Look inside
The plan for Croatia, from the inside
These are all 32 steps of the Croatia 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
- 47
- Only for your situation
- 8
Phase 1
5 steps
Orientation
Croatia has been euro and Schengen since 2023, and the paperwork starts with one number: the OIB. After that the choice that decides everything isn't which city, but which side of the country — the coast with its tourist summer and empty winter, or continental Zagreb. And since 2024 your municipality literally sets your tax rate.
- 1.1
Understand the system: one number, then the police
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.2
Choose your Croatia: the coast or the continent
- Lead time
- an evening of research, and the conversation about it
- Costs
- none
- 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 a treaty sum that turns out surprisingly. The 2000 treaty has your occupational pension taxed exclusively in Croatia — and Croatia halves the tax on pension income there. But your AOW stays taxed in the Netherlands, and an ABP pension too. Whoever remembers "pension follows the country of residence" gets half of it wrong here.
- 2.1
Arrange your healthcare: the basic insurance stops on moving day
- Lead time
- start 2-3 months before departure; the CAK application takes ± 4 weeks
- Costs
- no application costs; the treaty contribution replaces your premium
2 official sources
- 2.2
AOW and pension: the treaty divides, and Croatia halves
- Lead time
- the notification is an afternoon; the exemption declaration takes weeks
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.3
The tax wrap-up: the M form and the protective assessment
- Lead time
- the M form follows in the year after departure
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.4
Stop the benefits and child benefit
- Lead time
- an hour
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.5
Deregister at 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 with the Netherlands
- Lead time
- an afternoon
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.7
Documents: extracts and the cover statement from your insurer
- Lead time
- extracts within a week; the statement on request
- Costs
- extracts ± € 15 each
1 official source
- 2.8
Partner comes along without a job of their own
- Lead time
- an evening together, then a few admin actions
- 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, let or keep
- Lead time
- one conversation with the mortgage lender and one with a tax adviser
- Costs
- advice hours; when letting, possibly an interest surcharge from the bank
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 2.11
Children who stay in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the house
- Lead time
- an evening, and then one notification a year
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
Phase 3
3 steps
The move
Within the EU and within Schengen, moving is administratively nothing: no customs, no declaration, no border control. Apart from one thing — the car. Croatia levies its special motor vehicle tax on your own relocation car too, without exemption. That's the sum you do before the removal van is booked.
- 3.1
Plan the journey and the household goods: two days' driving, no border
- Lead time
- quotes 4-6 weeks ahead
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
- 3.2
The car: do the PPMV sum first
- Lead time
- the sum is an evening; the decision belongs before the move
- Costs
- see the cost indication
2 official sources
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 Croatia
The chain, in the only order in which it works: OIB, home, registration with the police, HZZO. The OIB you arrange from the Netherlands by e-mail already — the biggest time saving of this journey. And the clock of the registration is more precise than it seems: three months plus eight days after entry.
- 4.1
The OIB: arrange it from the Netherlands
- Lead time
- by e-mail ± 8 days; at the counter often the same day
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 4.2
Find your home — and mind what kind of contract you sign
- Lead time
- searching 2-8 weeks; on the coast longer for an annual contract
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
- 4.3
Registration with MUP: form 1b, within the clock
- Lead time
- the appointment is the wait; the card follows by post
- Costs
- € 13.27 for the biometric residence card
2 official sources
- 4.4
HZZO: within eight days, and with the right paper
- Lead time
- the enrolment itself is a counter appointment
- Costs
- self-payers ± € 110-130 a month; with S1 it runs through the CAK
2 official sources
- 4.5
e-Građani: the digital key
- Lead time
- an hour, as soon as you have the residence card
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 4.6
Bank account: with OIB and your residence document
- Lead time
- an appointment; the account is usually open within a week
- Costs
- mind the monthly charges; they're customary here
1 official source
Phase 5
7 steps
Arrival
The papers are in; now it becomes a life. The car has the tightest clock of the whole journey — fifteen days for the PPMV declaration. Then the things that make the difference: the dopunsko every Croat has, the tax rate your municipality sets, and the winter in which the coast closes.
- 5.1
The car: PPMV declaration within fifteen days, then the plates
- Lead time
- declaration within 15 days; the re-registration several weeks after
- Costs
- see the cost indication
2 official sources
Only if this applies to you
- 5.2
Work: the wage level, the coast and free access
- Lead time
- ongoing
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 5.3
Healthcare in practice: the co-payment and the dopunsko
- Lead time
- ongoing
- Costs
- dopunsko € 15 a month; see the cost indication
2 official sources
- 5.4
Family: school, and the allowance that's set off
- Lead time
- enrol before the summer
- Costs
- public education is free; international from ± € 6,000 a year
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 5.5
Tax: your municipality sets the rate, and your pension counts half
- Lead time
- the return follows in spring
- Costs
- n/a
2 official sources
- 5.6
Learn Croatian: further than the campsite
- Lead time
- ongoing; count on a year before it really starts working
- Costs
- see the cost indication
- 5.7
The small print: driving licence, utilities and the bura
- Lead time
- spread over the first year
- Costs
- see the cost indication
2 official sources
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 Croatia journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 3.2 of your plan
The car: do the PPMV sum first
- Lead time
- the sum is an evening; the decision belongs before the move
- Costs
- see the cost indication
This is the step that makes Croatia different from every other EU country on this site. Almost everywhere an exemption from registration tax applies on relocation; Croatia explicitly states that there is none: whoever brings their own car pays the PPMV, the special tax on motor vehicles — also on relocation from an EU country. The amount depends on the value, CO₂ emissions and age of the car.
So do the sum before you book: with an older car the PPMV is modest, with a young or expensive car selling in the Netherlands and buying in Croatia can be cheaper. If you bring it, a clock of fifteen days for the declaration starts on arrival — that's in phase 5.
This is step 3.2 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 Croatia?
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 Croatia: 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 Croatia 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.