Leaving from Belgium?To the Belgian plan →See the plan for Belgians moving to South Africa →This plan is for people leaving the Netherlands.
South Africa · Visa required
Emigrating to South Africa
To move to South Africa, you need a visa. Home Affairs, a department notoriously slow, decides on it. The sums do work out surprisingly well: your accrued AOW comes along in full, South Africa has an exemption for foreign pension, and your housing costs halve. The honest conversation about safety and healthcare is part of it too.
€ 399 one-off · 37 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Visa, with routes on pension, assets or work
- The big sum
- The Netherlands taxes pension and AOW, South Africa exempts
- Note
- Left-hand-drive cars are banned. The car stays home
Last updated: 14 October 2026
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Five phases, from the route choice to the clocks in the diary
This journey revolves around evidence files and honest conversations. The retirement visa sets an income requirement for the principal applicant. The police certificates are only valid for six months. The medical report has been scrapped since July 2026. The tax treaty works the other way round: the Netherlands taxes, South Africa exempts. The container is six to ten weeks in transit, the pet needs a two-month permit, and the car simply isn't allowed along. On arrival you choose the neighbourhood first, and only then the house.
- Orientation
Four routes, one slow department, and an honest conversation
In this phase you explore the routes to a visa, and you have the honest conversation. Your stay here is a visa, and you choose from these routes. The retirement visa asks R 37,000 a month per applicant, and salary doesn't count. The assets route asks R 12 million and gives permanent residence right away. The remote work visa, for those who keep working remotely, asks R 650,796 a year. And those coming to work go via the points system. Home Affairs (the ministry that decides on visas) is notoriously slow. If you stay longer than your visa allows (overstay), you're marked as undesirable: unwanted in the country. That rule is relentless. So this journey is about timing. And before everything comes the honest conversation: about safety as a system, the distance, and healthcare in old age.Read more
- Your visa
An evidence file with a six-month clock
In this phase you put together your evidence file and lodge the application. It holds pension statements and bank statements, and on the assets route an accountant's declaration. You also need police certificates from every country where you lived a year since you were eighteen. Those are only valid for six months. Everything gets an apostille, an official stamp that makes a document valid abroad. That's needed, because this isn't the EU. The medical report was scrapped as of 8 July 2026. Outdated checklists still mention it. You lodge at the embassy in The Hague, complete and with margin. After issue the renewal clock starts: you lodge your renewal while the visa is still valid for sixty days.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
No S1, and a tax treaty that works the other way round
In this phase you work through the familiar list, with two big differences. First, there's no healthcare treaty. So you get no S1 (the form that carries your right to Dutch healthcare abroad) and you don't fall under the CAK. You arrange your private medical aid, the South African health insurance, before departure, because the visa file asks for it. Second, the tax treaty is a source-state treaty: the country your income comes from may tax it. So the Netherlands keeps taxing AOW, pension and annuity, without threshold. But South Africa largely exempts foreign pension, so you don't pay twice. The accrued AOW comes along at a hundred percent, albeit in rand. And the protective assessment (a tax assessment the Netherlands fixes on departure but doesn't collect right away) may require security outside the EU: a guarantee that you'll pay later.Read more
- The move
The container, the pet, and the car that stays home
In this phase you move your household goods and your pet, and you say goodbye to the car. The container takes six to ten weeks. Your removal goods are exempt, provided the DA 304 form (the South African declaration for removal goods) is right and you keep the things for six months. The pet has the longest lead time. You apply for the import permit at least two months ahead, and the chip and vaccinations have to fall within set windows. The chip number is the number-one cause when it goes wrong. The car doesn't come along: left-hand-drive vehicles are banned in South Africa, without exception. So sell it in the Netherlands, and buy a car in the Cape. And the flight itself takes a good eleven hours, with no jet lag.Read more
- Arrival in South Africa
The neighbourhood before the house, and the clocks in the diary
In this phase you arrange your tax, your bank, your house, your healthcare and the school in South Africa. SARS (the South African tax agency) and the bank both want a file. For FICA, the check the bank does on your identity and address, you need a fresh proof of address. You choose the house on the neighbourhood first and only then on price, because safety differs from place to place there. Renting for six months before you buy is the common wisdom. You top up the medical aid with gap cover, a small supplementary policy. For the school you choose on quintile, the grading of public schools. And a right-hand-drive car goes on the driveway. Meanwhile the clocks keep running. You renew your visa at least sixty days before expiry. You use permanent residence at least once every three years. And you keep the tax monitoring point in view: the South African exemption for your pension.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the South Africa journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices 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
In this step you work out which country will tax your AOW and your pension. In southern Europe your pension follows the country where you live. Whoever brings that logic along counts themselves thousands of euros too rich here.
The Netherlands levies. Article 17 of the tax treaty lets pensions, annuities and social security benefits be taxed in the country they come from. So the Netherlands simply withholds wage tax on your AOW (the Dutch state pension), your occupational pension and your annuity. There's no threshold amount. An exemption declaration isn't on the cards. And an ABP pension, the pension of government and education, stays Dutch anyway via article 18.
South Africa exempts. That's the good news. 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.
Note: that exemption is a South African statutory provision, not treaty law. So it can change. It's the point to follow for this destination, and the step-by-step plan keeps an eye on it for you.
