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I'm a Canadian citizen, single, currently living in the US, and I've requested a transfer at work to our Amsterdam office. Last I heard, our Amsterdam people were talking to an immigration lawyer there. I've told them I want to make the move sometime around August/September/October 2023 - my ideal would be mid-September. Confession: I've never been to Amsterdam, but I've had this idea for a while. Pre-COVID, I initially wanted to move to London, but my then-boss pointed out that as an IT guy, it would probably make more sense and be more well-received to choose Amsterdam as that's our European HQ. Also, Brexit soured me on England. Anyway, what should I know coming in as far as city and/or suburb living? What can I expect to pay for a decent 1 bedroom apartment in a fairly nice & quiet part of town? What are typical monthly costs for bills like heat, electricity, gas, internet? How about mobile phone service? The office is right be the Amsterdam-Zuid subway station, can I expect that transit there is fairly useful and painless? Anything else I'm not thinking of? My boss has advised me to take a trip in advance, sometime in June/July so I can nail down an apartment ahead of time while the students are out from university.
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Nov 27, 2022 22:38
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TITTIEKISSER69 posted:What can I expect to pay for a decent 1 bedroom apartment in a fairly nice & quiet part of town? Think of a high number, then double it. TITTIEKISSER69 posted:What are typical monthly costs for bills like heat, electricity, gas, internet? How about mobile phone service? Internet and mobile costs are quite low. Energy prices are very high at the moment due to well, everything. TITTIEKISSER69 posted:The office is right be the Amsterdam-Zuid subway station, can I expect that transit there is fairly useful and painless? Yeah it's one of the biggest and busiest transport hubs in the area. They are doing major works over the next years - see here.
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Nov 28, 2022 14:41
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Oh I can help with this one! American here who lived in the Netherlands from Jan 2020 - July 2022 (great timing, yeah?). My partner and I moved to Utrecht in January 2020 and promptly had all of our plans derailed by COVID. After about a year in Utrecht we moved to Amsterdam in February 2021 because we found that most of the friends we made were based in Amsterdam and we were spending a lot of time traveling back and forth. TITTIEKISSER69 posted:Anyway, what should I know coming in as far as city and/or suburb living? What can I expect to pay for a decent 1 bedroom apartment in a fairly nice & quiet part of town? What are typical monthly costs for bills like heat, electricity, gas, internet? How about mobile phone service? Rent can vary wildly based on where you are. If you want to be in the city and in Amsterdam proper it's definitely pricy, but in my opinion worth it. It's an amazing city and really fun to live in, you get great access to everything if you live closeby. Plenty of people decide to live a little further out in places like Amstelveen and either take transit or cycle into the city, it really depends on what your housing priorities are. We were paying 2400 EUR/month for a rather large (2 br + office + large kitchen and living space + garden) apartment in Hoofddorpplenbuurt. Rent for a 1 br can be anywhere from 1500-3500 I'd say depending on what you want, where it is, and the size (I am far from an expert on Amsterdam real estate/rental costs so take with a grain of salt). Heat/electricity/gas has risen a lot in the last couple years. I think when we left I was paying about 160 EUR/mo for all of that in a fairly large apartment. You pay a flat monthly rate based on estimated usage and then at the end of the billing year you either pay or get refunded the difference. Trash pickup/city services in Amsterdam can be a bit of an expense, I believe the city billed me 450 EUR/year for all of that. Mobile phone service is CHEAP compared to the US. I paid 15EUR/mo for a nice plan with Lebara, never had an issue with the company or the service, it worked everywhere in Europe. For internet with Ziggo I think I paid 60EUR/mo for gigabit. Health insurance is mandatory and paid for by you individually, but it is heavily regulated and subsidized. Expect to pay between 120-200 EUR/month depending on what additional coverage you require. TITTIEKISSER69 posted:The office is right be the Amsterdam-Zuid subway station, can I expect that transit there is fairly useful and painless? Amsterdam-Zuid is a nice station and really easy to connect around the city. When I lived in Utrecht I used to commute to Zuid by train and then transfer to the metro to get to my office. There's good train, bus, and metro connectivity from there. If you like biking (I hope you like biking) then you should definitely consider being within bike-commuting range to your office instead of using transit. I lived in the Hoofddorpplein neighborhood for a while and commuted by bike to an office near Zuid, very nice quick ride. It's a fairly quiet part of the city with easy access to Rembrandtpark, Vondelpark, and a quick cycle to the city center so I'd definitely recommend looking around there for housing. TITTIEKISSER69 posted:Anything else I'm not thinking of? My boss has advised me to take a trip in advance, sometime in June/July so I can nail down an apartment ahead of time while the students are out from university. Make sure you get the 30% ruling. Your employer should handle it for you but it makes the top 30% of your income tax-exempt and also exempts you from paying taxes on your worldwide assets. It currently lasts for about 5 years but they always talk about abolishing it or reducing the benefit. I'm probably forgetting a few things, but this was some stuff from the top of my head, feel free to reach out if you have other questions and I'll pop back in if I think of anything else you should know moving to Amsterdam from abroad. It's an amazing place to live and I highly recommend taking the plunge while you have the chance!
