South Africa · visa route
Emigrating to South Africa
South Africa is a classic Dutch emigration country with a modern paper mill: a visa journey at a department notoriously slow, with a retirement visa that asks R 37,000 a month per applicant. The sums turn out surprisingly well — full AOW export, a South African exemption for foreign pension, half the housing costs and zero jet lag — and the honest conversation about safety and healthcare is inseparably part of it. This page shows how it really works.
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- Kind of journey
- Visa — routes on pension, assets or work
- The big sum
- NL taxes pension and AOW; SA exempts
- Note
- Left-hand-drive cars are banned — the car stays home
Last updated: August 2026
The journey
Five phases, from the route choice to the clocks in the diary
A route of evidence files and honest conversations. The retirement visa with its requirement per applicant, the police certificates that are only valid for six months, the medical report scrapped since July 2026. The treaty that works the other way round — the Netherlands taxes, South Africa exempts. The container of six to ten weeks, the pet with its two-month permit, and the car that simply isn't allowed along. And on arrival: the neighbourhood before the house.
- 1
Orientation
Four routes, one slow department — and the most honest conversation on the site
Your stay here is a visa: the retirement visa (R 37,000 a month per applicant, salary doesn't count), the assets route (R 12 million, permanent right away), the remote work visa (R 650,796 a year) or the points system for those coming to work. Home Affairs is notoriously slow and the undesirable rule on overstay is relentless — this journey is about timing. And before everything the honest conversation: safety as a system, the distance, and healthcare in old age.
- 2
Your visa
An evidence file with a six-month clock
The application is an evidence file: pension statements, bank statements, on the assets route an accountant's declaration — and police certificates from every country where you lived a year since you were eighteen, which are only valid for six months. Everything apostilled, because this isn't the EU. The medical report was scrapped as of 8 July 2026; outdated checklists still mention it. Lodge at the embassy in The Hague, complete and with margin — and after issue the renewal clock starts: lodge while the visa is still valid for sixty days.
- 3
Closing the Netherlands
No S1 — and a treaty that works the other way round
The familiar list with two big differences. There's no healthcare treaty: no S1, no CAK — you arrange your private medical aid before departure, because the visa file asks for it. And the tax treaty is a source-state treaty: the Netherlands keeps taxing AOW, pension and annuity, without threshold — but South Africa largely exempts foreign pension, so you don't pay twice. The AOW comes along at a hundred percent, albeit in rand. And the protective assessment asks for security outside the EU.
- 4
The move
The container, the pet — and the car that stays home
The container takes six to ten weeks and the removal goods are exempt, provided the DA 304 form is right and you keep the things for six months. The pet has the longest lead time: the import permit you apply for at least two months ahead, with chip and vaccination windows — and the chip number is the number-one cause of failure. The car doesn't come along: left-hand-drive vehicles are banned in South Africa, without exception. Sell in the Netherlands, buy in the Cape. And the flight itself: a good eleven hours, zero jet lag.
- 5
Arrival in South Africa
The neighbourhood before the house, and the clocks in the diary
SARS and the bank both want a file — FICA asks for a fresh proof of address. The house you choose on neighbourhood before price, because safety is hyperlocal there, and renting for six months before buying is the common wisdom. The medical aid gets its gap cover, the school its quintile choice, the driveway a right-hand-drive car. And the clocks keep running: the renewal sixty days before expiry, permanent residence used at least once every three years, and the tax monitoring point kept in view.
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.
What it costs
A rough indication for your situation
A few short questions, and you get a range instead of an amount. That's deliberate: an exact figure would suggest a precision nobody has.
Count on a total of
€ 2.300 – € 8.400
Where does that difference come from?
- De eerste maanden€ 1.500 – € 5.000
Open the breakdown below: there you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 450 – € 2.400
- De verhuizing
- € 400 – € 1.000
- De eerste maanden
- € 1.500 – € 5.000
View the itemsPer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- Visum, verklaringen en apostilles(estimate)€ 150 – € 1.200
De visumleges en servicekosten wisselen per route en worden door de ambassade gepubliceerd; tel daarbij de justitiële verklaringen (± € 30-60 per document met apostille), de internationale akten en bij de vermogensroute een accountantsverklaring. Wie een agent of immigratieadvocaat inschakelt — bij de tragere routes geen luxe — rekent op honderden tot ruim duizend euro extra. De financially-independent-route kent daarbovenop een fee van R 120.000 ná goedkeuring, die hier buiten de band valt.
- De private zorgverzekering (visumeis)(estimate)€ 300 – € 1.200
Zuid-Afrika is geen verdragsland: er is geen S1 en geen CAK-route, en het visumdossier vraagt bewijs van medische dekking. Reken op € 100 tot € 400 per persoon per maand voor een medical aid of internationale polis, sterk leeftijdsafhankelijk — de post hieronder dekt de eerste maanden premie die je vóór en rond de aanvraag al draagt.
De verhuizing
- Reis(estimate)€ 400 – € 1.000
Ruim elf uur rechtstreeks vliegen naar Kaapstad, zonder jetlag — het tijdsverschil is nul tot één uur. Reken op enkele honderden euro's per ticket, met ruimbagage voor de eerste weken omdat de container zes tot tien weken onderweg is.
De eerste maanden
- De eerste maanden(estimate)€ 1.500 – € 5.000
De huren zijn laag naar Nederlandse maatstaven: een appartement met één slaapkamer kost in Kaapstad omgerekend € 400 tot € 700 en in Johannesburg minder, met een borg van één tot twee maanden. Tel de overbrugging tot de container arriveert, de aansluitingen en het armed-response-abonnement dat in veel wijken standaard is, en de lopende premie van de medical aid. De randkoers maakt elke euro-omrekening een momentopname.
