Belgium · administrative route
Emigrating to Belgium
The same language area, a completely different system — and the most underestimated emigration there is. Whoever believes "nothing needs doing" discovers otherwise at the community police officer. This page shows how it really works: the annex 19 chain with the complete file, the car that makes money here, and the one choice that decides your healthcare, AOW and benefits — do you keep working in the Netherlands or do you switch?
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- Kind of journey
- EU — register, no visa
- The chain
- Annex 19 → community police officer → EU card → mutualiteit
- Note
- Cross-border workers simply take half their Dutch safety net along
Last updated: August 2026
The journey
Five phases, from the scenario choice to being settled
The shortest route on the site, with the most important decision at the front: will you work in the Netherlands or in Belgium? That answer steers every phase after — healthcare, AOW, benefits and even your holiday pay.
- 1
Orientation
Emigrating next door is still emigrating
Belgium isn't an extension of the Netherlands but a system of its own — with a registration chain, a community police officer and, since September 2025, a stricter door: the municipality only accepts your application complete. In this phase you take the decision of this route (keep working in the Netherlands, or Belgian wages with double holiday pay and indexation), choose your region — because BIV, child benefit and registration duties differ considerably per region — and have the family conversation about school and the first year.
- 2
Closing the Netherlands
Which half you take along decides your scenario
Cross-border workers keep more than they think: the Dutch health insurance with healthcare allowance, the continuing AOW accrual and via the 90% rule even the mortgage interest relief. Whoever switches completely closes neatly — with the protective assessment that gets automatic deferral within the EU. The child benefit doesn't stop but is ranked: the country of work pays first, the country of residence tops up. And the pension story has one number that steers everything: the € 25,000 threshold in the tax treaty.
- 3
The move
No customs — but a car clock of thirteen weeks
The move itself is an intra-EU drive: no forms, no container. The chapters are the car — BPM back from the Netherlands, BIV paid to the region, with a hard clock of thirteen weeks in between and three low-emission zones where every Dutch plate has to register in advance — and the home: the deposit belongs in a blocked account (never cash), the contract has to be registered, and buying waits until you know the region.
- 4
Registration in Belgium
Annex 19, the community police officer, the card
The chain is short but precise: the registration with the complete file (you get the national register number on day one — one stubborn misunderstanding fewer), the residence check by the community police officer, the EU card of around twenty euros, and then the digital keys: itsme, MyMinfin, eBox. Last to connect is healthcare: the mutualiteit with your S1 or E104 form — and in Flanders the care premium almost every newcomer misses.
- 5
Arrival
Settled you are quickly — becoming Belgian takes longer
Daily life on track: the Belgian pay package with its own logic (double holiday pay, indexation, and the holiday trap of year one), the school where you enrol digitally within fixed windows — in Brussels with 65% priority for Dutch-speaking parents — the Belgian account for Bancontact and the direct debits, and two tax returns in your first year. The driving licence you may keep; the clocks of your card go in the diary.
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 Belgium journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 1.2 of your plan
Choose your scenario: cross-border work or a Belgian salary
- Lead time
- an evening — this is the decision of this route
- Costs
- none
Unique to Belgium: your emigration is a menu of choices. If you keep working in the Netherlands, you stay socially insured there — your AOW accrual (the Dutch state pension) simply continues, you keep your Dutch health insurance and healthcare allowance, and the Netherlands taxes your salary. If you switch to a Belgian employer, everything moves with you: a mutualiteit (health fund) instead of a health insurer, a Belgian rustpensioen next to a frozen AOW, and a payslip with a logic of its own — higher charges, but also double holiday pay, a thirteenth month and automatic indexation. Work out both scenarios before you sign anything; the difference is bigger than any gross salary suggests.
This is step 1.2 of 32. The other 31 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
€ 2.000 – € 5.600
Where does that difference come from?
- De eerste maanden€ 2.000 – € 5.500
Open the breakdown below: there you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 15 – € 90
- De eerste maanden
- € 2.000 – € 5.500
View the itemsPer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- Aanmelding en EU-kaart€ 15 – € 40
- Uittreksels en verklaringen(estimate)€ 0 – € 50
De eerste maanden
- De eerste maanden(estimate)€ 2.000 – € 5.500
De huurwaarborg van twee tot drie maanden op een geblokkeerde rekening (dat geld is niet weg, maar wel vast), de eerste huur, de brandverzekering en familiale verzekering, de Vlaamse zorgpremie, en leven tot het eerste Belgische loon — dat door het vakantiegeldsysteem in jaar één krapper aanvoelt dan het brutoloon beloofde. Wie in Nederland blijft werken, zit aan de onderkant van deze band.
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 4 to 17% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 10.000 to € 42.500.
Nergens in Europa hangt het zo aan één voorwaarde. In Vlaanderen betaal je 2% registratiebelasting voor de enige eigen woning waar je zelf gaat wonen, tegen 12% voor al het andere. Sinds 1 januari 2026 moet je er binnen drie jaar je hoofdverblijf vestigen én er minstens een jaar onafgebroken ingeschreven blijven, en je mag op het moment van de akte geen andere woning bezitten — ook niet in Nederland. In Wallonië en Brussel geldt 12,5%. De onderkant is dus de Vlaamse eigen woning, de bovenkant een tweede verblijf of een aankoop in Wallonië.
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.
Rates checked on 22 August 2026.
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 Belgium, 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 Belgium: 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 Belgium really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Read on
The knowledge base on Belgium
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
Arrival
- 3 min
The mutualiteit, the remgeld and the S1: how healthcare works for Dutch residents of Belgium
Where you are insured depends not on where you live but on where you work: cross-border workers keep their Dutch insurance including the healthcare allowance, whoever works in Belgium chooses a health fund, and pensioners go through the CAK with a country-of-residence factor. Plus the remgeld, the global medical file and the hospitalisation insurance that everyone takes out alongside.
Updated 28 August 2026
- 3 min
Buying a house in Belgium: the compromis binds at once, and your region sets your tax
The Belgian buying process resembles the Dutch one — the notary handles the deed, the tax and the registration — but with two catches. The compromis is binding immediately: sold is sold, even before a notary is involved. And the registration tax depends on the region: 2% in Flanders, 3% in Wallonia, in Brussels 12.5% with an exemption on the first € 200,000 — each time on conditions that your Dutch owner-occupied home can spoil.
Updated 28 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?
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