Hi all. I have a friend who is an E.U. Citizen. 3 years ago he registered in Amsterdam at the City Hall and then he left to Spain after 2 months of registering without informing the authorities. Recently he has returned and wants to reestablish himself in Amsterdam. How should he go about doing this? Are there any penalties involved? Does he have to pay for medical insurance the whole period he was gone?
This is the way it works:
First, there is no penalty if you move out of the country without de-registering. They like you to tell them .. but it's no problem if you don't.
When your friend registered himself at the Gemeente in AMS at a certain address - they think he lives there. Now, when he moved out, I am guessing someone else moved in and registered himself .. and at the same time the Gemeente de-registered your friend.
This is nomal.
(If you had moved to another house here .. you would have just registered at another place.)
No harm done - nothing illegal.
Now that he has returned, when he finds another apartment, he will again go down to the Gemeente and register himself at that apartment.
That's it.
Now, if no one ever moved into that old apartment .. the Gemeente will think he has been living there all this time and will just update the records to show your new address.
