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The plan for Czechia, from the inside

These are all 29 steps of the Czechia 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.

Steps
29
Phases
5
Official sources
34
Only for your situation
7

Phase 1

6 steps

Orientation

Nobody stops you, and the registration certificate is voluntary — which is exactly why everyone misses the thirty-day reporting duty that is mandatory. And the treaty from 1974 is more favourable than almost everything that came after.

  1. 1.1

    Being allowed to stay is not the same as being reported

    Lead time
    reading step
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

  2. 1.2

    Know how tax and healthcare work there

    Lead time
    an evening of research
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

  3. 1.3

    Explore the region, and count the language in

    Lead time
    weeks, preferably with an exploratory trip outside summer
    Costs
    an exploratory trip is a serious cost item
  4. 1.4

    Map out what it's going to cost

    Lead time
    1-2 hours with the calculator
    Costs
    none
  5. 1.5

    The family conversation

    Lead time
    weeks, not hours
    Costs
    none
  6. 1.6

    Choose your target date

    Lead time
    decision moment
    Costs
    none

Phase 2

8 steps

Closing the Netherlands

This is where the money of this journey sits: the wage tax exemption you do apply for here, and the Czech exemption that comes on top — if you know which part of your pension falls under it.

  1. 2.1

    Gather your basic documents

    Lead time
    1-4 weeks
    Costs
    fees per extract, tens of euros in total

    1 official source

  2. 2.2

    Arrange the healthcare transition

    Lead time
    apply 6 weeks before departure
    Costs
    the treaty contribution replaces your Dutch premium

    2 official sources

  3. 2.3

    Know where you'll pay tax, and apply for the exemption

    Lead time
    one good conversation, then an application of weeks
    Costs
    advisory hours — depending on your situation

    3 official sources

  4. 2.4

    Deregister and tell the SVB

    Lead time
    deregistering is possible from 5 days before departure; the whole takes 4-8 weeks
    Costs
    limited — cancellation costs per contract

    2 official sources

  5. 2.5

    Partner comes along without a job of their own

    Lead time
    an evening together, then a few arrangements
    Costs
    none — the consequences are in the article

    2 official sources

    Only if this applies to you

  6. 2.6

    Partly staying in the Netherlands: the eight-month rule

    Lead time
    one decision, before you fix anything else
    Costs
    none

    4 official sources

    Only if this applies to you

  7. 2.7

    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

  8. 2.8

    Children who stay in the Netherlands: DUO, healthcare and the house

    Lead time
    an evening, and then one report a year
    Costs
    none

    1 official source

    Only if this applies to you

Phase 3

5 steps

The move

Within the EU there is no customs and no excise duty on the car, and yet Czechia has one clock you mustn't miss: thirty days to register the car as soon as it's there.

  1. 3.1

    Choose your form of move and ask for quotes

    Lead time
    quotes 2-3 weeks; the drive itself a day
    Costs
    according to your moving choices
  2. 3.2

    The car: no excise duty, but thirty days for the registration

    Lead time
    decision moment; the registration itself one visit, after the inspection
    Costs
    inspection, registration and insurance; no excise duty

    2 official sources

    Only if this applies to you

  3. 3.3

    Pet along: chip, rabies jab and the EU pet passport

    Lead time
    start at least three weeks before departure
    Costs
    per animal — chip, vaccination and passport at the vet

    1 official source

    Only if this applies to you

  4. 3.4

    Arrange your first accommodation, because the report asks for an address

    Lead time
    booking can be quick; do it before you leave
    Costs
    falls under "the first months" in your budget
  5. 3.5

    Tell the Dutch tax authority: the M return and the provisional assessment

    Lead time
    an evening
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

Phase 4

5 steps

Registration in Czechia

One mandatory report and one voluntary certificate, and you need them both: the report because the law says so, the certificate because the bank and the health insurer ask for it.

  1. 4.1

    Report to the Foreign Police within thirty days

    Lead time
    one visit, or through your landlord
    Costs
    free

    1 official source

  2. 4.2

    Apply for the registration certificate — voluntary, but you need it

    Lead time
    an appointment, the issue weeks
    Costs
    200 crowns fee

    1 official source

  3. 4.3

    Register your S1 with a Czech health insurer

    Lead time
    one visit to the insurer of your choice
    Costs
    none

    1 official source

  4. 4.4

    Open an account and arrange your Czech identity for the authorities

    Lead time
    days
    Costs
    account costs per month

    1 official source

  5. 4.5

    Choose a GP, before you need one

    Lead time
    days to weeks
    Costs
    none

Phase 5

5 steps

Arrival

The chain is complete. What remains is one thing you don't have to do — the driving licence — and one thing that is simpler here than almost anywhere: buying.

  1. 5.1

    The driving licence: nothing to exchange

    Lead time
    reading step
    Costs
    none

    2 official sources

  2. 5.2

    Living and buying: no restriction, but the land registry check

    Lead time
    weeks to months
    Costs
    notary or lawyer, and the entry in the land registry

    1 official source

  3. 5.3

    After five years: permanent residence

    Lead time
    one application, after five years
    Costs
    fees

    1 official source

  4. 5.4

    School for the children

    Lead time
    enrolment runs per municipality
    Costs
    public education is free; books, food and outings are not

    Only if this applies to you

  5. 5.5

    Landed

    Lead time
    the moment itself
    Costs
    none

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 Czechia journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.

Step 2.3 of your plan

Know where you'll pay tax, and apply for the exemption

Lead time
one good conversation, then an application of weeks
Costs
advisory hours — depending on your situation

The treaty places your occupational pension and your AOW exclusively with Czechia. Apply to the Dutch tax authority for the wage tax exemption with a Czech certificate of residence, otherwise your fund keeps withholding and you only get it back after a year.

The government pension is the exception: the Netherlands may tax that, unless you're a resident and a national of Czechia.

On the Czech side the law exempts regularly paid pensions from a mandatory scheme up to thirty-six times the minimum wage — in 2026 that is 806,400 crowns a year, because the minimum wage stands at 22,400 crowns. Your AOW falls under that. Whether your Dutch occupational pension counts as a "foreign mandatory insurance of the same kind" is the question your tax adviser has to answer; whatever comes out above the limit falls into the brackets of fifteen and twenty-three percent.

This is step 2.3 of 29. The other 28 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 Czechia?

All 29 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 Czechia: 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 Czechia really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.

Your address is used only for the guide and the monthly update. You can unsubscribe under every mail.

Ready to begin?

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