Look inside
The plan for Belgium, from the inside
These are all 32 steps of the Belgium journey, exactly as they appear in your personal plan — with the lead time and the costs next to them. Not a brochure: this is the file that feeds the platform. Pick another country below if you're heading elsewhere.
For which country?
Every country has its own steps, its own order and its own clocks. Switch as often as you like.
- Steps
- 32
- Phases
- 5
- Official sources
- 62
- Only for your situation
- 7
Phase 1
6 steps
Orientation
Belgium is close by, Dutch-speaking and still a real emigration — whoever believes "nothing's needed" finds out from the neighbourhood police officer. You take the most important decision here: do you keep working in the Netherlands or switch to a Belgian salary? That one answer decides your healthcare, your AOW and your allowances.
- 1.1
Free movement is not free of formalities
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.2
Choose your scenario: cross-border work or a Belgian salary
- Lead time
- an evening — this is the decision of this route
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.3
Choose your region — and with it your rules
- Lead time
- an evening of comparing
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.4
Get a picture of what it's going to cost
- Lead time
- 1-2 hours with the calculator
- Costs
- none
- 1.5
Take the decision together
- Lead time
- no fixed one; take your time
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 1.6
Choose your target date
- Lead time
- five minutes, below
- Costs
- none
Phase 2
11 steps
Winding up the Netherlands
Which half of the Netherlands you take along you decided in step 1.2 — this phase carries it out. Cross-border workers keep more than they think (health insurance, healthcare allowance, AOW accrual, mortgage interest deduction); whoever switches fully closes off neatly. And for everyone: the file of evidence for the Belgian application has to cross the border complete.
- 2.1
The healthcare route that belongs to your scenario
- Lead time
- 1-2 weeks of research and applying
- Costs
- cross-border workers: CAK contribution per family member; pensioners: treaty contribution × 0.8165
3 official sources
- 2.2
AOW and pension: check the treaty
- Lead time
- an afternoon of research; with pension assets: an adviser
- Costs
- possibly advice
3 official sources
- 2.3
The tax authorities: qualifying, deferring, and one free helpdesk
- Lead time
- an afternoon; the income statement becomes an annual ritual
- Costs
- none
3 official sources
- 2.4
Child benefit and allowances: the EU order of priority
- Lead time
- an hour, partly by phone
- Costs
- none
3 official sources
- 2.5
Deregister with the municipality
- Lead time
- in the last 5 days before departure
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 2.6
DigiD, bank and your vote
- Lead time
- an afternoon
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.7
Get the file for annex 19 ready
- Lead time
- 1-2 weeks
- Costs
- fees per document
2 official sources
- 2.8
Partner comes along without a job of their own
- Lead time
- an evening together, then a few things to arrange
- Costs
- none — the consequences are in the article
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.9
Living partly in the Netherlands: the eight-month rule
- Lead time
- one decision, before you commit to anything else
- Costs
- none
4 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.10
The house in the Netherlands: sell, rent out or keep
- Lead time
- one conversation with the mortgage lender and one with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours; when renting out possibly an interest surcharge from the bank
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.11
Children staying in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the house
- Lead time
- an evening, and after that one report a year
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
Phase 3
5 steps
The move
The move itself is an intra-EU drive without customs — the real chapters are the car (BPM back, BIV ahead, and a 13-week clock in between) and the home, where the deposit belongs on a blocked account and the low-emission zone helps decide your choice of neighbourhood.
- 3.1
The move itself: a drive, not an operation
- Lead time
- plan 2-4 weeks ahead
- Costs
- see the cost indication
2 official sources
- 3.2
The car: BPM back, BIV ahead — with a clock of 13 weeks
- Lead time
- the whole chain 2-6 weeks; the refund clock is hard
- Costs
- inspection and registration; the BIV per region — see the cost indication
3 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 3.3
Check the LEZ before you choose the neighbourhood
- Lead time
- ten minutes — and possibly a different decision
- Costs
- registration free; fines not
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 3.4
Renting the Belgian way: the deposit on the right account
- Lead time
- searching and signing, 2-6 weeks
- Costs
- deposit 2-3 months (blocked) plus the first rent
2 official sources
- 3.5
Buying can come later — and the duties differ per region
- Lead time
- reading step — deliberately no action this year
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
Phase 4
5 steps
Registration in Belgium
The chain is short but precise: annex 19 with the complete file, the neighbourhood police officer, the EU card, and then the digital keys. Whoever comes complete is sorted in weeks — and you get the national register number on day one already.
