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Tourist laws? How long can you stay?

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TyBrown

4/1/2013 20:00 EST

Hey Folks,
We're Americans and currently living in Costa Rica.

We're thinking about a move to Holland next year.

Here in Costa Rica when you enter as a tourist you are given 90 days. What we do is leave the country every 3 months for 72 hours and come back. Easy as that.

How does it work in Holland? If we're planning on moving there, but only being there for a year or two, we obviously don't want to seek residency. What are the laws concerning being legal in the country?

Also, I won't be working in the country (I work online) so that won't play a part I don't think.

Also, we won't have a car so I won't need to worry about any sort of residency issues and owning a vehicle.

Any thoughts?

Thanks.

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georgedrurysmith

4/2/2013 03:11 EST

I'm no expert but have experience. You should go to http://english.ind.nl/ to study the regulations, which seem to be changing. The Dutch are much more strict than they used to be, and the basic rule is that as a tourist you can be in a "Schengen Treaty Country" (most of western Europe) only 90 days out of every 180 (or is it 3 months out of each 6?), and that means you must totally leave and stay out of Schengen countries for that time, so just going to Belgium or France for a few days won't cut it. If you got residence permit here (not easy) there, you should investigate the potentially very serious tax consequences, depending on your situation.

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TyBrown

4/9/2013 15:30 EST

Thanks for the response.

I've been on the website you mentioned quite a bit but am not finding the info (I found price ranges for various types of visas but none of the categories fit what we're looking to do).

So I've tried emailing those folks on several occasions and they haven't responded once.

I've also tried calling but their number doesn't work for me.

I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do. You mention that it's very hard to get the visa. Why is that?

We're looking to do a big project that would keep us there for a year or two. The project would require a lot of up front planning.

As I understand it you have to apply for residency within 3 days of arriving. I'm terrified that we get there, apply, are denied, and then we've wasted enormous resources in all that planning/money to get there.

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georgedrurysmith

4/11/2013 08:29 EST

Further: Your situation is more complex than I realized. However, you should be able to remain 90 days as a tourist, so I wouldn't worry about missing the 3-day registration. Try calling:
+31 208 893 045. From a cell phone the +31 will usually get you through to the Netherlands. (If you hold down the zero, it will usually turn into a plus-sign+). From a landline, you probably need to do your international access, then the 31 country code. Good luck!

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