We’re three weeks into our new lives in The Netherlands. So much is happening, it’s been an anxiety laden experience. We’ve started Dutch lessons (Dank u wel), planned for our furniture to arrive, and started the emigration process. So far, so good.

As I’ve been talking about this adventure a lot, I want to apologize if you want me to get back to technical content — it’s coming, I promise. We’ve been asked quite a bit how we’re able to emigrate to The Netherlands. Let me share what we know so far.

There are several ways to be allowed to stay in the Netherlands and I am not an expert at all. For us, we’re taking advantage of the Dutch American Friendship Treaty (DAFT). The treaty allows for permission to come to the Netherlands to do one of two things:

• Start a Dutch business
• Work as a Self-Employed Artist

In both of these cases, your work must have essential interest in the Dutch Economy or the Dutch Culture.

For us, we wanted to create a Dutch version of our company Wilder Minds. We could have just created a DBA (Doing Business As), but I am so used to having a company as an umbrella to the work I do; it seemed like the obvious choice.

For the Dutch company, we needed to invest €4500 in the new company. (We actually ended up with €9000 since my wife and I are co-owners). My wife could have registered as my wife, but I didn’t want two tiered access for us. That investment needs to essentially sit in the bank account for the length of our Visa. I think we also needed to show some amount of cash reserves to confirm we can pay our own way for a while - I can’t quite remember.

There are several steps before you can complete the approval process:

• Get to the Netherlands
• Get a V-Number (essentially an immigrant number)
• Register with city hall to get a BSN (essentially a Social Security number).
• Wait for the Visa to be approved.

That BSN is kind of a gateway to a lot of other steps to normalization. Once we have it (soon I hope), we’ll be able to open bank accounts and get Dutch phone numbers. The bank account is crucial as much of payments are done through your bank card. Retailers will take credit cards, but for many of the kinds of services you need (Internet, Phone, Electric, etc.) all require a Dutch bank account.

Finally, once we get approval (hopefully by April), we’ll be able to stay in the country for two years. After that, we’ll be able to ask for a renewal for an additional two years. After those four years, we can start the process for a permanent residence permit. This is the avenue we’re taking.

I’ve been asked a lot about getting Dutch Citizenship. I doubt either of us qualify, but I actually want to keep my US citizenship (voting, etc.)

From here, we’re waiting for our house to sell in the US (let me know if you’re looking for a place in Atlanta) ;) Once that is complete, we’ll be looking for an apartment/house to buy. But that’s a longer story I’ll share later.

Until next update!