Zanzibar · Visa required
Emigrating to Zanzibar
Zanzibar is part of Tanzania with its own government. That's why your visa and your residence permit come from the Tanzanian immigration service, and your income tax goes to the Tanzanian tax authority. Your home, your work permit and land are arranged by Zanzibar itself. If you're 55 or older and retired, there's a permit for retirees. If you buy a home in a project approved by ZIPA, that can give you a permit. If you only want to live there half of each year, you stay registered in the Netherlands. Note: there's no tax treaty, so your AOW and your pension stay taxed in the Netherlands.
€ 399 one-off · 42 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Five routes: a pension from 55 (C-2), a home in a ZIPA project (C-11), work (B-1), investing through ZIPA (A-3), or half of every year with your registration in the Netherlands
- The clock
- A visa gives at most 90 days; whoever stays longer needs a residence permit, of at most two years and renewable
- Note
- No tax treaty and no treaty for the AOW: whoever goes alone gets the AOW for married people. No CAK, no apostille, and land can only be leased
Last updated: 18 October 2026
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Five phases, from your route to your NIDA card
This journey starts with one question: are you going to live there for good, or half of each year? Whoever emigrates chooses a residence permit from the Tanzanian immigration service: for retirees from 55, for buyers of a home in a ZIPA project, for employees or for investors. Whoever stays half a year keeps their registration in the Netherlands, with the AOW build-up and the health insurance. What the brochure doesn't say: the Netherlands and Tanzania have no tax treaty, so your AOW and your pension stay taxed in the Netherlands, and Tanzania can also tax as your country of residence. There's no CAK. And your papers are legalised, because Tanzania isn't a party to the apostille convention.
- Orientation
Who arranges what, half a year or for good, and your income
In this phase you see how Zanzibar works. Tanzania arranges your residence and your income tax, Zanzibar itself your home, land and your work permit. You choose whether you emigrate or live on Zanzibar half of each year: that decides whether you deregister in the Netherlands. You see what happens to your AOW, your pension and your healthcare without a tax treaty. And if you ever want to become Tanzanian, you first read that Tanzania has no dual nationality.Read more
- Your visa
A residence permit from the immigration service, and legalisation
In this phase you arrange your grounds to live on Zanzibar. A retiree from 55 applies for class C-2, a buyer of a home in a ZIPA project class C-11, an employee first the Zanzibar work permit and then class B-1, and an investor class A-3. Whoever comes half of each year asks which permit fits, because a visa gives at most 90 days per stay. Your papers are legalised, and your family gets a dependant pass.Read more
- Wrapping up the Netherlands
No tax treaty, the AOW for married people, and no CAK
In this phase you work through the familiar list. Without a tax treaty your AOW, your occupational pension and a government pension stay taxed in the Netherlands. There's no social security treaty: the AOW goes along up to the married rate, and child benefit stops. There's no CAK, so arrange your health insurance before you deregister. Whoever goes half of each year stays registered: then the AOW build-up and the health insurance continue, and you don't see these deregistration steps.Read more
- The move
Household goods and car tax-free as a new resident, and a permit for your pet
In this phase you move the household goods, the car and the pet. As a new resident you bring your used household goods and one car tax-free, through the Tanzanian tax authority. The car must be less than eight years old and yours for at least twelve months. Your pet needs an import permit before you enter, and you do the rabies blood test in the Netherlands. On the travel day you carry the compulsory Zanzibar travel insurance and the papers for your route.Read more
- Arriving on Zanzibar
Your permit, your NIDA card, your TIN and your bank
In this phase you arrange your papers after landing. You complete your residence permit at the immigration service. Then your NIDA card, the identity card for resident foreigners, and your TIN, your tax number with the Tanzanian tax authority. Then follow a SIM card, your bank, your healthcare, the temporary Zanzibar driving permit and your home. And put the end date of your permit in your diary: it's valid for at most two years.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Zanzibar journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 1.3 of your plan
Half a year or for good: the eight-month rule and your Dutch nationality
- Lead time
- an evening of reading; a question to the IND takes weeks
- Costs
- none
In this step you choose between two ways of going. And you see what Tanzania does to your Dutch nationality, if you ever want to become Tanzanian.