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Nov 28, 2022 15:15
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Hey there. I have seen you in the Canadian threads before. I am going to be brutally honest - Amsterdam has been gentrified by "ex-pats". A huge number of immigrants have moved to Amsterdam for work and education purposes. It's great and getting really diverse, however, there is a group of white Americans/Canadians/Brits who have really taken over neighbourhoods such as Oud West, Zuid, Center, and creeping over at east Zuid. They do not like to be called immigrants, rather they want to be called ex-pats. Immigrants have to learn dutch and adapt to the culture, they do not (in their minds). There is a small group of white Dutch people who have taken advantage of this and you will hear them speak English even among each other. It is a form of racism and others everyone else, even Dutch people of colour. The costs have gotten so outages in Amsterdam, that more and more Dutch people are leaving. Smoking weed is for the tourist, the young folks, and the dead beats. HOWEVER, there are tons of things to do in the city that are affordable and the city even comes out with a booklet in the spring detailing all the pre-planned events for the spring/summer/fall. PRE-PLANNED EVENTS and it is a thick book. Never mind those funky, pop-up posters for events for what be considered shady in Canada. Everything in this country is orderly and has rules. You need to follow rule 1 to get to rule 2. It can take weeks if not months sometimes and it is hard when every rule has a deadline. The immigration office is VERY uptight, by the book, appointment only which are fully booked months in advance, especially during the summertime. I do find that they are far more efficient than the Canadian government, in which I waited 10 months for a piece of paper that took them no more than 10 minutes to print out from the Canadian federal government. Do your research, plan ahead, and have everything ready. I had to go back to Canada because it turn out I needed a Birth certificate when registering with the city and Canada could not get its act together and sent it to Newfoundland. The government was strict about its deadlines. This was in 2017. Once you have your visas in order, you need to register with the city you are living in. Bring a Birth Certificate that is also notified. Health isn't free there. In fact, it is a law that you need to be on a health insurance plan. You have 4 months to register for a plan. There are tons of rules and if you don't read the fine print or have someone translate the paperwork for you, it can screw you over. For example, you can only cut contracts with your health plan in the new year. It is like a rental lease. I had to move back to Canada mid-year and the health insurance company wanted ALL of my personal details about Canada to prove I wasn't lying about being kicked out of the country. They still threaten to sue. I was an emotional mess due to having to leave a country that I call my 2nd home and having just lost my aunt to cancer (who was dutch and lived in the Netherlands) to end up having to deal with insurance people who thought they could bully some dumb ex-pat. Thankfully I had family back me up and now to this day, they technically owe me money. Ask yourself WHY you want to move to Amsterdam. Believe it or not, if you are going in thinking it will be the liberal utopia that many white north Americans think it is, you will go in with a shock. If you are ok with the fact that you will be friends with ex-pats and immigrants within the city, then you will have a blast. Do tons of research. Research the whole process of settling in, AND its current culture. Oh and move in October. DrNewton fucked around with this message at 21:58 on Dec 16, 2022 |
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Dec 16, 2022 21:53
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Jato posted:I lived in the Hoofddorpplein neighborhood for a while Sup neighbour, my sister use to have store on that square. Also, as someone who gets SAD, I found it isn't as bad in the Netherlands. Yes, late November and December suck with next to no day light. However, after the 23rd, I find it gets lighters MUCH faster than in Toronto, which stays dark at 5pm until February/March. DrNewton fucked around with this message at 22:01 on Dec 16, 2022 |
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Dec 16, 2022 21:57
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Amsterdam is pretty socially liberal. However, in the whole country the conservative mindset has a tremendously strong foothold. In most of the country the dutch version of the N-word is still completely acceptable, there are two parties that are comparable to Donald Trump racism and phobia-towards-any thing non-white and non-straight (PVV and FVD), and not having national holidays centered around Jim Crow-like characters is still a fight in progress. The gentrification is indeed very strong. The gritty subcultures have almost disappeared; the places that managed to survive despite gentrification aren't very welcoming to 'expats' unless you come to actually help protest gentrification and help maintain and staff the old, formerly squatted buildings they're in. An american acquaintance of mine became an immigration lawyer and helped a LOT of people who suffered under the pretty horrible refugee laws created by the liberal (as in market-liberal but socially conservative) VVD. He was fully welcome in the surviving underground spaces, despite being one of those rich 'expats', because of the work he does. Amsterdam is still a pretty sweet place to live, even though it's slowly losing the things that made it so interesting and becoming more and more a generic big city. It's got a lot of things the large capitals of the world have, but with the difference that you can cycle