Here's exactly how we moved abroad from the US to the EU

Forms, links, and printable checklist included

My partner and I both got the justice sensitivity and pattern recognition flavors of neurodivergence—which might help to explain why in 2022, after seven years of protests and petitions and political pandemonium, we agreed it might be wise to move abroad to a country in the European Union “until we see how the whole 2024 election thing plays out.”

Now, we’re watching things play out back in the US about as painfully as we’d expected (but really, really hoped we’d be wrong about) feeling angry, exasperated, and helpless… but also incredibly grateful that we decided to move abroad when we did.

In our experience, moving from the U.S. to the Netherlands was not nearly as difficult as most people seem to expect based on the avalanche of questions I’ve gotten from people about it since we did so.

In case you’re starting to think about doing the same, here’s a step-by-step guide to exactly how we moved from America to Amsterdam (with our 70-pound dog!) without totally losing our shit—forms, links, and printable checklist included.

Before the move

Residence permits

The first thing we needed to figure out was how we wanted to acquire our long-term residence permits.