The step-by-step plan for Zanzibar

In this step you see who arranges what. Zanzibar is part of the United Republic of Tanzania, but has a government of its own. You'll notice that in almost every step of this plan: sometimes you arrange something with a Tanzanian service, sometimes with a Zanzibari one.

What	Who arranges it
Visa and residence permit	the Tanzanian immigration service, with its own head office on Zanzibar
Nationality	Tanzania
Income tax	the TRA, the Tanzanian tax authority
Importing your household goods and your car	the TRA, with the customs rules of the East African Community
Work permit	the Labour Commissioner of Zanzibar
Investing	ZIPA, the Zanzibari investment authority
Land and house	Zanzibar: a foreigner only gets a lease
VAT, stamp duty and hotel levy	the ZRA, the Zanzibari tax authority
Number plate and driving permit	Zanzibar

Four things to know right away:

• With a visa you stay at most 90 days. Whoever stays longer needs a residence permit. In most cases you apply for it before you enter the country.
• A permit is valid for at most two years. After that you extend it. A permanent residence permit isn't mentioned anywhere by the immigration service.
• You can't own land. All land on Zanzibar belongs to the state. A foreigner gets a lease, under the law of 1992 for at most 49 years.
• The travel advice is yellow, Zanzibar included. The orange part of Tanzania is far away, on the border with Mozambique.

In this step you see what emigrating to Zanzibar does to your tax, your AOW and your healthcare. The short answer: Tanzania has no tax treaty with the Netherlands, and no treaty for the AOW and healthcare.

Tax. Tanzania isn't in the overview of tax treaties of 1 October 2026. Then Dutch law applies. If you live on Zanzibar, the Netherlands keeps taxing:

• your AOW, a benefit from the SVB;
• your occupational pension and your ABP pension, wages for work you did in the Netherlands;
• your annuity, if you ever deducted the premium.

So your pension fund and the SVB withhold wage tax, just as now. An exemption, as with treaty countries, doesn't exist. Tanzania also taxes a resident on their income from everywhere, and then credits the Dutch tax. How that works out is in phase 3.

The AOW. Tanzania isn't one of the 36 countries the Netherlands has a social security treaty with. In 2024 the government wrote about those other countries: "No benefits are exported to those countries, with the exception of the AOW pension at the level of the married rate." For a couple nothing changes. Whoever goes alone drops from 70 to 50 percent of the net minimum wage. That's almost a third less. An AOW supplement for a younger partner and an Anw benefit don't go along.

Healthcare. Tanzania isn't on the list of treaty countries for healthcare. So there's no CAK. Your Dutch basic insurance stops when you deregister, and you take out international insurance yourself.

Your AOW build-up stops. Whoever lives outside the Netherlands is usually no longer insured. Every year until your AOW age then costs 2 percent of your later AOW. You can insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. Your application has to be in within one year.

Staying registered and going for half of every year? Then none of this applies: your AOW build-up and your health insurance continue. Read the next step.

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.

In this step you choose where you'll live, with the travel advice beside you.

The travel advice. NederlandWereldwijd gives Tanzania colour code yellow, last changed on 09-10-2026 and still valid on 18-10-2026. Only the border area with Mozambique, the Mtwara region, is orange. So for Zanzibar it's yellow. What the travel advice says about Zanzibar:

• Terrorism. There's a chance of an attack. "This also applies to Zanzibar."
• Crime. Watch out for pickpockets and theft. Violent robberies also happen. Don't take a bajaj, the three-wheeled taxi, in the evening.
• Clothing. On Zanzibar 95 percent of the population is Muslim. The government can give high fines if you don't cover your shoulders and knees.
• Drugs. Soft drugs are banned too. Illegal drug trafficking happens especially on Zanzibar.
• LGBTIQ+. Sexual acts between people of the same sex are punishable, up to life imprisonment. That also applies to foreigners. Take that into account if it matters for you or your family.

At every place, look at two things:

• Healthcare. In the big cities healthcare is reasonable, outside them limited, the travel advice writes. Whoever ends up in hospital sometimes has to be moved to another country. Ask at every place how far the nearest hospital is.
• Your health. Malaria, dengue and cholera are more common in the rainy season, from March through May. Cover your skin and use an insect repellent. Proof of vaccination against yellow fever is mandatory if you travel from a country where yellow fever occurs, or changed planes there.