from one side of town to the other in 45 minutes or so. It's incredibly compact. The public transport is reasonably functional, but if you live there you often just don't bother with it unless it's horribly rainy - because you either walk or cycle somewhere. The compact, 17/18/19th century layout does mean that the city feels overcrowded. I have lived in Osdorp, a 1950s designed suburb. I preferred it over the inner city because there isn't that never ending stream of tourists and visitors that you have to watch out for, or who are noisy or whatever. As a student i paid €350 a month for a room with a shared living room, 10 years ago. My upstairs neighbor who still had her original rental contract she got in 1990, paid €450ish for a whole 2 bedroom apartment. Just to show how much prices have risen. Both exluding utilities. Heating cost is probably a lot, those old apartments are really badly isolated. Natural gas and electrity cost has skyrocketed, for 2023 the price of 1kWh of electricity is capped at €0,40 and €1,45 per m^3 of gas. Expect to pay at least 150 euro per month in heating cost in the winter months for a well isolated single family home from the post 2000s, going up to 600 euro a month if you have a free standing bungalow style house from the 1960s. If you consume more than 2900kWh and more than 1200m^3, anything over that amount is just billed at whatever price the utility company wants to charge. Be very careful if you both heat and cook on electrics, you can easily get over that amount. The price cap will likely not continue after 2023, and it depends on the russia situation if the cost will ever go down again. Internet's cheap, starts at 30 euro or something for home internet, and 10 euro for 2gb of mobile data a month. Train travel is expensive, check https://www.ns.nl for train travel cost and https://www.gvb.nl for within-amsterdam public transport. So, in short - it's hella expensive, it's not anymore what people in the 1990s told you it is, but it's pretty alright to live here. I don't live in Amsterdam anymore, but as a gay dude it still is where most fun stuff happens so i wouldn't want to live too far from it. LimaBiker fucked around with this message at 17:24 on Dec 19, 2022 |
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Dec 19, 2022 17:11
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Amsterdam is a big village compared to other capital cities or any bigger city abroad. The Dutch are very direct people and especially in the west of the country they can come across as blunt and rude if you're not used to this. You will find this in all interactions especially in their humor. Amsterdam has a kind of humor that is called gein. Very blunt and direct (insulting at times) remarks that expect you to come up with a witty reply on the spot. Now you're not a native Dutch speaker and even if you learned Dutch this will take a long time to grown into; if you're not planning to live here for the rest of your life, don't bother to integrate this into your character. There are many places where the people behind the counter will be expats and speaking English is extremely common, you will not have a difficulty making your way through the city. However most people will think you're a visitor/tourist unless you show up often and get to know them a bit better. I'd suggest you find the local pub in the area where you end up living or a pub that spikes your interest and get to know the regulars. They will be able to hook you up with other social contacts eventually. You'll find it easy to make Dutch friends if you're open and openminded. The Dutch are quite eager and hospitable to those who make themselves easy to interact with. People in Amsterdam are historically traders and this still resonates in their way of interacting with outsiders. If you know how to ride a bike you will be very happy when you get there, you can get pretty much everywhere with a bike in max 45 minutes (meaning outer rings to outer ring). The city center is not the most interesting place for longterm residents but when you're brand new it will give you some good moments, many tourists come for a few days, get high and move on. There are many ways to get to know the city and make it a home. If your co-workers are willing to show you around you'll soon enough find yourself in the more underground and far more interesting parts of the city. House parties are normal in the Netherlands, even if the house is terribly small. Raves used to be common before covid (not sure what its like now) there are many cultural hubs and the train system from Amsterdam to the rest of the country is excellent. You can get to most other big cities in no time. Rotterdam and Utrecht are good places to start out at when you want to explore. But make sure you find yourself in the countryside as well at some point. Maybe find a friend who comes from a small village: this is where the real Netherlands takes place and these cannot be compared to the big cities of Holland. Best of luck with your move! I hope you have a wonderful time!!
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Jan 22, 2023 09:33
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Thanks to all who replied, and sorry to leave this untouched for so long. Amsterdam isn't going to happen for me, at least not this year. My company's EU/EMEA division is in the toilet business-wise, and going there would be putting my head on the chopping block. However, it does look pretty good that they'll send me to Calgary instead. As I'm already a Canadian citizen, should be a lot easier immigration-wise. I am speaking with an immigration lawyer here about protecting my green card status. Wish I had just gone for my US citizenship already, would make things much easier. Live and learn!
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Jun 30, 2023 05:23
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