Sint Maarten · route within the Kingdom
Emigrating to Sint Maarten
The same passport, a different country — and a different island from the ABC islands: English-speaking, in the hurricane belt, with France as neighbour on the same island. Admission is cheap there and the island is a free port, but two things decide this journey: healthcare, which outside employment you insure entirely yourself, and the birth certificate that may nowhere be older than three years. This page shows how it really works.
€ 299 one-off · 26 steps · no subscription
- Kind of journey
- Kingdom — Declaration by Operation of Law
- The chain
- IBP → Census Office → ID card
- Note
- No CAK route — outside employment you insure yourself
Last updated: August 2026
The journey
Five phases, from orientation to island rhythm
A route with a cheap gate and an expensive insurance question. The Declaration by Operation of Law costs about a hundred euros and the free port levies no import duties — but healthcare has no country-of-residence system, the BRNSM lets the Netherlands keep up to 15% on your pension, and the birth certificate with apostille may be at most three years old. Whoever knows the chain and the clocks is settled there in months.
- 1
Orientation
An admission law of its own, and healthcare as the breaking point
Sint Maarten has been an autonomous country since 2010 with its own admission and expulsion ordinance: your passport gives you admission by operation of law, but you demonstrate that right with a certificate of conduct over five years, housing and means of subsistence. In this phase you also learn the system that carries this route: the SZV health insurance only covers employees under the wage limit — everyone else insures privately, and above seventy-five many insurers accept no new customers. And you explore both sides of the border, because the northern half of the island is France.
- 2
Closing the Netherlands
The three-year certificate, the acceptance question and the BRNSM
The familiar list with three accents of its own. The documents: birth and marriage certificates with apostille may be at most three years old at the Census Office — get them fresh, and the certificate of conduct last of all. Healthcare: first ask the acceptance question at an insurer, only then irreversible steps. And tax: under the BRNSM the Netherlands keeps up to 15% on your periodic pension and taxes your AOW without limit — and the inheritance and gift fiction is five years here instead of ten.
- 3
The move
A free port: container without a customs circus
The household contents go by sea container to Philipsburg, but unlike on the neighbouring islands without an exemption application: Sint Maarten levies no import duties. Even the car may come along without an ownership requirement — you only lose the residual BPM, so rather take a depreciated car than a young one. The pet asks for an Animal Movement Permit in advance and two clocks (vaccination older than twenty-one days, certificate younger than fourteen), and the calendar plans around the hurricane season.
- 4
Registration on Sint Maarten
IBP → Census Office → ID card, and every link wants to see the previous one
The chain of this route: the Declaration by Operation of Law at IBP (XCG 200, count on weeks to months — lodge right away), then the free registration at the Census Office (in person, the children too, with the fresh certificates and your international deregistration proof), then the Sint Maarten ID card that bank, employer and insurer want to see. After that your healthcare cover and your banking run — in Caribbean guilders and dollars side by side.
- 5
Arrival
Driving licence, school in English and the annual plates
The driving licence you exchange as a resident — the relationship with the Netherlands works both ways, so without a test. The motor vehicle tax you pay there by buying new number plates every year, with insurance and inspection card as conditions. And the school is the step that wants to be furthest ahead: education is predominantly in English, the Dutch-language exceptions have waiting lists, and you enrol at the school itself.
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 Sint Maarten journey, exactly as it appears in your personal step-by-step plan — with the deadlines, the counters and the sources.
Step 2.2 of your plan
Arrange the healthcare transition
- Lead time
- 2-6 weeks — the acceptance question first
- Costs
- the premium of your new policy; bridging cover for the first period
Your Dutch basic insurance stops on emigration, and there is no CAK route: within the Kingdom there's no healthcare treaty. If you go there as an employee below the wage limit, you come under the SZV ZV on registration; in all other cases — entrepreneur, higher wage, pension — a private policy is your system, and that you arrange before departure.
The order here is the reverse of what people do: first put the acceptance question to an international insurer (on age and health, with the age limits in black and white), only then take irreversible steps. And cover the gap: between your Dutch end date and your first insured day on the island there should be a travel or expat policy that carries medical costs in the Caribbean.
This is step 2.2 of 26. The other 25 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
€ 4.000 – € 9.200
Where does that difference come from?
- De eerste maanden€ 3.500 – € 8.000
Open the breakdown below: there you'll find per item where the upper and the lower limit come from.
- Aanvraag en papieren
- € 150 – € 300
- De verhuizing
- € 350 – € 900
- De eerste maanden
- € 3.500 – € 8.000
View the itemsPer item the amount, the source and whether it's a rate or an estimate
Aanvraag en papieren
- Verklaring van Rechtswege€ 95 – € 150
- Verse akten, apostilles en de inschrijving(estimate)€ 60 – € 150
De verhuizing
- Reis(estimate)€ 350 – € 900
Vliegen, enkele reis Amsterdam-Sint-Maarten. KLM vliegt als enige rechtstreeks (zo'n negen uur); buiten het hoogseizoen boeken scheelt honderden euro's per stoel.
De eerste maanden
- De eerste maanden(estimate)€ 3.500 – € 8.000
Borg (doorgaans één maand), huur vooruit, tijdelijk wonen tot de container er is, en leven op een importeiland waar de huren de facto in Amerikaanse dollars gaan: een één-slaapkamerappartement begint rond US$ 900-1.400 in de gewone wijken en loopt in het expat-segment rond Simpson Bay naar US$ 1.500-3.000. Boodschappen en stroom vallen hoger uit dan je gewend bent, en de opstal- of inboedelverzekering draagt een orkaanmodule.
And if you buy a house?
This calculation assumes renting: the first months include deposit and rent in advance.
If you buy, count on 5 to 7% of the purchase price on top of this amount. On a home of € 250,000 that's € 12.500 to € 17.500.
De overdrachtsbelasting is 4% over de koopsom. Daar komen het notarishonorarium (in de praktijk 1 tot 2%) en kadaster- en registratiekosten bij. Samen 5 tot 7%, waarvan de overdrachtsbelasting het leeuwendeel is — en anders dan in Nederland wordt een jaarlijkse onroerendgoedbelasting er in de praktijk niet geheven.
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 30 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 Sint Maarten, 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 Sint Maarten: 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 Sint Maarten really changes — at most one a month, no newsletter, and you can switch it off at any time.
Read on
The knowledge base on Sint Maarten
Per phase, the articles that are already there. They're written from the same journey and go deeper than what fits above.
The move
- 2 min
Taking your pet to Sint Maarten: the permit first and the two clocks
No EU regime: for each animal you apply in advance for an Animal Movement Permit that is valid for thirty days, and after that two clocks tick — the rabies vaccination must be older than twenty-one days, the health certificate younger than fourteen. Whoever knows the order makes it comfortably; whoever starts too late pushes back their own departure.
Updated 30 August 2026
- 3 min
Moving to a free port: the container, the car and the hurricane season
Sint Maarten levies no import duties — the customs circus of the neighbouring islands falls away, and even the car may come along without an ownership requirement. What remains: the sea container as the clock of your planning, the residual BPM you lose, the annual number plates and a moving calendar that plans around the hurricane season.
Updated 30 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.