I (Jarrett) wanted to create a single blog post that acts as a “super checklist” of everything that we need(ed) to do to move from the United States of America to The Netherlands. This post will link to other articles we write that dig much deeper into various things that we did to move abroad. This list is in no way exhaustive, regardless of how comprehensive it may be. This is a “living” document that will change over time and become more complete as we learn what needs to happen.
The Countries and Visa Options
We had a list of countries that we were considering. In the beginning, we discussed the following countries (in no particular order), but quickly narrowed down to just a few:
- The Netherlands
- Spain
- Ireland
- Denmark
- Sweden
- Portugal
- Italy
As Laura and I discussed the various visa options, it came down to just three options across the board for each country (if they had that type of visa) for our particular case:
- Entrepreneurship visa
- Higher Education visa
- Digital Nomad visa
Initially, Laura and I both wanted to take different approaches to this. I wanted to go after an Entrepreneurship opportunity, while Laura wanted to pursue a PhD program abroad. Both options are definitely viable, but came with hurdles of their own. We left the Digital Nomad visa on the table as an ideal option as it seemed straightforward and easy, but not all countries had it as an option.
When we narrowed the list of countries down, it became just two countries: The Netherlands and Spain.
Laura had connections in The Netherlands and Spain. To be discussed.
The People and Pets Documentation
This section lays out the steps that we took for specific members of the family (including the dogs!) to get their things done in order for them to successfully move abroad. These are things such as gathering documents, getting documents apostilled, getting vaccinations, or whatever it may be to check all the boxes for that member of the family. In some cases, it may be that a specific step will cover multiple people and will be called out as such, typically in the Miscellaneous section.
(Side note: Neither Laura or myself had heard of an apostille for a document until we began looking into the process of moving to a foreign country. From our current understanding, getting an apostille on a document is basically getting an internationally-recognized notarization of the document. The government of The Netherlands has a page specifically for US citizens to reference in regards to use documents from the United States of America in The Netherlands.)
Our immigration attorney at this point in time is Jeremy Bierbach (here’s his DAFT-specific website).
- Laura
- ✅ Get a United Kingdom Electronic Travel Authorisation (UK ETA, $22.52)
- Get apostilled copies of Birth Certificate due to out of country birth (need to get an apostilled Consular Report of Birth Abroad)
- Get Notarized copy of Form DS-5542 to request 3 copies of an Apostilled CRBA ($50 per copy, 3 copies; $50 x 3 = $150)
- Waiting to do this until after our recon trip in November so that we can discuss with the immigration attorney in Amsterdam. We are hoping that we can do this one time since it seems we can get the copies of the CRBA and the notarization of those documents at the same time and with just one form submission.
- USA.gov - How to get a certified copy of a U.S. birth certificate
- How to Replace or Amend a Consular Report of Birth Abroad (CRBA)
- Get Notarized copy of Form DS-5542 to request 3 copies of an Apostilled CRBA ($50 per copy, 3 copies; $50 x 3 = $150)
- Jarrett
- ✅ Renew Passport (~$130)
- ✅ Get a United Kingdom Electronic Travel Authorisation (UK ETA, $22.52)
- ▶️ Get copies of Birth Certificate (3 copies, $22/copy, express shipping $16, chose express shipping due to long processing time of 20-25 BUSINESS days; $66 + $16 = $82)
- Get copies of Birth Certificate apostilled in Texas
- (Maybe Optional) Divorce Decree apostilled (Jarrett was married previously, doing this just in case)
- Going to check with immigration attorney
- (Optional) Name change, see: https://medium.com/@linziberry/whats-in-a-name-4e73bb87ea12
- If name change is completed, again renew passport with new name (make sure it’s expedited)
- Baby
- ✅ Get copies of Birth Certificate (~$30 per copy, 4 copies; ~$30 x 4 = ~$120)
- ▶️ Get passport for baby (Passport Book $100, Facility Processing Fee $35, Picture $15, Expedited Processing $60, Envelope for Certified Mailing $2.55, Certified Mailing of Passport Application $31.40; $100 + $35 + $15 + $60 + $2.55 + $31.40 = $243.95)
- Waiting for passport to be approved and sent back
- Get a United Kingdom Electronic Travel Authorisation (UK ETA, $22.52)
- Waiting for passport
- Apostille birth certificate copies
- Miscellaneous
- ✅ Initial consult with Jeremy Bierbach of Franssen Advocaten about DAFT application ($221.82)
- (Laura/Jarrett) Get copies of marriage certificate
- (Laura/Jarrett) Get marriage certificates apostilled
- Kira the Greyhound
- Microchip
- Vaccinations
- Attestation of Health
- Bidou the Supermutt
- Microchip
- Vaccinations
- Attestation of Health
Getting Apostilled in California:
Getting Apostilled in Texas:
Downsizing
Downsizing is a huge amount of work and emotionally difficult, but multiple people who have moved abroad have recommended to downsize as much as you possibly can (such as aiming to bring everything you can in 2 suitcases per person). While we haven’t yet decided just how much we will downsize, Jarrett is aiming for less than 2 suitcases for himself and Laura is undecided. A factor to consider is how much to downsize on behalf of the dogs and the baby.
