The Logistics

One week ago today, we flew away from Sea-Tac International Airport (after a 2.5 hour delay due to snow) and eventually landed at Schiphol, ready to start our new lives.  That flight wasn't the beginning of this journey, though - we arrived after almost 2 years of preparations and we still have quite a way to go.  Before I make this thing to public, I thought I'd detail a bit of the what and how of our process.  We'll get to the "why" eventually, but that's a longer story.

We've moved to the Netherlands under the Dutch American Friendship Treaty (aptly referred to as DAFT), which allows entrepreneurs from one country to setup a business and reside in the other.  It is a 2-year visa that needs to be renewed only one time and then leads to permanent residency.  The spouse and children of the entrepreneur receive residency permits as well and, as of 2020, the spouse also obtains a work permit and can enter the Dutch workforce.  If we so choose, after 5 years one of us can apply to become a naturalized Dutch citizen (which opens up opportunity throughout the EU) and rescind our American citizenship.  Then, the other members of the family can become dual citizens of the EU and the US based on their relationship to the Dutch citizen.  There are other requirements, such as a certain amount of capital being maintained in the business, but this is the general idea of how an American can move to the Netherlands.

My spouse has owned and operated his own business for almost 12 years and it's always been a remote business.  The 9-hour time difference will require some lifestyle adjusting, but otherwise it's providing us with the perfect opportunity to be here.  He essentially spent the entire month of November working with Dutch professionals to open his business in the Netherlands and with a Dutch attorney to make sure all of our immigration paperwork was good to go.  

My job over the last several months has been to get us out of our house and navigate some of the temporary logistics of our arrivals.  We decided to get rid of nearly everything we own and start new over here since the cost of shipping seemed to be a ridiculous expense for items that likely wouldn't fit in a Dutch home anyway.  We also don't value material possessions in any meaningful way, but we stored the few things that actually meant something.  Then, we sorted the things we knew we would want or need in the Netherlands into urgent and non-urgent piles (winter clothes vs spring clothes, for example), knowing that we would only be taking the allotted number of bags we could on the initial flight.  The rest will be either mailed to us or brought over by visitors as they come.

So, we got our paperwork in order, sorted through our piles of stuff, and landed in the Netherlands - what next?  Approval of our DAFT application takes 90-days and there are still some paperwork related items that we have to work though as we're able.  In the meantime, we've reserved an AirBnB for those 3 months and will be staying here while we buy a house.  We've been working remotely with a realtor (makelaar) and, now that we're here, we're touring houses.  We certainly could have entered the rental market, but it's much more complicated in Europe than we're used to and felt unstable to try out.  Unfortunately, Dutch mortgage lenders want evidence of several years of Dutch income, so it would have been a bit difficult to secure a mortgage as well (though not impossible).  Having researched all of this, we determined in the beginnings of our "let's leave the country" conversations that we would need to diligently save money to buy with cash, and we've had the privilege of successfully saving enough to do so.

Also within this 90-days, I'll get a stamp from immigration that indicates I'm legally allowed to work.  Hopefully, this happens at our appointment next week  And at some point after that happens, I'll actually start looking though I have no idea what I'll find.  That's been a big part of the conversation around where we live and the lifestyle we want.  Being near the train station as well as the city center has been important to us, in case I need to commute (which is still a negligible amount of time compared to how far people choose to commute for work in the States).  I'm excited to enter the Dutch workforce, but I also started my own consulting business before we left the States so I can try to build that up as well once I'm ready.  I would likely have American-only clients since that's where my HR background is strongest, ideally within Washington State as well.  

Lastly - school.  The kids haven't started school yet and may not until January based on holiday schedules.  In order for them to enroll, they need a BSN (sort of like a SSN) and those won't be issued to us for another couple of weeks.  Throughout the country, the Dutch public education system has some designated newcomer classes to work with kids who have newly arrived.  These classes focus on Dutch language skills for up to a year until they are proficient enough to enter regular Dutch school and integrate successfully.  We moved at just the right time for our kids, ages 4.5 and almost-7, to pickup the language quickly.  We've also been teaching ourselves through various apps over the last couple of years.  The two options in Leiden for newcomer classes are across town from each other and we're not sure which one the kids will end up at, but we begin the process with a tour of one of them next week.  We can't wait for them to start.  So far, they haven't had any direct interaction with Dutch kids yet and they're getting a bit stir crazy being dragged around town with us while we get established.

Goodness.  I can't believe this was really just a summary of the "what" and "how".  I wonder how long of a post the "why" will end up!