Offshore:Admin Hacks: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 12:38, 9 March 2017

ADMIN HACK 06.03.2017 16:29 52°24'16.1"N 4°53'12.1"E inside: 16.7°C outside: 9°C

Living on a boat, in the Netherlands, you cannot register your address unless you are the lucky owner of one of the 2500 official houseboat addresses in Amsterdam. I moved to Amsterdam from Belgium last year in September. One month after, I bought an 8m motor cruiser boat without a working motor and really old batteries. The interior covered with lacquer paint applied by the previous owner without paint hardener.Touching the walls, you were covered in paint. I was aware the boat a big project to take on, but the premise of low cost living and an adventure after graduating convinced me after all.

Buying an official houseboat address was never an option for me so I needed to find an alternative way to register in the Netherlands. At first I registered myself as an RNI – a form of registration for someone not living in the Netherlands. This form of registration enables you to receive your BSN number, and work in the Netherlands. I thought I was administratively set after registering for the RNI until the manager at the hostel I work two days a week, informed me I had to get an official address or else they would not be able to extend my contract. Apparently the RNI registration is only valid for four months.

It took me quite some time studying official websites to figure out what to do. Luckily I do speak Dutch. I found an administrative construction that permits cross-border workers of the BeNeLux to be registered in one country and work in the other. Once again I believed I was all set, so I did not look further. A month later I received an email from my employer: the construction is meant only for people living in a city situated next to a border, which I am not.

Consulting peers, I found out that I could register at a briefadres. This is an address of a friend or family member living in the Netherlands and who is willing to collect your mail. This registration can only be done by the main tenant and just two people can be registered at one ‚briefadres‘.

So I started looking for this type of address. I knew housing is a challenge in Amsterdam, but I did not know a lot of my friends were also not able to register at their place, even if they rented an apartment or room. This precarious situation is created by the housing shortage in Amsterdam and the need to register to be able to work in the Netherlands. House owners let out an apartment without giving the tenant the possibility to register at that address. That way the owner him/herself can stay registered at the address.

After one month of looking for a possible ‚briefadres‘ I got desperate. My work contract was about to expire so I made an appointment at the city hall. I personally went there instead of calling them constantly and spending fortunes on phone credit. Once at the city hall I got the best service ever, utilising my Flemish accent, I explained my situation. Finally the city hall employer found a way to register me: at my job. This is a service they provide for expats living in hotels. I just needed proof of extension of my contract and a permission from my job, which I both received. Just 5 days before my contract expired, on my birthday January 25th, I was able to register for one year at a briefadres!

But my administrative struggle has not yet ended. I soon realised that basically anything you have to apply for in the Netherlands is a hustle if you do not have a physical mailbox. For instance: If you work for a Dutch company you are obliged to have health insurance. I am already covered by a Belgian health insurance, that has better conditions than the Dutch health insurance, but no choice… I had to apply for Dutch health insurance. I received my insurance card by mail. You can apply for zorgtoeslag (a compensation for health insurance) online, but only if you have a briefadres. They need to mail you papers and you have to mail them back. For a DigID (login system for government websites) you need a mailbox,…. and so forth.

If you want to live off-the-grid in the Netherlands and you come from another country I suggest you rent a room for some months first, to fix your administration before starting to live on a boat, in a yurt, or on a trailer.

To be continued...

