I spent a long time researching the details for this move and found reddit to be super useful for all the various ins and outs, so I thought I'd share my experience here for future people to stumble upon.

Basic features of my move:

  • My long term girlfriend applied to master programs all over Europe and we settled on the Netherlands, the main reason for the move
  • She has EU and US citizenship, which helped me secure a visa much more easily
  • We had to move our 65lb dog, and all our stuff
  • I wanted to take my job with me to keep things as consistent as possible (I'm a mid level employee at a big company so many administrative hoops to jump through here)
  • We moved from San Francisco to Amsterdam

I think this post will provide a good overview of the logistics of an oversea move, how to navigate some of the Visa stuff, and how to get your dog there

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BASIC ADVICE TO START

  • Start researching and reading through the official websites for things 4-6 months before. There's a lot of info out there to absorb, and generally NO ONE KNOWS WHAT THE OFFICIAL RULES ARE (outside the official immigration officials)
    • Seriously, at each step it seemed like people in authority weren't sure what documents they were supposed to ask me for, or had a misunderstanding of the requirements. YOU NEED TO KNOW THE RULES SO YOU KNOW WHEN OTHERS ARE OVERLOOKING THEM (mostly airline agents, HR departments, etc)
    • That may sound overwhelming now, but in general you'll be in good shape if you start looking over stuff now
  • Save money now, and start trying to sell your stuff on Facebook marketplace/craigslist early to maximize the loss/replacement of stuff
    • The last 2 months can be a whirlwind, and you'll have to get rid of things at an accelerated pace and won't have time to bargain with people

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MOVING YOUR STUFF

  • In general for all airlines I looked at, it seemed cheapest to check 2-3 bags. My partner and I brought 6 checked bags and that was enough, once you go past 3/person it's cheaper to use a site like sendmybag which charges a flat rate of $170 and about $170/55lbs checked bag after that (vs $250+ for checked bags past 2-3)
  • That comes out to about $3/lb for stuff. Books are not worth this, furniture of any kind (unless sentimental) is generally not worth this
  • In general though, a lot of stuff is! We thought we'd have too much but I actually wish we brought more, that vegetable peeler? Probably 1lb and $8 to replace- would've been worth it to bring!
  • I used bankers boxes I bought at Lowe's in addition to the actual baggage. I even cut one apart to fit a large canvas painting, you want them to be double lined with cardboard
  • I would highly advise taking at least a couple notes on what goes into each box once you have them packed (this is much later on), they lost one of the boxes for 5 weeks and it was hard to remember what was actually in it when filing a claim
  • ALSO, there's not gonna be anyone to help you at the airport if you transfer flights. I thought there were luggage porters from what I read online, but ending up having to use two of those luggage carts one with each hand, which was not easy but I made it work
  • Airtags are great, I put one in our dog kennel
  • I was able to store sentimental heavy things at my parents, hoping to take it over slowly when I go back to visit

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VISA STUFF FOR THE NETHERLANDS

  • The government website is really great for understanding the requirements, each case is different though
  • For my case, since my partner is an EU citizen we just had to show we had been in a relationship for 6 months for me to get a resident permit/visa (which is good for 5 years)
    • There are different requirements if your partner is a Dutch citizen
    • For some countries like Germany we would've had to have gotten married
    • You can't apply for anything until you show up in the Netherlands- your partner registers and then applies for "Verification Against EU Law" for you (or with your help)
    • You have to apply <3 months after entering, after a couple weeks they'll call you in to get a temporary passport sticker that extends your stay 6 months from when you applied
    • It wasn't clear to me at the time, but this is your 'temporary resident sticker'/visa, I was able to use it along with my BSN to get fully setup at work and in the payroll/healthcare/pension systems
  • You can setup an appointment to register with the municipality before you enter though, this will get you a BSN which is basically like a social security number
  • I haven't been asked to show any financial records yet
  • Print everything you need before you leave, keep copies on your phone
  • If you can call them, they're really great on the phone
  • IMPORTANT: Most airlines require you to have a return flight if you don't have a visa to stay longer than 3 months in the country. I argued on the phone, and the person at the counter (respectfully) that I COULDN'T have a visa yet as you have to apply one you arrive. Here is where you need to know the requirements!! Finally, she called one person who transferred her to another and another and eventually they validated I was allowed to check in/fly without a return flight. I was gonna book a refundable return flight just in case but was able to make my case

