Arlene77 wrote:Hi,
My husband and I and my two kids have been living in Ireland on the EU1 permit since 2006. With the drama with the EU1 we only got it sorted in 2008 October. We are thinking of moving to the Netherlands. My husband is English and I am South African. Does anybody have any experience with this? What I am particularly interested in is information about:
- schools
- job market
- cost of living
- how difficult the procedure is
Ireland was very difficult and I wouldn't like a repeat of that. We are both in IT. He is employed and I work on a freelance basis.
Any tips would be greatly appreciated
I'm getting ready to make the move. The good news is, everyone I have talked to says it takes 6-8 weeks to receive your residence stamp in The Netherlands. I've been told it's very straight forward and that the IND website is pretty accurate.
Where in NL are you moving to?
As for the school system, you have a lot of options. The good thing is that it's a bilingual country, so the transition to a Dutch speaking school shouldn't be too difficult, but there are loads of international schools as well (British and American, as well as schools offering the IB).
I'm not too sure on the job market, but if you're well qualified and experienced, then it shouldn't be too difficult, although having Dutch would make things much easier. As a freelancer, you can bring your clients with you if you don't have much face-to-face work. (My partner has been working freelance in Ireland and does most of the work (Skype calls) from home, but she plans to make trips to see her clients when necessary.)
Cost of living: grocery shopping is cheaper and housing is a bit less, but income tax is much higher and you must have health insurance. This can be expensive, but if your husband gets it through work it could be cheaper. I'd say with pay, taxes and insurance, everything will average out.
Here are 2 other sites that might be more helpful:
http://britishexpats.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=105
http://www.buitenlandsepartner.nl/forum ... .php?f=172
Best of luck. Hopefully you'll be able to find someone with first hand experience. The best news I can offer is that it will be nothing like Ireland and the EU process here. I look forward to that!
