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Switzerland · No visa required
Emigrating to Switzerland
Switzerland looks like an EU country but isn't one: you arrange a residence permit, move across a real customs border and pay your healthcare entirely yourself, per person. You may live and work there. Here you see which deadlines run, and in which order.
€ 299 one-off · 29 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Free movement, with a residence permit
- Two clocks
- 14 days to register, 3 months to insure
- Healthcare
- Fixed premium per person, children too
Last updated: 14 October 2026
Will your departure date work? Check it in the free step-by-step plan →
Five phases, from choosing a canton to being settled
You don't need a visa and you don't wait for anything. But two deadlines run from your day of arrival, and one of them works retroactively. Whoever knows the order is settled within a month.
- Orientation
Which permit, and which canton?
In this phase you choose your permit and your canton. Switzerland isn't an EU member, but since 2002 free movement of persons applies. You enter on your identity card and have a right of residence. The permit you apply for proves that right. It doesn't grant it. As a Dutch citizen you have a privilege here: thanks to a treaty from 1935 you get permanent residence after just five years, Citizens of the newer EU countries, such as Poland and Hungary, in principle wait ten. Choose your canton with care, because it decides your language, your tax and your rates.Read more
- Closing the Netherlands
Outside the EU, so mind your documents
In this phase you work through the familiar closing list: health insurance, AOW, benefits, deregistration, DigiD. One difference surprises many people. Switzerland isn't an EU country, so apostille-free document traffic doesn't apply here. An apostille is a stamp that confirms an official document is genuine, so that it's valid abroad. For your birth and marriage certificates an international multilingual extract fortunately suffices: a treaty from 1976 makes legalisation of those unnecessary. Everything else, from diploma to certificate of conduct (VOG), does need an apostille.Read more
- The move
A real customs border, and no BPM back
In this phase you move your belongings and decide about the car. Your removal goods are cleared, which means declared at customs. For that you need one form, an inventory list and proof that you're really moving. If you used the things yourself for six months, they come in duty-free. Plan the border crossing on a weekday, because customs doesn't work on Sunday. Take care with the car. The BPM refund (the Dutch car tax you get back on export) does exist for Germany, but lapses entirely here. That scheme stops at the border of the EU and the EEA.Read more
- Registration in Switzerland
Two deadlines, and the second is the expensive one
In this phase you register with your municipality and take out health insurance. You register within fourteen days, and in any case before you start working. The treaty limits what the municipality may ask to your ID and an employer's declaration. For the health insurance you have three months. That's not a reflection period but a deferred bill: the cover starts on your date of arrival, and so do the premiums. Waiting saves nothing.Read more
- Arrival
The last deadlines, and one bill that comes by itself
In this phase you complete the last deadlines. For your driving licence and your plates you have twelve months, for registering your dog ten days. The broadcasting fee you don't have to apply for: it follows automatically from your registration with the municipality. The children go to school in the language of your canton. That's free, and on the same terms as for Swiss children.Read more
This is what one step of your plan looks like
This is the real thing: one of the steps of the Switzerland journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan, with the deadlines, the offices and the sources.
Step 1.2 of your plan
Know the Dutch advantage: permanent after five years
- Lead time
- reading step
- Costs
- none
With this step you know an advantage that most emigration sites don't: as a Dutch citizen you wait half as long for permanent residence.
Switzerland grants the permanent settlement permit (the C permit) after five years of uninterrupted residence to citizens of countries with which it has a settlement agreement. The Netherlands is such a country, on the basis of an exchange of notes (an agreement by letter between two governments) from 1935. Citizens of, for instance, Poland, Hungary or Croatia in principle have to wait ten years.
Why that matters:
- With a C permit your residence is unlimited and unconditional.
- You don't lose it after six months abroad, but only after four years.
- The restrictions on the labour market disappear.
- It's also the permit you need if you ever want to become Swiss.
If you're seriously considering staying, let this advantage weigh in your decision.
And this is the dashboard that step lives in. The example shows the plan for Spain; your dashboard shows the plan for Switzerland.
This is step 1.2 of 31. The other 30 are ready for you, each with the same sources, the same offices and a schedule that keeps track of your dates.
See all 31 steps for SwitzerlandWhat you get for € 299
All 31 steps to Switzerland, 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 Switzerland
€ 299
one-off · 31 steps
- Pay once, no subscription
- Destination changes? Within 30 days I switch your plan to another country free of charge
- Stuck on a step? You get a personal answer within two working days
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Every step on one list, free
Not ready to start yet? Then you get the departure checklist for Switzerland: 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 Switzerland 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 Switzerland? 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 Switzerland 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 Switzerland
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
- Moving to Switzerland: what you arrange and what it costsNo visa, but a residence permit within fourteen days, health insurance per person within three months and a real customs border for your belongings. The overview, with the amounts that surprise people.
- Living in Switzerland: the permit, and the Dutch advantage from 1935No visa, but a residence permit within fourteen days — though that permit proves your right, it doesn't grant it. And Dutch citizens get permanent residence after five years where citizens of the newer EU countries have to wait ten, thanks to an exchange of notes from 1935.
- AOW and pension in Switzerland: since 2021 the Netherlands withholdsUntil 2021 your Dutch pension was taxed in Switzerland and the Netherlands withheld nothing. Since then that has been reversed: the Netherlands levies up to 15% on pension, annuity and AOW (the Dutch state pension) — from the first euro, with no threshold. Almost every older guide on the internet gets this wrong.
- Swiss health insurance: three months' thinking time that is no postponementYou must insure yourself within three months of arrival — but the cover starts retroactively on your arrival date, and so do the premiums. Waiting saves nothing. Count on a fixed premium per person, for your children too, without any employer contribution.
- Lump-sum taxation in Switzerland: tax on your spending, for those who don't work and have a lotSwitzerland has one special form of taxation for newcomers: the Besteuerung nach dem Aufwand, where you pay not on your income but on your living expenses. The threshold is high: for federal tax a base of at least CHF 435,000 a year. You may not work in Switzerland, nor may your partner, and in five cantons, including Zürich, the scheme no longer exists.
- Working in Switzerland: your permit is your work permit, and the tax comes off your payAs a Dutch citizen you work in Switzerland without a separate work permit: the residence permit also counts as a work permit, and you apply for it before your first working day. There's no national minimum wage, but there is one in five cantons. The surprise is on the payslip: without a C permit your employer withholds the tax, and anyone wanting to claim deductions must request an assessment by 31 March of the following year.
All 14 articles about Switzerland
- Your car and your household goods to Switzerland: a real customs border, and no BPM refund
- Your pet to Switzerland: the border, ten days for AMICUS and the cantonal dog course
- Banking and payments in Switzerland: an account after you register, and your Dutch account outside the EU
- Renting in Switzerland: the deposit in your name, the extract and the 30 days
- Buying a house in Switzerland: first the Lex Koller question — are you allowed to buy yet?
- Your first year in Switzerland: the clocks from your arrival, and a language choice
- Your driving licence in Switzerland: exchange within twelve months, no driving test
- School in Switzerland: from age four, for eleven years, and in your canton's language
Also applies to your move
Ready to begin?
The step-by-step plan for Switzerland: 31 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.