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DOG LOGISTICS

  • If your dog is >25lbs I believe they have to go in the cargo hold
  • Most airlines stopped taking flights in the hold after covid, I could only find KLM airlines willing to do it (KLM is partnered with Delta, and I had to be careful not to book a Delta flight through KLM by mistake as Delta doesn't allow them- confusing I know)
  • And they only do it on certain aircraft! I had to take Alaska Airline to JFK (from SFO) and switch to KLM direct to Amsterdam, even though there are direct flights from SF to Amsterdam
  • I would highly advise going direct from the United States to your destination country, as there are many more headaches doing a layover internationally (some countries have restrictions on foreign dogs, there are requirements on the time of the layover, etc it makes it a lot more complicated)
  • This makes the total cost of flights pretty high since you really don't have many options at this point
    • My partner took a different flight because it was like $800 less, would've been nice to travel together but the savings were worth it
  • You need to start talking with your vet about this! You have to get your dog checked out by them within 30 days of departure, and they need to send an approval form to the USDA with the last 10 days to sign. The USDA recently switched to doing approvals online which speeds it up, but make sure your vet gets it in on day 10/9 (flying out on day 0) as the USDA will need to overnight ship you the final approval form
  • Your dog also needs to be microchipped, and have gotten a rabies vaccine after
    • If your dog is due for a rabies vaccine it has to be done 21 days before traveling, so give yourself time
    • Check out the aphis usda website for details
  • You also need a separate form if you have a domestic layover
  • If your dog is not crate trained, get a crate ASAP and start doing it so they feel calm in the crate
  • No one ever suggested I drug him, I think they might only do this if your dog has high anxiety
  • If your dog has high anxiety, it's recommend you don't put anything in the crate as they might eat it out of stress (bedding). If you've never observed your dog doing something like then you're probably fine but up to you
  • For bedding, I used the bottom pad of my dog's bed and used big binder clips to secure it to a piece of cardboard I cut out to fit the bottom of the crate perfectly, so that the bedding couldn't get bunched up. I taped the airtag to the bottom of the cardboard
  • Read up on crate requirements, I had to get a new one (no metal grated ones)
  • It's good practice to keep your dog very active the days leading up, so they'll just want to sleep/not be active on the flight
  • Once it's time to go to the airport, try and give your dog water but not much food. I found ice was a good way to get my dog to drink extra water. If you want to be extra sure you can get some low sodium vegetable stock cubes to mix in as they love that (great for constipation too)
  • When I got to my dog each time, he seemed stressed and very thirsty. The little plastic dish that came with the crate sucked and didn't stay on at all. But overall he was okay and sprung right back to life and excitement after a little water. It was scary bringing him but I met some people who have to do this more regularly, and it's routine for the airport staff
  • You're not supposed to have your dog out of the crate in the airport, but no one cared so you can just put them in at the counter/take them out after baggage claim
  • You have to register your dog within the Netherlands <10 days, at which point they get an EU pet passport so you don't have to go through all those extra forms at the vet if you ever need to this again
  • The customs agent asked for my official documents, but everyone else I talked whose done this said no one asked them for anything (sounds like they only check 1/5 times or so)

