Our DAFT Plan

So you’ve decided to move to another country. Neat! Now what?

First step is figuring out how you’re going to be allowed to live there legally, which usually involves a residence permit. In most cases, there are three typical ways of getting one:

• Work permit. You work for a company and they provide you with a permit to work in their country or you work for a company that obtains one for you in order for them to have a presence in that country.
• A subset of the work permit is the Highly Skilled Migrant and Scientific worker permits. Basically, you have some skill or knowledge they want.
• School. You become a university student in that country. Generally this only allows you to stay as long as you are in school. Once you graduate, this permit will go away and you’ll need to figure out another way to stay in the country.
• Family. You can marry in or be in a romantic relationship with someone of that nationality. You can be related to someone; how distantly you can be related varies, but it’s generally no further than first cousin or grandparents.
• Entrepreneur. You’re showing up with enough money to support yourself for a little bit and you plan to make a go at a new business in that country.

When we started looking around at places to live, the various visa programs were always something in the forefront of our minds. The Netherlands has a treaty with the US that dates back to the 1950’s called the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty, and it makes getting an entrepreneur visa a bit easier with reduced paperwork and less cash on hand required. This is our plan.

So yes, this our DAFT Plan. 😀

There are a number of websites and blogs out there that speak about their DAFT experience. If you like legalese, you can read the treaty on the US Dept of Commerce’s website.  If you prefer a more on-the-ground approach, I recommend Travel à la Tendelle’s 10 Step Guide post. This wordpress site also does a great job with the details and links, although I don’t know how old (and thus out of date) it is.

There’s a bit of information, but the basic steps are thus:

1. Find a place to live and get a lease or other paperwork to show that you now have a place to live in the Netherlands.
2. Get an IND appointment. You’ll need to have an appointment with the IND (immigration office), and there’s some chicken-and-egg fun that happens here.  Some online resources say you should start with the IND before the BSN (see below), while others did the BSN and bank account first, and then got their IND initial appointment after that.  It seems that doing the IND appointment first saves one trip back to them (one trip of many, from my understanding), so we’ll probably try that.
3. Get an appointment to go to the local municipal authority (gemeente) or Basisregistratie Personen (BRP) so you can register your place of residence and apply for a BSN, which is their version of a national number (think social security number type of thing). If you have some IND paperwork already, this process goes faster (so they say).
4. Your BSN will be mailed to you*, at which point you can get a bank account and put €4500 into it, a requirement for the DAFT. *It’s possible to get the BSN immediately if you have some IND paperwork with you when you apply. It’s somewhat comforting to know that paperwork in all countries is never simple.
5. You’ll also need to register with the Chamber of Commerce.
6. Obtain Dutch health insurance. I’m not sure where this falls in the requirements, but we plan to do it regardless as we are looking forward to Dutch health care coverage. It looks like you need a BSN before you can apply for health insurance.
7. Another IND requirement is to have a balance sheet approved by a certified Dutch bookkeeper or other financial professional. The balance sheet is likely to be just the opening bank statement, but it still needs someone’s stamp of approval (which will cost some euros).

One recommendation is to get the IND appointment set, then set an appointment for the BSN and that appointment happens AFTER the IND appointment.

It’s also not required but recommended to have a business plan for the DAFT.

I haven’t explicitly called it out, but most of these steps have a fee. There’s an application fee for the DAFT with the IND; the bookkeeper or other financial professional will charge for their services; health insurance has a monthly cost; rent will be something (and probably some sort of security deposit/multiple month’s rent at the outset); and registering a business has a fee. I think the only “free” item is the BSN! And the smile on our faces once it’s all done. 🙂

Phew! That’s a lot of information but I hope you find it interesting and it answers a bunch of questions! I plan to blog our steps and how it goes for us, so you’ll be able to follow along and see how it comes together. Three months and two weeks until we really start to find out!