Step one: pick your residence permit

  • EU citizens can relocate visa free. Registration at the municipality is the whole procedure.
  • Americans can use the friendship treaty. You need a Dutch business and €4,500 of capital that you keep in the business. The Dutch immigration service (IND) decides within roughly four to six weeks. See DAFT for creators for the details.
  • Everyone else can apply for the self-employed permit or the startup permit. For these permits, you need a real business plan and real revenue. A working creator usually has both.

Step two: register through IN Amsterdam

The city has an expat center, IN Amsterdam. There you arrange municipal registration, your citizen service number (BSN) and permit formalities in combined appointments. Elsewhere in the country, you arrange these steps separately. You need the BSN for everything that follows, such as banking, payroll and health insurance.

Step three: housing

Housing in Amsterdam is scarce, and landlords ask for a lot of paperwork. They look at payslips. A DGA salary from your own BV (besloten vennootschap, the Dutch private limited company) makes a much better impression than a platform dashboard. This is one more reason to set up the structure early. You are legally required to register at the address where you live. If you have a public audience, decide on your business address before you incorporate.

Step four: the structure

Set up a holding and an operating BV, and arrange the tax registrations. You also need eHerkenning (the digital login for the Dutch tax portal) and payroll for your own salary. A new BV that is still unable to pay the full customary salary may pay less, for up to three years. A prior consultation with the Tax Administration gives certainty in advance. You can also borrow up to €500,000 from your own BV. The lower salary is what saves tax. At €36,000 in place of €58,000, you keep about €7,100 a year more. After a later dividend, about €2,800 of that remains. The loan gives you access to money, but your tax stays the same. Calculate it with your own figures. For the next steps, see the start page for creators.

The 90-day timeline

  1. Weeks 1–2: permit chosen, IN Amsterdam appointments, BSN.
  2. Weeks 3–6: housing plus registration; bank intake started.
  3. Weeks 6–10: companies incorporated, payroll running, insurance arranged.
  4. Weeks 10–13: update your US tax forms to your new residence and update your platform details, so the treaty rate applies. See US withholding on platform income.