Why Expat Advisory Exists

DAFT should feel practical and calm. If it feels expensive and intimidating, that is usually the ecosystem around it, not the process itself.

Scope note: Educational information only. Expat Advisory provides planning, education, and coordination. We do not provide legal services, file applications on your behalf, file taxes, or execute investment transactions.

DIY first, with calm support when you want it.

Sources first, so you can verify every claim.

No fear-based upsells, no mystery services.

TL;DR

  • DAFT (Dutch-American Friendship Treaty route) is one of the most accessible paths for U.S. citizens applying as self-employed in the Netherlands.
  • Most people can DIY DAFT successfully if they have the right sequence, a clean file, and a calm checklist built from official sources.
  • I kept seeing people pay premium fees and still do the paperwork themselves. That is not real support.
  • The real friction is usually sequencing (IND, municipality registration, KvK, banking) and keeping documentation clean.
  • Expat Advisory exists to organize that reality into steps you can execute and verify.

In this article

How this started

I found DAFT the way a lot of people do. I was researching realistic ways to move from the U.S. to the Netherlands without needing a corporate transfer or a narrow visa category that only fits a small set of jobs.

DAFT stood out because it was public and documented. The IND explains it. The forms exist. The community has done it. It felt like one of the rare cases where a person with patience and a checklist could actually get it done.

Then I started paying attention to what happened to people outside the official steps. The stress patterns. The delays. The moments where uncertainty turns into panic and panic turns into “just pay someone.”

The moment I drew the line

There was one moment that made the whole market dynamic impossible to ignore.

I read a post from a family who had paid what they were told was a full-service DAFT fee. They expected a guided process and a clear plan. Instead, the next email they got was a generic checklist and a request to fill out the forms themselves, scan everything, and send it back.

They were still doing the real work. They were still interpreting unclear instructions. They were still up late assembling PDFs. And now they felt trapped because they had already paid a lot and did not want to risk starting over.

My standard for “full service” is simple: if the client still does most of the work, it is not full service. It is a forwarding service priced like expertise.

That was the moment I stopped thinking, “someone should fix this,” and started building Expat Advisory.

What DAFT actually is

DAFT is shorthand for the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty route for U.S. citizens. In practice, it shows up inside the IND process for a residence permit “to work on a self-employed basis.”

That sentence matters because it removes a lot of the mystery. You are not applying through a private program. You are using an IND route with published requirements and published forms. The work is not “getting access.” The work is building a clean file and moving through the steps in the right order.

Practical mindset: treat DAFT like a checklist you can verify against official sources. Most stress comes from guessing, not from the underlying requirements.

What DAFT gets right

DAFT is one of the rare immigration routes that is actually workable for normal people. It is documented, it is approachable, and it is not designed to require an expensive intermediary.

That does not mean it is effortless. It means it is knowable. If you submit a clean file, you are not relying on secret strategies. You are relying on clarity and compliance.

  • The IND publishes requirements. You can verify them yourself.
  • Most problems are paperwork hygiene problems, not “you needed a special connection” problems.
  • If something is missing or unclear, many issues are fixable if you respond quickly and cleanly.

What the market gets wrong

Moving countries creates stress. Stress creates a market. Some of that market is helpful. Some of it is built to extract money from uncertainty.

The pattern I care about is simple: take a straightforward process, wrap it in fear, then sell the fear reduction at a premium price while the client still does the actual work.

  • Services framed as required when they are actually optional convenience.
  • Expensive packages that mostly consist of generic checklists.
  • Bundling unrelated tasks so the client cannot tell what DAFT support actually costs.
  • Pressure language that turns “you can do this” into “you will fail without us.”

Paying for convenience is fine. What is not fine is pretending convenience is necessity. What is not fine is selling confidence while delivering a mailbox.

I am also careful about credentials and language. In English, the word “lawyer” carries a specific assumption for Americans. In the Netherlands, titles and roles do not map 1:1. If someone implies legal representation, you should be able to verify credentials clearly before you pay.

The real gap: sequencing and money

Most people do not get stuck because they cannot fill out a form. They get stuck because they do not know what depends on what, and they do not have a clean system for documents and money.

In practice, the friction is usually in the sequence:

  • IND application and decision process
  • Municipality registration (BRP) and receiving a BSN
  • KvK business registration and basic admin setup
  • Banking and a clean documentation trail

My background is cross-border finance. That shapes how I see DAFT because the most stressful surprises are often money and admin surprises: move-year planning, USD/EUR cashflow systems, and knowing what to do first so you do not lose weeks to preventable delays.

If you want to see how we approach those practical decisions for Americans moving to the Netherlands, you can explore our Financial Advisory page. It is there because visas and money systems are connected in real life, whether people admit it or not.

Resources we built (so you do not have to guess)

A big reason Expat Advisory exists is that the best DAFT information is often scattered, outdated, or wrapped in sales. We built a central DAFT hub to make the process easier to follow and easier to verify.

Start here: DAFT Resources Hub (DIY Guide, DIY Companion, tools, and calculators).

  • DAFT DIY Guide: a step-by-step, sources-first guide for people who want to DIY with confidence.
  • DAFT DIY Companion: for DIYers who want a second set of eyes and real answers, without handing over control.

These are resources first. Use them even if you never work with us. That is the point.

Sources and official links

Official pages change over time. When in doubt, verify directly against these sources.

Next step

If you want the practical, sourced roadmap, start with the DAFT hub. If you want help that keeps you in control, start in the portal.

Explore DAFT Resources
Start in the Portal
Contact
lloydnapier
Author: lloydnapier

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