Half a year or for good? The difference lies in one rule of the BRP Act. You have to deregister from your municipality if you expect to be outside the Netherlands for at least two thirds of a year. Two thirds of a year is eight months.
| Season: six to seven months on Zanzibar | Emigrating | |
|---|---|---|
| Registration in the Netherlands | you stay registered | you deregister |
| AOW build-up | usually continues | stops, unless you insure yourself voluntarily |
| Health insurance | your Dutch policy continues | stops; no CAK, a policy of your own |
| AOW for a single person | the amount for single people | the amount for married people |
| On Zanzibar | at most 90 days per stay with a visa, beyond that a permit | a residence permit |
Two things apply either way:
- Tanzania can treat you as a tax resident. Whoever is in Tanzania for 183 days or more in a year is a resident there. Six to seven months is already enough for that. What that means is in phase 3.
- Working changes everything. If you work on Zanzibar, you need a Zanzibari work permit, and your Dutch insurance can stop too. See the season step in phase 3.
Whoever chooses the season route doesn't see the deregistration steps in this plan. Choose the route in your plan at the step "Choose your route".
Your Dutch nationality. You can live on Zanzibar as a Dutch national, with a residence permit. Becoming Tanzanian is something else:
- Tanzania doesn't allow dual nationality. Whoever naturalises renounces their other nationality, or declares they will. Within 28 days of approval you renounce it and take the oath. Otherwise the application lapses.
- The Netherlands takes away your Dutch nationality if you voluntarily acquire another nationality. The exception for whoever is married to someone of that nationality doesn't help here: Tanzania still asks you to renounce.
- The conditions. You live in Tanzania without interruption for the twelve months just before the application, and for at least seven years in total in the ten years before that. You speak enough Kiswahili or English.
- The costs. When you submit, you pay 1,500 dollars, which you don't get back. The Tanzanian embassy in The Hague then names another 3,500 dollars after approval.
- Through marriage only a woman married to a Tanzanian can naturalise, as long as her husband is alive. For a man that route isn't there.
So for almost everyone in this plan the conclusion is: you stay Dutch, with a Tanzanian residence permit. A home on Zanzibar doesn't give you a passport, and a business of your own needs a permit even for half a year a year and can stop your AOW build-up.
What this step rests on
- BRP Act, article 2.43 — notice of departure when you're outside the Netherlands for at least two thirds of the year
- NederlandWereldwijd — when do I have to deregister from a Dutch municipality
- Income Tax Act, Cap. 332 R.E. 2023, section 86 — resident of Tanzania at 183 days or more in a year
- Tanzania Citizenship Act, Cap. 357 R.E. 2023, sections 7, 9, 11 and 12 and the Second Schedule — naturalisation, and renouncing another nationality
- IND — dual nationality: whoever voluntarily acquires another nationality loses the Dutch one
- IND — losing Dutch nationality: the exceptions
- Besluit uitbreiding en beperking kring verzekerden volksverzekeringen 1999, articles 1 and 12 — not insured when working only outside the Netherlands for three months or more, also as a self-employed person
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Zanzibar.
This is step 1.3 of 42. The other 41 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 42 steps for ZanzibarEvery step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Zanzibar: every step in order, to print and tick off. With it, five mails in a week and a half about the pitfalls and the real costs. If the rules for Zanzibar change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, and now and then we send one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
What will your move to Zanzibar cost? Work it out →Also want to know whether your departure date is feasible? Take the departure scan: seven questions, and you see your whole plan in miniature →
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in Zanzibar? Is there a favourable regime, a scheme that lowers your tax? And how do you get insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you'll see which rules apply to you, with the source.
