Applying for the Dutch American Friendship Treaty as an American

Our path to a life in a new country started here. If you’re considering the Netherlands or the DAFT this might be a solid starting place.

Muiden Castle miniature at Madurodam

We applied for the Dutch American Friendship Treaty in the Netherlands and got approved within 8 weeks of our application. The trick is you can’t apply until you arrive.

There have been many Americans who have gone before us and left breadcrumbs on the internet of this process but I have yet to find a single person who has documented much of their process or steps they needed to take before and after arriving. This is my attempt at doing so in order to help anyone else who might want to do the same.

Let’s breakdown our circumstances so you can understand if our situation is similar to yours.

Our Circumstances for the DAFT

• Heather is self-employed with a fully operational business in the United States. Her business has an income level to afford to pay her on payroll.

• Nathan is a full-time student at the University of Arizona, completely online.

• The girls are in school.

• None of us know Dutch.

Given these circumstances the DAFT was an easy visa for us to apply for and get approved for because of my business.

Our Approach to the DAFT

• Start a business

• Apply for the 30% ruling

Applying for the DAFT comes with a variety of options to satisfy the requirements. We went the route of starting a business in the Netherlands where I just basically moved my existing business over.

I started a B.V. where I put myself back on payroll. This allows us to apply for the 30% ruling which also comes with a few perks like swapping our drivers license without having to go through the regular process which can cost thousands of euros.

You won’t qualify for the 30% ruling in the Netherlands if you just move here, you have to be recruited so you want to start your business and recruit yourself before arriving. Recruiting yourself means getting an employment contract signed between you and your new employer (you) in place and signed before you arrive.

Let’s breakdown the application requirements for the B.V. So you know where you should start if you want to go this route.

• I hired a notary firm to help me with starting a B.V. in the Netherlands before our arrival

• I hired an immigration attorney

• I transferred the required money for the visa to the notary to hold for me until I had my own bank account for the business opened

• I paid for a temporary business address for the BV

Required payments

• Pay the Chamber €82.25 for registering my company

• Pay the notary to file my BV paperwork with the Chamber - €1300 euros

• Pay for the mailbox - €70 euros per month

• Pay the immigration attorney to file applications and create employment contract

Once my business paperwork was created, signed and filed I then gave it to my immigration attorney to create my employment contract that recruits me to the Netherlands to my newly established business.

This application triggered the government to issue a BSN for me before I arrived in the Netherlands. This BSN was used later to register with the municipality and get a bank account setup. The BSN is the equivalent to a SSN in the US.

After Arriving in the Netherlands

• Apply for the DAFT

• Open a bank account for personal

• Open a bank account for the business

• Establish services with an accountant

• Go to IND for temporary sticker

• Go to IND for biometrics

• Apply for DIGId

• Register with the municipality

• Get a Dutch phone number

• Get a bicycle

• Get an OV chipkaart

• Apply for 30% ruling

• Swap our drivers licenses

• Obtain health insurance

After arriving in the Netherlands we had a lot to do and it wasn’t super clear what order to do these in. Let’s take it in order.

Apply for the Visa

Apply for the DAFT. I used my attorney to do this on my behalf but I did have to print and sign the paperwork then scan it back to him so the application could be mailed.

The attorney submitted my visa application upon my arrival. I waited about 6 weeks to hear from the IND office to go in and pickup my temporary sticker for my passport. This sticker allows you to stay in the country until a decision has been made on your application.

Once you get notification that you can go get your temporary sticker you’ll make an appointment with IND online and they’ll do your biometrics the same day. The whole process only takes about an hour. Once you get approved you’ll do the same thing and book an appointment online to go in and pickup your residence permit.

Arrange Transportation

Within days of being here we went to Swapfiets and rented 3 bicycles and visited a bike store to buy a bike for our youngest child.

We also went to Albert Heijn and bought 4 OV chipkaarts so we could use them for public transport. You charge your chipkaarts on the trams or at train stations and you use them to check in and out of the trains, trams and busses.

Register with Municipality

I waited until I had my temporary sticker to register myself with the municipality. Once I had my sticker I called and made an appointment and ended up being able to go the same day.

Once my family had their stickers we also visited the municipality and registered them.

Apply for DigiD

Once I had registered with the municipality and had my BSN as well as my new residence permit I applied for the DIGId which is a digital identification app.

Get a Dutch phone number

The easiest way to do this is to get a prepaid SIM with a company like Lyca mobile.

I also ported my US number to a Tello eSIM so I could have 2 numbers on my phone. This allowed me to get texts for verification purposes to my US number.

Open bank accounts

I waited to open a Dutch bank account when I didn’t need to because I wasn’t aware the BSN issued to me prior to my arrival was actually for me and not my business. I could have opened an account immediately. Keep this in mind because there are a number of places that won’t take foreign cards. You don’t want to do the walk of shame to get cash.

Establish services with an accountant

I found an accountant to help me with taxes and payroll services.

We still have a few things we need to work on at the time of writing this article.

We still need to obtain health insurance, get payroll going in the Netherlands, apply for the 30% ruling which we can’t do until payroll starts from my understanding, and we need to swap our drivers licenses which we can’t do until we apply for the 30% ruling.

As we work through our process I will update our articles. Read this article if you want to see what our costs were for the moving process.