore not a way to live there. At the border they may ask how often and how long you come.

Living there is only possible with a visa. There are four routes:

• Work. A job with an employer allowed to sponsor, with the Skilled Worker visa or the Health and Care Worker visa.
• A partner. Your partner is British or Irish, or has settled status.
• Talent. Global Talent, or the High Potential Individual route for recent graduates of top universities.
• Your own business. The Innovator Founder visa, for a new and innovative business.

Three things that don't exist:

• A visa based on benefits or a pension. Whoever wants to live there on a WIA benefit, an AOW or their own assets has no route of their own. Only a partner, a job, talent or your own business gives residence.
• A working holiday for Dutch nationals. The Youth Mobility Scheme is open to a short list of countries, and the Netherlands isn't on it.
• The EU Settlement Scheme for newcomers. It is only for whoever already lived in the UK before 1 January 2021, and for a family member of someone who already lived there then. The deadline was 30 June 2021; applying later is only possible with a good reason. If you had settled status, you lose it after more than five years in a row outside the UK.

In this step you see what emigrating to Scotland does to your AOW, your benefit, your tax and your healthcare. The good news: a lot goes with you. But taking it with you is something else than being allowed to live there.

Your AOW. For the AOW (the Dutch state pension), the UK is a treaty country. The SVB says it literally: "Uw AOW verandert niet" (your AOW does not change). Whoever goes alone also keeps the full AOW. The SVB pays it in pounds into a British account.

Your WIA benefit. The UWV only lets a WIA, WAO or WAZ benefit go with you to a country outside the EU that the Netherlands has a treaty with. The UK is on the UWV list, with "yes" for the WIA. That also applies to an IVA benefit: the WIA benefit for whoever is fully and permanently unable to work. Two things don't go with you:

• The supplement to your benefit under the Toeslagenwet. For the UK it says "no".
• The WW (unemployment benefit) doesn't go with you. Outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland you cannot take your WW with you, and the UK is not part of that.

But a benefit gives no visa. You may take your WIA with you, but you may not live there on your WIA. For that you need one of the four routes, in practice often the partner route. How taking it along works exactly is in phase 3.

Your healthcare. The UK is on the CAK list of treaty countries, with Scotland literally included. If you get a Dutch benefit or pension, you register with the CAK. You then get an S1 certificate: proof that the Netherlands pays for your healthcare. With an S1 you can get the healthcare surcharge on your visa, the IHS, back in full or in part. If you work in Scotland, you fall under the NHS.

Tax. The 2008 tax treaty places pensions and social security pensions such as the AOW with the country where you live. If you live in Scotland, you pay tax there, at the Scottish rates. The same applies to a WIA benefit: the Belastingdienst puts the WIA under article 20 in its treaty table, taxed in the UK.

Your AOW accrual stops. Whoever lives in Scotland and doesn't work in the Netherlands is usually no longer insured. Each year then costs 2 percent of your later AOW. You have one year to insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB.

In this step you choose where in Scotland you want to live. That decides your work, your rent, the school and how often you see the Netherlands.

The big choices:

• Edinburgh, the capital, with the Scottish Government, universities and a lot of financial services. According to DFDS it is a couple of hours' drive from the ferry in Newcastle.
• Glasgow, the largest city, in the west.
• Aberdeen in the north-east, the city of the energy sector.
• Dundee, on the east coast between Edinburgh and Aberdeen.
• Inverness and the Highlands, spacious and thinly populated, with longer drives to hospital and school.
• The islands, such as the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland, where you take the boat or the plane for many things.

Three things to check for every place:

• Work and your visa. An employer must want and be allowed to sponsor you. Some occupations are on the list with lower salary thresholds only for Scotland. So look at the part of the UK where you will work.
• The rent and the school. Your child goes to the school for your address, through the council.
• The distance. How do you get to your work, the GP and the ferry to the Netherlands?

Go and look first. As a visitor you can usually stay up to six months.

In this step you see what the route will cost you. That way you can make a real decision later.

The biggest item everyone underestimates is the Immigration Health Surcharge (IHS): the healthcare levy you pay with your visa. It is £1,035 per adult and £776 per child, per year. You pay it in advance, for the whole length of the visa.

A few examples of the amounts GOV.UK states today:

• Skilled Worker for five years: £1,618 in fees per person, plus five years of IHS. For one adult that is £6,793 together.
• Partner visa: £2,064 in fees, plus £3,105 IHS for 2 years and 9 months.
• Health and Care Worker: £324 or £628 in fees, and no IHS.

On top of that come the language test, the move, the deposit and the first months of rent. The calculator works with your own choices and shows where the big amounts are.

In this step you decide together whether you go. You end with a few conditions on paper you both stand behind. This is the moment you can still say no. After phase 2 that costs money.

Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings for it. One conversation is too short for such a decision. Agree on three evenings, a week apart:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find in Scotland? What are we leaving behind here? Would it really be different there?
• Evening 2, what we give up. Who and what will we miss? What do we dread most? What do we do if it disappoints?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What must be in place for each of us to say yes? When do we check together whether it is going well, for example after six and twelve months? And what would be a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. Everything fits on one A4 sheet on the kitchen-table card.

With Scotland comes one question that must be on the table: whose visa are you going on? Your residence hangs on one route, and often on one job. Who carries the visa? And what does it mean if that job ends?

Divide the work. Agree who takes on which part of this plan: the visa papers, the house and the cancellations, the school, the move. That way not one of you carries everything. Invite your partner into your plan; then you both see what is done.

Is one of you going without their own income? Whoever lives in Scotland and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW. For each year you are not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. From the moment you are no longer insured, you have one year to insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. Also discuss whether that partner keeps their own account and their own money, and how you decide together on big expenses.

Married, registered or living together? Your partner and children under 18 can come along as a dependant: a family member on your visa. As a partner, a marriage or registered partnership recognised in the UK counts. If you are not married or registered, you show that you have been living together for at least two years.

With work, look carefully at your occupation code. If your job is listed as medium skilled, or you will work as a care worker or senior care worker, then as a rule your partner and children may not join you from abroad. GOV.UK then names only two exceptions:

• You were already working continuously in the UK on this visa in such a job: for medium skilled since before 22 July 2025, as a care worker since before 11 March 2024.
• It is a child born in the UK.

Are children coming along? How you tell them depends on their age:

• Up to about four: tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed routines, such as the bedtime ritual and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school: tell them well in advance and let them look along: photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, such as their room.
• Teenagers: involve them in the decision itself. For them, saying goodbye to friends weighs heaviest. Agree on how they keep in touch and when they see their friends again.

In Scotland a child starts P1, the first class of primary school, between four and a half and five and a half. The school year starts in August. You register your child with the council, the local authority where you will live.

Who learns the language, and when? In Scotland everything is in English. The language requirement of your visa usually applies only to you. Yet the partner without work often needs the language most, and has no colleagues to practise with. Plan together how to brush it up, preferably before you leave.

Choose below the date on which you want to be in Scotland. The plan calculates whether that is feasible with what still has to happen. If it gets tight, it says so honestly.

Be realistic about the part that can't be planned: a job with an employer allowed to sponsor, or an endorsement for talent or your own business. The visa itself often goes quickly after that: GOV.UK states three weeks for the work routes and twelve weeks for the partner route.

A target date is yours: you can always move it, and moving it is a fine outcome.