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 2 to 8% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 5.000 to € 20.000.
Buitenlanders kopen vrij, onder dezelfde regels als Zuid-Afrikanen. De transfer duty begint pas boven R 1.210.000 en loopt in schijven op tot 13% voor het topsegment — op een gangbare gezinswoning blijft de effectieve druk bescheiden. Tel de conveyancer (± 1-2%) en de registratie erbij. De echte koopwijsheid is hier niet fiscaal maar lokaal: huur eerst een half jaar in de wijk, want veiligheid en waarde zijn er hyperlokaal.
An order of magnitude based on averages, not a quote. The real amounts depend on your occupation, your route, the season and dozens of choices you still have to make.
The rates in this calculation haven't been checked against the official sources yet.
Your complete, personal cost picture — with your route, your documents and your deadlines — you get in Vertrekklaar.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Who may tax your pension once you live in South Africa, is there a favourable regime, and how do you become insured? That depends on where your income comes from. Tick it and you see which rules apply to you — with the source.
See the financial conditionsThe 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 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.
Read on
The knowledge base on South Africa
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
Closing the Netherlands
- 3 min
AOW, pension and tax in South Africa: the source-state treaty
The Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW, pension and annuity — the 2005 treaty is a source-state treaty without a threshold. But South Africa largely exempts foreign pensions, so you don't pay twice. The AOW goes with you at 100% (in rand), and the exemption that carries the sum was already up for debate once in 2025 — the key point to monitor on this corridor.
Updated 29 August 2026
- 2 min
Healthcare in South Africa: medical aid, gap cover and the age sum
There is no healthcare treaty, no S1 and no CAK: you insure yourself privately, before departure, because the visa requires it. Private healthcare in the cities is excellent — the system around it you have to learn: medical aid, designated providers, gap cover, and a premium that rises with age. Whoever plans their old age here does the age sum first.
Updated 29 August 2026
Leaving the Netherlands — for every destination
- 2 min
Keeping a bank account and DigiD: the two lines you never cut
After your deregistration you still need the Netherlands for years — for the M return, refunds and your pension. Within the EU your bank account is a right, towards Australia a favour from the bank. And your DigiD you arrange before departure, not after.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
The protective assessment: the bill that travels with you, and that never expires for one item
On emigration the Netherlands imposes an assessment on your pension, your annuity and your substantial shareholding that you don't have to pay — as long as you do nothing that makes it collectable. For pension and annuity it usually lapses after ten years. For a substantial shareholding it doesn't: that one remains valid indefinitely.
Updated 27 August 2026
- 2 min
Emigrating with children after a divorce: the consent that comes before everything
With joint custody you can't just go abroad with the children — you need the consent of the other parent, or substitute consent from the court. What the court weighs, and why leaving without consent is legally child abduction.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Emigrating on early retirement: the CAK route is expected to close as of 1 November 2026
Whoever moves to the EU or Switzerland with a Dutch pension arranges their healthcare via the CAK. That door is closing to a crack: as expected, from 1 November only new applicants with AOW, Anw, WAO, WIA or Wajong will be admitted. Early retirement and RVU fall outside it — whoever is already a customer keeps their rights.
Updated 16 August 2026
- 2 min
The M form: the tax return for the year in which you emigrated
For the year of your departure you lived partly inside and partly outside the Netherlands, and a separate return goes with that. Nowadays it can be done online — but you have to think of it yourself, because an invitation rarely comes by itself.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 2 min
Your AOW accrual stops on departure — and you have one year to repair that
Every year outside the Netherlands costs you 2% AOW (the Dutch state pension), for life. The SVB has a voluntary continuation that closes that gap — but signing up is only possible in the first year after departure, and almost everyone misses that deadline.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Your Dutch pension abroad: what comes along, and who levies
The AOW (the Dutch state pension) travels fully to the EU and to Australia — the latter thanks to a treaty from 2001. Your company pension too, but *where* you pay on it depends on the tax treaty, and the exemption you arrange yourself.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 3 min
Cancelling your health insurance without a gap
Your Dutch basic insurance is tied to living or working in the Netherlands and stops being a given on emigration. The art is to have the end date match your new cover — and to know which route belongs to your situation.
Updated 28 August 2026
- 2 min
Taking medicines across the border: certificates, supply and the 90-day ceiling
For medicines under the Opium Act you need a certificate — and the Dutch system only carries you for three months. What you arrange with the CAK, what Australia wants to see at the border, and why finding a local doctor simply belongs to your first weeks.
Updated 11 August 2026
- 9 min
Partner comes along without a job of their own: deregistering, healthcare, AOW and the house
Your partner has a job, a visa or a right of residence there; you come along without a job of your own. Administratively you're then no passenger: the deregistration, the end of your health insurance and your AOW accrual apply to you separately. What you get back if you arrange it well, what it costs if you let it slide — and why "just staying registered" isn't an option.
Updated 7 September 2026
- 2 min
Stopping allowances on emigration: do it yourself, and in time
Housing allowance, healthcare allowance, childcare allowance and child budget don't stop by themselves on the day you leave. Whoever lets them run gets a reclaim months later — this is what you arrange per allowance.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 3 min
Deregistering with the municipality: when exactly, and what stops then
Deregistering from the BRP is only possible from five days before departure, and is compulsory as soon as you're away for more than eight months a year. What stops at that moment, what stays, and which piece of paper you have to ask for right away.
Updated 9 August 2026
- 6 min
When does your pension stay taxed in the Netherlands? The three pots and the three conditions
"Your pension is taxed in your new country of residence" is right by approximation and not in the details. Your AOW, your company pension and your government pension each follow a rule of their own, and with the company pension the Netherlands can still levy if three conditions apply at once. This article explains which three, and which four questions you have to answer for your own situation.
Updated 27 August 2026
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.