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 ==ADMIN HACK    06.03.2017    16:29        52°24'16.1"N 4°53'12.1"E    inside: 16.7°C      outside: 9°C==
-When you live on a boat, in the Netherlands, it is not possible to register your address there unless you are the lucky owner of one of the 2500 official houseboat addresses in Amsterdam. I moved to Amsterdam from Belgium in September last year. One month after, I bought an 8m motor cruiser boat with no working motor and really old batteries. The interior was covered with lacquer paint applied by the previous owner without paint hardener, which meant that if you would touch the walls, you’d be covered in paint. I knew it was quite some project to take on, but the price was tempting and I was ready for an adventure after graduating from university.
+Living on a boat, in the Netherlands, you cannot register your address unless you are the lucky owner of one of the 2500 official houseboat addresses in Amsterdam. I moved to Amsterdam from Belgium last year in September. One month after, I bought an 8m motor cruiser boat without a working motor and really old batteries. The interior covered with lacquer paint applied by the previous owner without paint hardener.Touching the walls, you were covered in paint. I was aware the boat a big project to take on, but the premise of low cost living and an adventure after graduating convinced me after all.
+Buying an official houseboat address was never an option for me so I needed to find an alternative way to register in the Netherlands. At first I registered myself as an [https://www.amsterdam.nl/veelgevraagd/?productid=%7B78A87674-890E-426F-8FF0-8452BF095699%7D RNI] – a form of registration for someone not living in the Netherlands. This form of registration enables you to receive your [https://www.amsterdam.nl/veelgevraagd/?productid=%7BD9EEC2D8-7BA7-4DEA-A931-1D2ACB207608%7D BSN] number, and work in the Netherlands. I thought I was administratively set after registering for the RNI until the manager at the hostel I work two days a week, informed me I had to get an official address or else they would not be able to extend my contract. Apparently the RNI registration is only valid for four months.
-Since buying an official houseboat address was never an option for me, I had to find an alternative way to be able to register in the Netherlands. At first I registered myself as an RNI which basically is a registration for someone that doesn’t live in the Netherlands. You need this registration to be able to receive your BSN number. With this BSN number you’re able to work in the Netherlands. After registering for the RNI I thought I was good with my administration until my manager, at the hostel I work at two days a week, came to me and informed me I had to get an official address or else they wouldn’t be able to extend my contract. Apparently the RNI registration is only valid for four months. I didn’t know.
+It took me quite some time studying official websites to figure out what to do. Luckily I do speak Dutch. I found an administrative construction that permits [http://startpuntgrensarbeid.benelux.int cross-border workers] of the BeNeLux to be registered in one country and work in the other. Once again I believed I was all set, so I did not look further. A month later I received an email from my employer: the construction is meant only for people living in a city situated next to a border, which I am not.
-For this, I’m super glad I speak Dutch because it took me quite some time studying official websites to figure out what to do. At first I found an administrative construction that enables  cross-border workers of the BeNeLux to be registered in one country and work in the other. Due to this lead, I didn’t look further and thought once again everything was fine. A month later I got an email from the HR department from the hostel: this construction was only for people that really lived in a city situated next to a border, so surely not for me.
+Consulting peers, I found out that I could register at a [https://www.amsterdam.nl/veelgevraagd/?productid=%7BB4A56660-8158-4DBA-A959-21DBAC61210D%7D#case_%7B1FEB8645-6EFE-45B8-A08F-72E15AD0463E%7D briefadres]. This is an address of a friend or family member living in the Netherlands and who is willing to collect your mail. This registration can only be done by the main tenant and just two people can be registered at one ‚briefadres‘.
-Informing with other people on what they did, I found out that I could register at a briefadres. This is an address of a friend or family member that lives in the Netherlands and is willing to collect your mail. This registration can only be done by the main tenant and just two people can be registered at one briefadres.
+So I started looking for this type of address. I knew housing is a challenge in Amsterdam, but I did not know a lot of my friends were also not able to register at their place, even if they rented an apartment or room. This precarious situation is created by the housing shortage in Amsterdam and the need to register to be able to work in the Netherlands. House owners let out an apartment without giving the tenant the possibility to register at that address. That way the owner him/herself can stay registered at the address.
-It was time to start looking for this type of address. I knew housing is a big problem in Amsterdam, but I didn’t know a lot of my friends were also not able to register at their place, even if they rented an apartment or room. This situation was created by the housing shortage in Amsterdam and the need to register to be able to work in the Netherlands. An owner of a house would let out an apartment without giving the tenant the possibility to register at that address, this way the owner could register himself or other people there and together with the rent also get money for providing someone a registration.
+After one month of looking for a possible ‚briefadres‘ I got desperate. My work contract was about to expire so I made an appointment at the city hall. I personally went there instead of calling them constantly and spending fortunes on phone credit. Once at the city hall I got the best service ever, utilising my Flemish accent, I explained my situation. Finally the city hall employer found a way to register me: at my job. This is a service they provide for expats living in hotels. I just needed proof of extension of my contract and a permission from my job, which I both received. Just 5 days before my contract expired, on my birthday January 25th, I was able to register for one year at a briefadres!
-After one month of looking for a possible briefadres I got really desperate, since my work contract was expiring so I made an appointment at the city hall and went there instead of calling them all the time and spending fortunes on callcredit. At the city hall I got the best service ever, I apparently charmed one of the employees there with my Flemish accent, explained my whole situation and he put a lot of effort to find a way to register: at my job.
+But my administrative struggle has not yet ended. I soon realised that basically anything you have to apply for in the Netherlands is a hustle if you do not have a physical mailbox. For instance: If you work for a Dutch company you are obliged to have health insurance. I am already covered by a Belgian health insurance, that has better conditions than the Dutch health insurance, but no choice… I had to apply for Dutch health insurance. I received my insurance card by mail. You can apply for [https://mijn.toeslagen.nl zorgtoeslag] (a compensation for health insurance) online, but only if you have a briefadres. They need to mail you papers and you have to mail them back. For a [https://www.digid.nl/ DigID] (login system for government websites) you need a mailbox,…. and so forth.
-This is a service they provide for expats living in hotels. I just needed proof of extension of my contract and a permission from my job, which I both got. Just 5 days before my contract expired, on my birthday January 25th, I was able to register for one year at a briefadres!
-So far for the registration, but my administrative struggle wasn’t over. Basically everything you have to apply for in the Netherlands is really a hustle when you don’t have a physical mailbox. When you work for a Dutch company you are also obliged to have a health insurance. I already have one in Belgium which has much much better conditions than what Dutch health insurance companies have to offer, but I had no choice. I had to apply. They send you the insurance card by mail. You can apply for zorgtoeslag (a compensation for health insurance) online, only not when you have a briefadres, then they have to mail you papers and you have to post them back. For a DigID (login system for government websites) you need a mailbox. I can go on and on and on.
+If you want to live off-the-grid in the Netherlands and you come from another country I suggest you rent a room for some months first, to fix your administration before starting to live on a boat, in a yurt, or on a trailer.
-Basically what I suggest you to do if you want to live off-the-grid  in the Netherlands and come from another country: rent a room for some months first and fix your administration before starting to live on a boat, in a yurt, or on a trailer.
+To be continued...