Your AOW accrual stops. That's something different from the payment. What you've built up until you leave stays yours. But as soon as you're no longer insured in the Netherlands, you build up nothing more. For most emigrants that's the moment of departure. Every year until your AOW age then costs you 2% of your later AOW.
Voluntary continued insurance with the SVB (the Sociale Verzekeringsbank, which handles the AOW) is possible, for ten years at most. But the application has to be in within one year of your insurance ending. After that the door is closed. If you already receive AOW, this no longer applies.
What this step rests on
- Tax treaty Netherlands-South Africa — article 17 (pensions and social security) and article 18 (government service)
- SARS Interpretation Note 104 (4 October 2018) — the exemption of section 10(1)(gC): foreign social security payments and pension for service outside South Africa, in proportion to that service
- Algemene Ouderdomswet (General Old Age Pensions Act) — article 13 (reduction per uninsured year), articles 35 and 36 (voluntary insurance)
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for South Africa.
This is step 3.2 of 39. The other 38 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 39 steps for South AfricaWhat you get for € 399
All 39 steps to South Africa, for your situation
In order, with the office and the official source at every step. Steps that don't apply to you don't appear.
Your deadlines in one place
For each step you see the latest date to start, and you get a heads-up before something is due or expires. Your documents sit in the vault, with their dates.
A plan that stays right
Twice a month we check the sources. If something changes, it's in your plan and you get a message.
The step-by-step plan for South Africa
€ 399
one-off · 39 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for South Africa: 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 South Africa change, you'll hear about it. After that we ask once where your plans stand, send one offer, and now and then one thing that fits your moment. No newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
That was the move. And once you live there?
Which country may tax your pension once you live in South Africa? 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 South Africa 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 South Africa
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- The visa routes to South Africa: the retirement visa of R 37,000 a month, permanent residence with R 12 million and the overstay that costs five yearsSouth Africa has no free right of settlement: you live there on a visa. For pensioners that is the retired person visa with an income of R 37,000 a month, valid for four years; whoever shows R 12 million in net worth applies for permanent residence directly. Every route shares two clocks: the renewal at least 60 days before the expiry date, and the overstay that keeps you out of the country for five years beyond thirty days.
- Working in South Africa: 100 points for a work visa, the remote work visa of R 650,796 and the 60 days before your renewalWorking in South Africa is possible in three official ways: a critical skills or general work visa through the 100-point system, a remote work visa for those who keep working for a foreign employer with a gross salary of at least R 650,796 a year, or a business visa. Every work visa costs R 1,520, runs for at most five years and requires a renewal submitted at least 60 days before the expiry date.
- AOW, pension and tax in South Africa: the source-state treaty, the exemption of section 10(1)(gC) and the AOW that arrives in randThe Netherlands keeps taxing your AOW, pension and annuity, because the treaty of 2005 allocates pensions and social security payments to the source state, without a threshold. You do not pay twice: the South African Income Tax Act exempts foreign social security payments and pension for service outside South Africa. The accrued AOW is exported in full, but the SVB pays it in rand, and an annuity or company travels with a protective assessment for which the tax office can demand security outside the EU.
- Healthcare in South Africa: no treaty, a medical aid that may not refuse you, and the waiting periods of three and twelve monthsSouth Africa is not on the list of treaty countries: no S1, no CAK, your Dutch basic insurance stops on deregistration and the visa asks for proof of medical cover. A registered open medical aid may not refuse you, but may impose a general waiting period of three months and a condition-specific waiting period of twelve months, and a late-joiner penalty for whoever joins at 35 or older. The prescribed minimum benefits are the safety net.
- Household goods to South Africa: rebate 407.06, form DA 304 and the six months on both sidesYour household goods enter South Africa free of customs duty and VAT under rebate 407.06, provided you lived outside the country for at least six months and form DA 304 with a full inventory travels with them. Then a second six-month term applies: for that long you may not sell anything from the container. The car falls outside every rebate you can use as a Dutch national — you sell it at home.
- Your pet to South Africa: the veterinary import permit, the rabies shot of 30 days to 12 months and the 60 days of quarantine you avoidA dog or cat may enter South Africa only with a veterinary import permit from the Director: Animal Health, applied for before departure and according to the embassy six to seven weeks in advance. With it a microchip set before the rabies vaccination, a vaccination at least thirty days and at most twelve months old, and a health certificate at most ten days old. If the file is right, an animal from the Netherlands usually faces no quarantine; if it is not, 60 days of quarantine or the flight back await.
All 12 articles about South Africa
- Banking and paying in South Africa: the FICA file, the tax number within 60 days and the AOW that arrives in rand
- Renting in South Africa: the deposit in an interest-bearing account and the inspection that saves it
- Your first weeks in South Africa: the proof of address every counter asks for, the bank before SARS and the traffic register number of six weeks
- Driving licence and car in South Africa: the traffic register number, the 21 days and the conversion that starts only with permanent residence
- School in South Africa: registering between April and October, the 30 June age line and the school fees the parents set
- Living and buying in South Africa: transfer duty from R 1.21 million, the conveyancer the law prescribes and the 7.5% a non-resident meets on sale
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for South Africa: 39 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.