Look inside
The plan for Cyprus, from the inside
These are all 32 steps of the Cyprus 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
- 34
- Only for your situation
- 8
Phase 1
5 steps
Orientation
Cyprus is five hours' flying, English at every counter and famous for its tax — but the new treaty with the Netherlands has overtaken the brochures, the island is divided, and water is scarcer there than the sun suggests. This phase puts reality next to the brochure.
- 1.1
Understand the system: the yellow slip, within four months
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 1.2
Choose your Cyprus: Limassol, Larnaca, Paphos — and why not the north
- Lead time
- an evening of research, and the conversation about it
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 1.3
Get a picture of what it's going to cost
- Lead time
- 1-2 hours with the calculator
- Costs
- none
- 1.4
Take the decision together
- Lead time
- no fixed one; take your time
- Costs
- none
- 1.6
Choose your target date
- Lead time
- five minutes, below
- Costs
- none
Phase 2
11 steps
Closing the Netherlands
The familiar list, with the treaty lesson this route carries. Until 2024 the Netherlands had no treaty with Cyprus; the new treaty has a threshold of € 15,000 — and above that the Netherlands may keep taxing your whole pension-plus-AOW. The famous 5% scheme is thereby an empty shell for most Dutch people. What remains is still worth it: no inheritance tax, non-dom on your assets, and one of the lowest cost levels in the eurozone.
- 2.1
Arrange your healthcare: the basic insurance stops on moving day
- Lead time
- start 2-3 months before departure; the CAK application takes about 4 weeks
- Costs
- no application costs; the treaty contribution replaces your premium
2 official sources
- 2.2
Pension and the new treaty: the € 15,000 threshold
- Lead time
- the sum is an evening; work it out before every decision
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 2.3
The tax wind-up: M return and the protective assessment
- Lead time
- the M return follows in the year after departure
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.4
Stop allowances and child benefit
- Lead time
- an hour
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.5
Deregister with the municipality
- Lead time
- five working days before departure, not earlier
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 2.6
DigiD, bank and your vote: keep the lines to the Netherlands
- Lead time
- an afternoon
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.7
Documents: multilingual extracts
- Lead time
- extracts within a week
- Costs
- extracts about € 15 each
1 official source
- 2.8
Partner comes along without a job of their own
- Lead time
- an evening together, then a few actions to arrange
- Costs
- none — the consequences are in the article
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.9
Partly staying 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, let or keep
- Lead time
- one conversation with the mortgage lender and one with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advisory hours; when letting 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 notification a year
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
Phase 3
3 steps
The move
You reach Cyprus in five hours' flying — but everything that doesn't fit in a suitcase goes by sea. The household goods by container via Limassol, and the car with a peculiarity: the passenger ferry from Greece only sails in the summer season. And the island drives on the left — that weighs in the question of whether the car should come at all.
- 3.1
Plan the journey: flying for you, the sea for the rest
- Lead time
- quotes 4-6 weeks ahead; the ferry only in the summer season
- Costs
- see the cost indication
- 3.2
The car: driving on the left, and the question of whether it should come
- Lead time
- the sum is an evening; the decision belongs before the move
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 3.3
The pet: EU passport and a chip that can be read
- Lead time
- the vet wants two weeks' notice
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
Phase 4
6 steps
Registration in Cyprus
The chain, in the only order in which it works: home, stamp at the tax office, and only then the MEU1 appointment. After that the tax number via Tax For All, healthcare via GeSY and the bank that has checked everything twice since 2013. The clock stands at four months — ample, but the appointment diaries aren't.
- 4.1
Find your home — and have the contract stamped
- Lead time
- searching 2-6 weeks; the stamp is a counter visit
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
- 4.2
The MEU1: the yellow slip, within four months
- Lead time
- the appointment is the wait; the slip follows with a complete file
- Costs
- € 20 per person
1 official source
- 4.3
The tax number: the TIC via Tax For All
- Lead time
- online; count on days to a few weeks
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 4.4
GeSY: register and choose a GP
- Lead time
- the registration is digital; the choice of GP decides your access
- Costs
- pensioners contribute 2.65% of their income
1 official source
- 4.5
The bank account: expect questions, and have the answers ready
- Lead time
- days to weeks, depending on the file
- Costs
- mind the monthly charges
1 official source
- 4.6
Utilities and the proof of residence
- Lead time
- a week
- Costs
- see the cost indication
Phase 5
7 steps
Arrival
The papers are in; now it becomes a life. The car gets its Cypriot number plate, the return its annual pension choice, and the island its own lessons: never buy without a title deed check, cross the Green Line only at the checkpoints, and learn to live with water as a precious thing.
- 5.1
The car: registering at the DRT
- Lead time
- shortly after customs handling; count on a few weeks in total
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 5.2
Work: Limassol pays, the rest is modest
- Lead time
- ongoing
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 5.3
Tax in practice: the annual choice and the non-dom
- Lead time
- the return follows annually via Tax For All
- Costs
- n/a
1 official source
- 5.4
Family: school in English or Greek
- Lead time
- enrol before the summer
- Costs
- public free; international about € 3,000-18,000 a year
Only if this applies to you
- 5.5
Buying: never without a title deed check
- Lead time
- when the time comes; the deposit clock stands at six months
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
- 5.6
The divided island: the rules of the Green Line
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 5.7
The small print: water, heat and the rhythm
- Lead time
- spread over the first year
- Costs
- see the cost indication
8 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 Cyprus journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 2.2 of your plan
Pension and the new treaty: the € 15,000 threshold
- Lead time
- the sum is an evening; work it out before every decision
- Costs
- none
Cyprus is famous for its optional scheme: foreign pension at a flat rate of 5%. But since 1 January 2024 the first-ever tax treaty between the Netherlands and Cyprus applies, and it has a rock that almost every brochure sails around. Article 16 paragraph 2: if the total gross amount of your pensions, annuities and AOW (the Dutch state pension) in a year exceeds € 15,000, the Netherlands may keep taxing the whole — not just the excess. Cyprus then credits the Dutch tax, and because the Cypriot 5% is lower than the Dutch rate, the Dutch tax simply stands on balance.
Below the threshold only Cyprus taxes — and there the system really is friendly. An ABP pension stays Dutch anyway via article 17, unless you become a Cypriot citizen. Work out the sum before departure: for small pensions Cyprus is a tax gift, for most Dutch pensions it's tax-neutral — and then the island has to win on the other points.
This is step 2.2 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 Cyprus?
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 Cyprus: 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 Cyprus 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.