Who you can call. The Dutch embassy is in Dar es Salaam, on the mainland, in Umoja House on Garden Avenue. Applying for a passport or having a document legalised can be done there by appointment. In an emergency NederlandWereldwijd can be reached day and night on +31 247 247 247. Sign up for the Information Service: then you get an email when the travel advice changes.

In this step you see what the move will cost you, and you decide together whether Zanzibar fits. You end with a few conditions on paper that you both stand behind.

The costs. The residence permit itself is a clear item. According to the immigration service:

Permit	Costs
Class C-2, retired from 55	500 dollars
Class C-11, buyer of a home	500 dollars
Class B-1, work	2,000 dollars
Class A-3, investor	3,000 dollars
Dependant pass, per family member	550 dollars
Re-entry pass, per person	50 dollars

A permit is valid for at most two years. Ask with every extension what it costs. On top of that comes the mandatory travel insurance from the ZIC on every trip, 44 dollars per adult and 22 dollars per child. Beyond that the money goes on the move, rent in advance and health insurance you pay for yourself. See the calculator.

The conversation. Going alone? Then have this conversation with the people you leave behind. The questions below work for them too.

Take three evenings for it. One conversation is too short for a decision like this. Agree on three evenings, a week apart:

• Evening 1, why. What do we hope to find on Zanzibar? What are we leaving behind here? Would that really be different there?
• Evening 2, what we give up. Who and what will we miss? What are we dreading most? What do we do if it disappoints?
• Evening 3, the conditions. What has to be arranged for each of us to say yes? When do we check together whether it's going well, for example after six and after twelve months? And what would be a reason for us to go back?

Write the conditions down. On the kitchen table card everything fits on one A4.

With Zanzibar, three things belong on the table:

• Half a year or for good. Do you stay registered in the Netherlands and go for a season every year, or do you emigrate? That decides your AOW, your healthcare and your permit.
• The rules of the island. Read together what the travel advice says about clothing, drugs and LGBTIQ+, and agree what that means for you.
• The distance. Family and grandchildren in the Netherlands you no longer see in between. Agree how often you'll come back.

Divide the work. Agree who takes on which part of this plan: the papers for the permit, the house and the cancellations, the school, the move. That way not one of you carries everything. Invite your partner into your plan; then you both see what's done.

Is one of you coming along without an income of their own? Whoever lives on Zanzibar and doesn't work in the Netherlands usually no longer builds up AOW. For every year you're not insured, you later get 2 percent less AOW. From the moment you're no longer insured, you have a year to insure yourself voluntarily with the SVB. Also discuss whether that partner keeps an account and money of their own, and how you decide together on large expenses.

Married, or living together? That makes a big difference here. The dependant pass, the permit for family members, names a wife and children. A male partner or a partner you're not married to isn't named by the immigration service. Look at partner and children in phase 2 to see what applies to you.

Are children coming along? How you tell them depends on their age:

• Up to about four: tell them shortly before the move and keep fixed habits, like the bedtime ritual and the cuddly toy in the hand luggage.
• Primary school: tell them well in advance and let them look along: photos of the school, the neighbourhood and the house. Let them choose something, like their room.
• Teenagers: involve them in the decision itself. For them, saying goodbye to friends weighs heaviest. Agree how they keep in touch and when they see their friends again.

On Zanzibar basic education is compulsory for ten years and free at public schools. The language of instruction at the public primary school is Kiswahili. Private schools charge school fees.

Who learns the language, and when? At the public primary school Kiswahili is the language of instruction, in secondary education English. Often the partner without work needs the language most, and precisely they have no colleagues to practise with. Plan together who takes a Kiswahili course, preferably before you leave.

Choose the day you want to leave. The plan counts back from that date: when your papers have to be legalised, when you apply for the permit and when you deregister.

Keep two clocks in mind. In most cases you apply for a residence permit and get it approved before you enter the country. And a visa is valid for at most 90 days: within that time you have your permit settled, or you're gone again. Going for a season? Then also choose the day you come back.