What you get

Ten steps, in this order.

  1. Check the passports Yours, your partner’s and every child separately. This is the step that gets left the longest.
  2. Plan when you deregister in the Netherlands Not do it, plan it. The moment you deregister has consequences that reach well past your address.
  3. Work out your route: D-nummer or fødselsnummer Which of the two you get depends on how long you are staying and what you are coming for.
  4. Flyttemelding: within eight days of arriving Put the date in your calendar before you leave, not after.
  5. Apply for a skattekort In good time, because without one your employer withholds tax at the high default rate.
  6. Bank account and BankID In that order, and both hang off the steps above. Without BankID, half of Norway stays shut.
  7. Cancel your Dutch health insurance At the right moment. Too early costs you as much as too late.
  8. Housing What has to be in place before you sign a rental contract or a deed of sale.
  9. Register the children Barnehage, skole and SFO each have their own moment and their own counter.
  10. Decide what happens to the car Take it, sell it or keep it on Dutch plates. You make this decision before you leave.
Almost everybody starts in the wrong place. Not because it is difficult, but because the order is not obvious. Why this list exists

How often you hear from us

You enter your email address and we send you one email with one link in it. If you do not click that link, nothing further happens: no checklist, no second email, no reminder. If you do click it, you get the checklist and your address goes on our list.

After that you rarely hear from us. We write when something changes that you genuinely need to know, or when there is something new in the knowledge base that is worth your evening. No weekly newsletter, no discount campaign with a countdown clock.

Every email carries an unsubscribe link at the bottom. One click and you are off the list, without having to explain yourself. We do not sell your address, we do not trade it, and we do not pass it to estate agents, removal firms or anybody else who takes an interest in it. What we keep, and for how long, is in the privacy statement.

What this is not

If you want to read on now: the knowledge base has the topics written out in full, each article with its source and the date we last checked it.