Pre-departure checklist

Bureaucratic matters

• Apply for your passport. Don't forget your family members: Do they need passports as well?
• Apply for your entry visa, if needed. Again, don't forget you family members.
• Get your pet's passport and accompanying certificates (no earlier than 14 days before departure)
• Obtain necessary documents and/or several copies for residence permit application (if needed) and other bureaucratic affairs once in the Netherlands. Suggestions:
• birth certificate (of you and accompanying family members)
• passport (make sure it is valid long enough)
• marriage certificate
• divorce decree
• non-marriage/single status certificates
• adoption papers
• financial records
• documents, codes, etc. to access your financial accounts from abroad
• proof of health insurance (if coverage is to carry over temporarily)

Read our section on legalisation as you might need to collect some extra stamps and signatures on these documents.

Travel Matters

• Book your flight
• Make arrangements for your family's transportion if coming at a later date.
• Pack your bags.
• Find out how to get to your initial accommodation in the Netherlands on arrival. Our section on getting around by public transport may be useful.

Accommodation and housing

• Arrange your initial accommodation until permanent housing is found (ask your HR contact) 
• Take measurements of the furniture that you plan to bring over (for reference when you shop for accomodation in the Netherlands, so you can make sure it will fit.)
• Arrange to leave your housing (is it rented out/sold/looked after?)
• Close out your home insurances (car, medical, property protection).
• Shut off utilities: phone (land and mobile), gas, water, etc.
• Arrange for the care of the belongings you will leave behind (are they in storage/sold/in crates and ready to ship?)
• Notify the post office of your change of address.

Other suggestions

Power of Attorney
A suggestion you may want to consider, depending on your situation, is leaving a Power of Attorney with a spouse, parent or other trusted person back home. This will come in useful if any situation arises on your home country while you are away which either requires some decision on your part or access to personal records, which you may have trouble dealing with from out of the country.

Mobile Phone Usage
Something to consider, perhaps, is how you want to arrange your mobile service. Around the world there are three common types of mobile service. One used in North America, one used in much of Asia, and one used in Europe and most everywhere else. The European system is compatible for use most everywhere except parts of Asia.

Without getting too technical, it may pay off to think about this before departure. While any mobile phone salesperson can explain this more, the important fact is that if you are coming from North America you can use your same phone in the Netherlands if it is "quad band". An expample of this is the popular Motorola Razor phone, though it is not the only quad band on the market. If your phone is "tri band" it might work in the Netherlands, but you will want to ask a mobile phone salesperson to be sure.

Also, if you have bought your phone from a particular mobile phone company, than it will most likely be "locked", meaning that it cannot (supposedly) be used with another company's service. However, many tri and quad band phones can be "unlocked" for a small fee. Again, ask a mobile phone salesperson and they can tell you if, how and where to do this. In these cases, you can avoid buying a new phone. Otherwise, you may want to consider these compatibiity issues when buying a new phone so you choose one that will be the most useful to you. It's very handy to be able to use the same phone at home and abroad.

If you are coming form Asia, most phones are not compatible with non-Asian systems. There are one or two expensive phones that will operate on both systems, so you may still want to ask.