- 4.1
Apply: annex 19, with the complete file
- Lead time
- one municipality visit; at the latest three months after arrival
- Costs
- the application itself is free or a matter of tens of euros, per municipality
2 official sources
- 4.2
The neighbourhood police officer really comes
- Lead time
- usually within a few weeks of the application
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 4.3
Get your EU card
- Lead time
- production and PIN codes: count on 2-3 weeks
- Costs
- around € 20, differs per municipality
1 official source
- 4.4
Activate itsme and the digital keys
- Lead time
- an evening, with a card reader or via the bank
- Costs
- none; a USB card reader costs about ten euros
2 official sources
- 4.5
Connect your healthcare: mutualiteit — or precisely not
- Lead time
- 1-2 weeks
- Costs
- Flemish care premium € 100 a year (from 26); supplementary mutualiteit contribution
2 official sources
Phase 5
5 steps
Arrival
Being sorted is quick here — becoming Belgian takes longer. The last phase gets daily life on track: the salary package with its own logic, the school with its enrolment windows, the bank, the two tax returns — and the clocks that belong to your card.
- 5.1
Work and pay the Belgian way — or the border commute
- Lead time
- the first working month
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 5.2
School and childcare: enrol, don't walk in
- Lead time
- enrolment windows per city; start as soon as the neighbourhood is known
- Costs
- publicly funded education almost free; childcare according to income
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 5.3
Bank, Bancontact and the fixed costs
- Lead time
- a week
- Costs
- account charges per bank
2 official sources
- 5.4
The returns: two countries, one year
- Lead time
- the M return comes next spring; Tax-on-web the year after
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 5.5
The driving licence and the clocks of your card
- Lead time
- reading step — with two diary items
- Costs
- exchanging (voluntary): € 20 plus municipal tax
2 official sources
7 of these steps aren't always there. They appear only when your answers call them up — a pet, a car, children staying behind. That's the difference between a plan and a checklist in which you have to work out yourself what applies.
Look inside
This is what one step of your plan looks like
Not a brochure but the real thing: this is one of the steps of the Belgium journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 1.2 of your plan
Choose your scenario: cross-border work or a Belgian salary
- Lead time
- an evening — this is the decision of this route
- Costs
- none
Unique to Belgium: your emigration is a menu of choices. If you keep working in the Netherlands, you stay socially insured there — your AOW accrual (the Dutch state pension) simply continues, you keep your Dutch health insurance and healthcare allowance, and the Netherlands taxes your salary. If you switch to a Belgian employer, everything moves with you: a mutualiteit (health fund) instead of a health insurer, a Belgian rustpensioen next to a frozen AOW, and a payslip with a logic of its own — higher charges, but also double holiday pay, a thirteenth month and automatic indexation. Work out both scenarios before you sign anything; the difference is bigger than any gross salary suggests.
This is step 1.2 of 32. The other 31 are ready for you — each with the same sources, the same counters and a planning that watches your dates.
And what you don't see here
This page shows the content. What a page can't show is the work the platform does for you afterwards:
- The clocks that start running the moment you begin, and a nudge at the moment something is asked of you — not earlier.
- Your documents in one place, with their expiry dates watched, so nothing lapses while you wait for something else.
- The ticking off, together with your partner on the same journey.
- The steps that drop out or appear based on your answers, so your plan holds only what really applies to you.
Ready to start on Belgium?
All 32 steps, set to your situation and with the deadlines watched. € 199 once, no subscription.
The departure guide
Five mails, and you see your whole journey
Not ready to start yet? Then we'll send you the departure guide for Belgium: 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 Belgium really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Ready to begin?
Thirty-six journeys are fully ready — Austria, Belgium, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, England, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Malta, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Aruba, Bonaire, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Canada, Panama, United States, Suriname, China, Dubai, Indonesia, Japan, Thailand, Turkey, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand: your step-by-step plan, your documents and your costs in one place, with the timing watched. Pay once, and it's yours.