This section will lay out the areas of the house to downsize and roughly the sections within each area to downsize. An area is typically going to be a room, but it could also be certain portions of the house, such as the garage cabinets. There are also various ways to get rid of stuff, such as giving things away to friends or on “Buy Nothing” groups, donating items, selling things via websites/consignment shops, estate sale, or just throwing things away.
- Condo
- Living Room
- Storage Cabinet
- Baby Area
- Dog Crate and Above
- Kitchen
- ✅ Shelving Unit
- Island
- Lower Left Cabinets
- Upper Left Cabinets
- Lower Right Cabinets
- Upper Right Cabinets
- ✅ Jarrett’s Old Office
- ✅ Shelves
- ✅ Server Rack / Closet
- Hallway
- Hallway Closet
- Clothes
- Half Shelves
- Upper Shelves
- Guest Bathroom
- Laura’s Office
- Closet
- TV Console
- Desk Shelves
- Master Bedroom
- Closet
- Dresser
- Nightstands
- Under Bed
- Baby Room
- Shelves
- Dresser
- Master Bathroom
- Living Room
- In-Law Unit
- Bathroom
- Jarrett’s New Office
- Closet
- Bedroom
- Wet Bar Cabinets
- Living Area
The Reconnaissance Trip
Once we had decided on The Netherlands or Spain, we felt we needed to do a trip to research the areas and see where we might like to live. During our planning of the trip, we changed our minds multiple times, cancelled our plans for Spain, and then just planned everything for The Netherlands.
During the recon trip, we decided to do the following:
- Visit a handful of cities we might want to move to
- Have an in-person visit with the Immigration Attorney we had previously spoken with
- Speak with one or two real estate agents (known as a makelaar in Dutch)
The purpose of speaking with the real estate agent was to potentially view a few places just to get a sense of Dutch style and living spaces. We specifically wanted to start building a relationship because we were going to be doing a lot of the touring remotely or shortly after we arrived.
Getting There
This section will specifically be about the logistics of getting from San Francisco, California to The Netherlands. I’ll discuss the high-level steps, some of the big decisions we made, and other interesting facts along the way. At a high level, this section will cover:
- Getting from San Francisco, CA to New York City, New York to board the cruise
- The cruise
- Transport from the cruise to our ferry that would take us from England to The Netherlands
- The ferry
- Transport from the ferry to our first accommodations in The Netherlands
- Laura flying back to New York and getting our second dog to The Netherlands
San Francisco, CA to New York City, New York
The Cruise
We decided very early on that we did not want Kira the greyhound to travel by air. Greyhounds are mild-mannered, sensitive dogs, but when spooked, they may run away and are VERY fast (upwards of 45mph / 73kph). While we’ve not had a run-away scare with Kira, we have seen her act like she was going to run away when she heard fireworks or gunshots (thanks rural Oregon). The stress of flying can be very hard on dogs in general, especially an elderly dog, and we didn’t want to take any chances that Kira could have a health issue during transport or potentially escape while she was out of our sight.
Crossing England (getting from the cruise to the ferry)
The Harwich to Hook of Holland Ferry
During the planning of our recon trip, I’ve booked a pet-friendly ferry for our actual move from Harwich to Hook of Holland for 366.20 Euro ($427.69) via Stena Line.