What changes financially when you move to Sint Eustatius?
Tick where your income comes from. You then see which rules Sint Eustatius 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.
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 Sint Eustatius is insured by operation of law through Zorg en Jeugd Caribisch Nederland — no policy, no nominal premium, no excess.
Cover is broad, and what the island cannot do is handled by medical referrals abroad — usually to Sint Maarten, twenty minutes' flight, and further to Curaçao, 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.
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 be aware that on registration the office in the Mazinga building asks for 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 Sint Eustatius; the health insurance office describes the bridging as its own advice.
Read the whole storyWhat 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 2026-09-19
Read the whole storyYour Dutch basic health insurance ends — and you need the proof
Basic health insurance stops when you deregister — and on Sint Eustatius 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 Sint Eustatius.
Read the whole storyThis is not tax advice
These are the rules that apply to your situation, not the outcome of them. Sint Eustatius 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.
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Sint Eustatius: 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 Sint Eustatius really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.