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My Job

  • Fortunately, my company is owned by a parent company with offices literally everywhere, so they already had the payroll structure setup here so it wasn't much extra work on their part to transfer me here. I did start the process 5 months before moving though
  • I played out the options first though, said we were thinking of relocating within the US or maybeeee Europe. Once they seemed like they were cool with Europe I was more honest about the move
  • Play the hand you have, you only have to let your employer know what they need to know. But if you can't work in the Netherlands remotely >3 months legally, and your IT systems might not let you log onto a VPN internationally so know these things first if you wanna be secret about it
  • BUT, the cost of living and wages are lower here. You can try and let your employer know they can pay you less if they okay the move
  • 30% ruling- look into this most people in my situation get it. Your employer and you don't pay taxes on the first 30% of income leading to savings. I'm still applying and hoping this will help offset the lower salary I'm receiving now. Even more savings for your employer!
  • Make sure to get and sign a contract before you come to the Netherlands, as that's one of the most important requirements for the 30% ruling. If you landed here day 1, and then found a job day 2 then you're disqualified it has to be taken before you set foot here
  • No one told me this, but the first month I didn't have my BSN so wasn't properly registered as a citizen. For whatever reason, this causes them to tax your income at the maximum rate- my take home pay was about 2/3 of what it should've been. Now that I'm setup I got the extra tax payments back
  • The tax calculators I used online have generally seemed close to reality (I'll see where I actually sit once filing taxes next year)
  • Be proactive with your company, it took a long time for me to get approvals and accelerated once I realized I had to be my own biggest cheerleader
    • Once I got here too I got hit with some administrative messes like getting paid twice in the Netherlands and the US, finding errors in my employment contract, etc it would've benefitted me to scrutinize proactively a bit more

OTHER LOGISTIC STUFF

  • Print everything before you leave and keep it in a folder, I'm talking:
    • Photo copies of credit cards, passports, driver's licenses
    • Lease agreements (previous if you're doing the EU Verification thing)
    • Employment contracts, pet health forms (scan the ones the vet gave you), pay stubs, W2
    • Birth certificates, Social Security Cards, etc
    • I printed my partner's enrollment letter just in case (showing why we were moving here) but haven't needed it for anything
  • I saved the scanned copies on my computer, and then airdropped (or emailed it) to my phone so I had digital copies offline and physical copies
    • If not for travel now it's great to have these when you're registering for things on the other side
  • You can get Wise or Bunq without a BSN, this is super helpful once you start needing to pay for things in Euros (like apartment down payments). I would maybe go for Bunq as it will allow you to get on Tikkie which is like venmo/cashapp here (Bunq is a dutch bank, Wise is Belgian which doesn't let you get on Tikkie)
  • 99% of everything is tap to pay here so I haven't needed cash, Apple pay all day
  • Vodafone will let you sign up for a dutch number/data without a BSN, KPN doesn't
  • HOUSING!!!! This could be a whole post, but in general I don't think you'll be able to find anything until <3 weeks before you move. At that point APPLY FOR LITERALLY EVERYTHING. Serious, we sent out 150+ applications in 2 weeks and got 1 place that we accepted immediately
    • You can often find a website for your country that you pay ~$1-2 to verify who the owner of the property is so you can validate you're not getting scammed. I would say if you can't do a video call walkthrough of the apartment don't get it
    • We booked an Airbnb that was fully refundable for the first 10 days, fortunately we locked in on housing 1 week before we left and were able to cancel it, getting a hotel room for first 3 nights to make the transition a bit easier
    • I guess it's normal that people don't clean before they move out here... it was very gross
    • Tenant responsibilities are different- that listing that said "WASHER IN UNIT!"? Yeah it was broken on arrival but I guess not the landlord's responsibility as the previous tenant bought it
  • You can have e-sims on most phones now and have two at a time, I can text and call from my US or Netherlands number easily
  • You can call toll free numbers for free on Skype. It's really expensive to call banks in the US but Skype has made it easy
  • I think every US bank I checked wouldn't let me bank without a US address or phone number, I'm still using the banks that don't require a phone number for two factor authentication but sometimes those ones let you use a USB authentication device for that
  • I'm registered for all these things at my parents address, who have been kind enough to let us get mail there
  • Google translate lets you translate PDFs and download them
  • Amazon NL is different from Amazon US, sometimes searching for things on Google NL makes it easier to get to the Netherlands storefront for things
  • Google translate app in Chrome has been helpful

I have been here 3 months now and love it here. It's truly a beautiful city, and very easy to navigate as an English speaker (I haven't met anyone in Amsterdam that couldn't speak English yet). So far it's been 100% worth everything

There's probably a hundred more tiny details I could include, but I wouldn't stress about them. Just start reading stuff in advance so you're pretty familiar with it by the time you travel. And remember NO ONE KNOWS ALL OF THE OFFICIAL RULES! But be nice to people along the way, if you get stressed remember that the workers in the situation see stress everyday so this won't help you. Just be nice, calm, and helpful and I'm sure you'll get through it!

Feel free to ask any questions