Look inside
The plan for South Africa, from the inside
These are all 34 steps of the South Africa 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.
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- Steps
- 34
- Phases
- 5
- Official sources
- 43
- Only for your situation
- 6
Phase 1
5 steps
Orientation
South Africa is not an EU move but a visa journey with a department that is notoriously slow — and at the same time a country where the sums work out surprisingly well: full AOW export, an exemption for foreign pensions, no jet lag and half the housing costs. This phase puts the routes and the honest reality side by side.
- 1.1
Understand the system: your residence is a visa, and the department is slow
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 1.2
Explore the routes: pension, assets, work or partner
- Lead time
- an evening of reading, 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
6 steps
Your visa
The application is a file of evidence: income or assets, clearances from every country you lived in, and everything apostilled. The police clearances are only valid for six months — so the order of gathering is itself a clock. And since July 2026 the medical report has been scrapped; checklists that still mention it are out of date.
- 2.1
Make the route choice final
- Lead time
- a week of calculating and comparing
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 2.2
Gather the documents: clearances and apostilles
- Lead time
- 4-8 weeks; the police clearance is valid for 6 months
- Costs
- clearances and apostilles ± € 30-60 per document
2 official sources
- 2.3
Build the proof of income or assets
- Lead time
- 2-4 weeks, partly at your pension fund or accountant
- Costs
- accountant's statement on quotation
1 official source
- 2.4
Submit at the embassy in The Hague
- Lead time
- the appointment plus the processing time; count in months
- Costs
- fees plus service charges; see the cost indication
1 official source
- 2.5
The waiting time: what you can and can't do
- Lead time
- the processing time itself; use it
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 2.6
After issue: know your validity and your extension clock
- Lead time
- an hour of reading that saves months later
- Costs
- none
1 official source
Phase 3
11 steps
Closing the Netherlands
The familiar list, with two big differences. There's no healthcare treaty: no S1, no CAK — you arrange your private insurance before departure, because the visa asks for it. And the tax treaty is a source-state treaty: the Netherlands keeps levying on AOW, pension and annuity — but South Africa largely exempts foreign pensions, so you don't pay twice.
- 3.1
Arrange your healthcare: private, and before departure
- Lead time
- comparing and taking out 2-4 weeks
- Costs
- count on € 100-400 per person per month, age-dependent
2 official sources
- 3.2
AOW and pension: the Netherlands levies, South Africa exempts
- Lead time
- the report is an afternoon; the sum is an evening
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 3.3
The tax wind-up: M return and the protective assessment
- Lead time
- the M return follows in the year after departure
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 3.4
Stop allowances, and inform the SVB
- Lead time
- an hour
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 3.5
Deregister with the municipality
- Lead time
- five working days before departure, not earlier
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 3.6
DigiD, bank and your vote: keep the lines with the Netherlands
- Lead time
- an afternoon
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
- 3.7
Documents: apostilles, and a file that keeps travelling with you
- Lead time
- 2-3 weeks
- Costs
- certificates and apostilles ± € 30-60 per document
1 official source
- 3.8
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
- 3.9
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
- 3.10
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
- 3.11
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 4
4 steps
The move
The container takes six to ten weeks and the household contents are exempt — provided the form is right. The car doesn't come: left-hand drive cars are simply banned in South Africa. And the pet has the longest lead time of everyone: you apply for the import permit at least two months before departure.
- 4.1
The container: six to ten weeks, and form DA 304
- Lead time
- quotes 6-8 weeks ahead; the voyage itself 6-10 weeks
- Costs
- see the cost indication
2 official sources
- 4.2
The car: sell it, because left-hand drive can't enter the country
- Lead time
- sale 2-4 weeks before departure
- Costs
- the sale actually brings money in; the BPM refund lapses here
2 official sources
- 4.3
The pet: the two-month permit
- Lead time
- permit at least 2 months in advance; vaccination windows within that
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 4.4
The flight: eleven and a half hours, zero jet lag
- Lead time
- book as soon as the visa is there
- Costs
- see the cost indication
Phase 5
8 steps
Arrival in South Africa
The papers are in; now it becomes a life. The tax authority and the bank both want a file, you choose the house by neighbourhood before price, the school by quintile — and the clocks keep running: the extension sixty days before expiry, and for permanent holders into the country at least once every three years.
- 5.1
SARS: register your tax status
- Lead time
- registration within weeks of settling
- Costs
- none
1 official source
- 5.2
The bank: the FICA file
- Lead time
- days to two weeks, provided the file is complete
- Costs
- watch the monthly charges
1 official source
- 5.3
Housing: choose the neighbourhood before the house
- Lead time
- renting 2-6 weeks; buying at a South African pace
- Costs
- see the cost indication
1 official source
- 5.4
Healthcare in practice: using the medical aid
- Lead time
- registrations and GP choice in the first weeks
- Costs
- premium plus excesses; see the cost indication
1 official source
- 5.5
Family: the school by quintile and in practice
- Lead time
- enrol well before January; the school year follows the calendar year
- Costs
- public R 25,000-60,000 a year in the good neighbourhoods; private more
1 official source
Only if this applies to you
- 5.6
The car: buying right-hand drive, and your driving licence
- Lead time
- buy in the first weeks; the driving licence has more time
- Costs
- see the cost indication
- 5.7
Safety as a system, not as fear
- Lead time
- the first months are the apprenticeship
- Costs
- security is often included in the service charges of estate or complex
- 5.8
The clocks in the diary
- Lead time
- half an hour, and then never forget again
- Costs
- none
2 official sources
6 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 South Africa 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
AOW and pension: the Netherlands levies, South Africa exempts
- Lead time
- the report is an afternoon; the sum is an evening
- Costs
- none
Whoever brings the southern European logic along — pension follows the country of residence — counts themselves thousands of euros too rich here. Article 17 of the treaty lets pensions, annuities and social security benefits be taxed in the country they come from: the Netherlands simply withholds wage tax on your AOW (the Dutch state pension), your occupational pension and your annuity, without a threshold amount. An exemption declaration isn't on the cards, and an ABP pension stays Dutch anyway via article 18.
The good news is on the other side: South Africa exempts foreign pensions for service outside South Africa, just like foreign social security benefits — so you don't pay twice, but simply the Dutch rate. That exemption was politically under discussion in 2025 and survived; it's the monitoring point of this route, and the step-by-step plan keeps an eye on it.
This is step 3.2 of 34. The other 33 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 South Africa?
All 34 steps, set to your situation and with the deadlines watched. € 399 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 South Africa: 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 South Africa 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.