See the financial conditionsClosing down the Netherlands: all your letters in one go
Moving to Zanzibar starts with leaving the Netherlands properly. That's why the plan includes the letter tool: you enter your details once and every cancellation and notification letter is ready.
Just the letters, without the plan? That works too, for € 49
- Health insurance, rent, energy, subscriptions, GP, school, bank and pension fund: 16 kinds of letters. You enter your details only once.
- A sending list that counts back from your departure date and your notice period, even when that's three months.
- Also what you need to ask for as an emigrant: your no-claims years in English, your medical file and the school report (the report on your child for the new school).
Auke, maker of Vertrekklaar
On 2 January we're leaving ourselves, on a trip around the world with our family. What I put here, I'm arranging for my own family too.
On 20 September 2026 a customer wrote that the CAK rule for early retirement was missing from his plan. He was right. That evening the step was in thirteen plans, with the source attached.
The knowledge base on Zanzibar
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Dual nationality and Tanzania: what happens to your Dutch citizenshipTanzania does not allow dual nationality. Anyone who wants to become Tanzanian must give up Dutch nationality after living in Tanzania for at least seven years. For Dutch nationals on Zanzibar, a residence permit is therefore the route, not a Tanzanian passport.
- The routes to living on Zanzibar: retirement, a home, work or investmentAnyone staying on Zanzibar for more than 90 days needs a residence permit from the Tanzanian immigration service. There are four routes: retired at 55 or older, as the buyer of a home in a ZIPA project, with a job, or as an investor. The fifth route is not emigration: half of every year on Zanzibar, while staying registered in the Netherlands.
- Half a year on Zanzibar while staying registered in the NetherlandsIf you spend six or seven months on Zanzibar every year, you may stay registered in the Netherlands: you only have to deregister from eight months. Your state pension (AOW) build-up and your health insurance then usually continue. But more than 90 days requires a residence permit, and at 183 days you are also tax resident in Tanzania.
- Buying a house in Zanzibar: a lease from the state, and what ZIPA arrangesIn Zanzibar all land belongs to the state. A foreigner cannot own land, only obtain a lease: by law at most 49 years, renewable. For a home in a real estate project approved by ZIPA there is a separate scheme: from USD 100,000 it can bring a residence permit and half off the stamp duty.
- Working on Zanzibar: the work permit and the residence permitAs a foreigner you can only work on Zanzibar with a work permit from the Zanzibar Labour Commissioner. A long-term work permit is valid for six to twelve months. Then you apply to the Tanzanian immigration service for a Class B-1, for USD 2,000. Investors go through ZIPA and the Class A-3.
- AOW, pension and tax in Zanzibar: no treaty, so the Netherlands taxesThe Netherlands and Tanzania have no tax treaty. The Netherlands therefore keeps taxing your AOW, your company pension, your ABP pension and your annuity, with wage tax withheld at source. Tanzania can also tax you as a resident, with a credit. There is no social security agreement either: a single person receives the AOW for married people.
All 15 articles about Zanzibar
- School in Zanzibar: ten years of compulsory education, in Kiswahili and English
- Healthcare in Zanzibar: no CAK, so insure yourself
- Car and driving licence on Zanzibar: the temporary permit and bringing a car
- Household goods to Zanzibar: duty free as a new resident, within 90 days
- Your pet to Zanzibar: an import permit in advance, and the blood test for the way back
- Banking and paying on Zanzibar: opening an account as a foreigner
- The first weeks on Zanzibar: permit, numbers, bank and a home
- Renting in Zanzibar: stamp duty, the rent board and what you agree yourself
- Registration and numbers on Zanzibar: permit, NIDA card, TIN and SIM card
Also applies to your move
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The step-by-step plan for Zanzibar: 42 steps, with your documents and your costs in one place. For each step you see the latest date to start. You pay once and it's yours.