The step-by-step plan for Uruguay

In this step you learn how you may come to live in Uruguay. It starts differently from most countries: you apply for nothing in advance. With a Dutch passport you enter without a visa as a visitor, for 90 days. The Dirección Nacional de Migración (DNM), the migration service, can extend that by 90 days.

In that time you apply in Uruguay for your residence permit, the residencia. The migration law, Ley 18.250, has two kinds:

• Residencia permanente. For whoever settles for good. Also with a pension or capital.
• Residencia temporaria. For whoever comes for an activity with an end, such as work or study. At least half a year, at most two years, extendable.

On top of that there's the hoja de identidad provisoria, for whoever stays shorter, also as a digital nomad. See step 2.4.

The interior ministry puts it like this: whoever meets the requirements applies for the permanent one straight away. Having temporaria first isn't needed.

Not retired yet? Whoever leaves before the AOW age looks at the income that exists then: own capital or an annuity for the permanente, a job for the temporaria, or work for foreign clients as a digital nomad.

In this step you see what emigrating to Uruguay does to your tax, your AOW and your healthcare. Three treaties decide it, and all three turn out differently.

Tax: no treaty. Uruguay isn't in the Belastingdienst table of treaty countries. There's only a 2012 agreement on exchanging information. Without a tax treaty the Netherlands has the right to tax. Your AOW, your pension and your annuity therefore stay taxed in the Netherlands. On the Uruguayan side the income tax, the IRPF, taxes income from Uruguay. Of income from abroad it only taxes capital income since 1 January 2026: interest, dividend and rent, and the gain on investments and real estate. Your Dutch pension isn't in it. How that works out is in steps 3.2 and 3.3.

The AOW: a treaty after all. The Netherlands and Uruguay have had a social security treaty since 1 June 2008. Uruguay is among the 36 countries to which the Netherlands sends the full AOW. Whoever goes alone therefore keeps the AOW for a single person. That's different from most countries in South America.

Healthcare: no treaty. Uruguay isn't on the list of treaty countries for healthcare. So there's no CAK. Your Dutch basic insurance stops when you deregister. See step 3.1.

Your AOW build-up stops. Whoever lives outside the Netherlands is usually no longer insured. Every year until your AOW age then costs 2 percent of your later AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. The application has to be in within one year.

In this step you choose where you want to live. Uruguay is small, but Montevideo, the coast and the interior are three different lives. Whoever knows the capital or Punta del Este from a holiday doesn't know the country yet.

At every place, look at three things:

• The season. Uruguay is in the southern hemisphere: winter falls in our summer. Live for a few weeks in the place you choose, in the season in which you'll really be there.
• Healthcare. At every place, ask which hospitals and healthcare providers there are, and how far it is to the nearest one.
• The offices. You arrange your residencia at a DNM office. Besides Montevideo there are offices in Colonia, Maldonado, Paysandú and Rivera, among others.

Your scouting trip can immediately become the start of your application. As a visitor you may stay 90 days, and you apply for the residencia in Uruguay. See step 2.7.

In this step you see what the move will cost you. On the application side Uruguay is cheap. The residencia costs 557.30 UI, about 82 euros, and the identity card 456 pesos.

The money sits in three other items:

• The healthcare that replaces the CAK: a policy for the first months, and then membership of ASSE or a mutualista.
• The move across the ocean. The household goods themselves go along free of import duties.
• The car, because a used car may not enter Uruguay. You sell it here and buy another one there.

Count the rental guarantee in too: a landlord may ask for up to five months' rent as a guarantee. See step 5.7.

In this conversation you decide together whether Uruguay fits, and when. With this country come three things you have to see together.

• The language. At the DNM, the bank and the doctor everything is in Spanish. Whoever doesn't speak Spanish brings an interpreter to the DNM. Agree who will learn Spanish, and how.
• The distance. Family and grandchildren in the Netherlands you no longer see in passing. Agree how often you'll come back. While your application is running, you pay a re-entry permit every time you leave.
• The long absence. A residencia permanente can lapse if you're away for more than three years. Whoever later wants to commute every half year keeps an eye on that limit.

Choose the day you want to leave. The plan counts back from that date: when the papers from the Netherlands must be in, when the household goods go out the door and when you deregister.

Count two clocks in. Your marriage certificate may be at most a year old at the application. And as a visitor you have 90 days, with at most 90 on top, to start your application at the DNM.