We’ve been in the Netherlands just over a month. It has been hectic.

We went through a Makelaar (real estate broker) to find our place before we arrived. We spent the first two weeks getting furniture at IKEA and staying in an Airbnb, signing the lease, doing the walkthrough, getting utilities setup and we had an appointment with the Gemeente.

Surprisingly, the Gemeente gave us all BSN’s before we even had our IND appointment, though we had the appointment scheduled. I wasn’t expecting that, as every blog and facebook group said that it wasn’t possible.

So, I didn’t know how best to proceed. I knew that as soon as we had our BSN’s, we had certain obligations. However, I didn’t know what they were. So, I hired Jeremy Bierbach to assist with the following steps. Initially, I thought I could do it myself. However, when things started to be proceeding out of order, I decided to hire a professional. I’m glad I did.

He got me set up with everything I needed, DigiD, KvK, etc. All I had to do was show up at the appointments. Easy peasy.

I learned that if things happen out of order, it really just makes everything much more streamlined. With my son, it’s made things more complicated. We have to get him in school sooner rather than later, get his shot records submitted, etc. We accidentally lost the letter we needed to submit his shot records, which was fun. They eventually called us and we got it sorted out.

I also learned that my wife is able to open her own business, if she so chooses, and she’s not limited to at least €4,500 in continuous assets, like I am. This is not really something we’re doing yet, but it’s good to know for the future.

We still can’t get health insurance … I’m sure that will be a doozy.

We’re looking forward to start traveling and so far, we’ve been to Germany, Belgium, and in several weeks, we’ll be in France for a week. We’ve got plans to go up north this winter and see the northern lights with friends, so much stuff. My wife is keeping more details of our adventure at 3TravelingLanders.com. Follow her blog if you’re interested!

Until next time,

Rob