Decision periods

A legal decision period of 3 months applies to this application.

A legal decision period of 90 days applies to this application.

Shorter decision period in some cases

Are you applying for the residence purpose of scientific research? And do you currently have a residence permit for one of the following purposes? 

• Paid employment
• European Blue Card (EBK)
• Work experience
• Research under Directive (EU) 2016/801
• Employment as non-privileged military personnel or non-privileged civilian staff

In that case, a legal decision period of 45 days applies. In special cases, the IND may extend this period by 15 days.

What if IND does not decide within this decision period? Then you are allowed to work for the new employer for the rest of the validity period of your current permit.

A legal decision period of 90 days applies to this application.

Shorter decision period in some cases

Are you applying for the residence purpose of scientific research? And do you currently have a residence permit for one of the following purposes?

• Work as a highly skilled migrant
• European Blue Card (EBK)
• Work experience
• Research under Directive (EU) 2016/801
• Employment as non-privileged military personnel or non-privileged civilian staff

Are you changing employers and is your current residence permit still valid? And do you currently have one of the following residence permits?

• Paid employment
• Work as a highly skilled migrant
• European Blue Card (EBK)
• Research under Directive (EU) 2016/801
• Work experience
• Employment as non-privileged military personnel or non-privileged civilian staff

Change of employer and extension

Did you also immediately request an extension of your permit when changing employers? In that case, 2 decision periods apply:

• As long as your residence permit is still valid, a decision period of 45 days applies.
• If you applied for an extension, a decision period of 90 days applies.

Do you and your employer meet the requirements? If so, the IND grants the permit for the duration of the employment contract with the new employer.

A legal decision period of 60 days applies to this application.

Was your application submitted by a recognised sponsor? Then the IND usually needs less time to decide. If the application is complete, the target decision period is 2 weeks.

Shorter decision period in some cases

Are you applying for the residence purpose of scientific research? And do you currently have a residence permit for one of the following purposes?

• Paid employment
• Work as a highly skilled migrant
• European Blue Card (EBK)
• Work experience
• Employment as non-privileged military personnel or non-privileged civilian staff

In that case, a legal decision period of 45 days applies. In special cases, the IND may extend this period by 15 days.

What if IND does not decide within this decision period? Then you are allowed to work for the new employer for the rest of the validity period of your current permit.

A decision period of 30 days applies to:

• An application applied for by a recognised sponsor
• An application for long-term mobility
• An application for family members. The application must be submitted at the same time as an European Blue Card application, which is subject to a decision period of 30 days.

A legal decision period of 45 days applies if the applicant has one of the following residence permits:

• Paid employment
• Work as a highly skilled migrant
• Research under Directive (EU) 2016/801
• Work experience
• Employment as non-privileged military personnel or non-privileged civilian staff

A decision period of 90 days applies to all other applications.

A legal decision period of 60 days applies to this application.

Was your application submitted by a recognised sponsor? Then the IND usually needs less time to decide. If the application is complete, the target decision period is 2 weeks. 

A legal decision period of 60 days applies to this application.

Was your application submitted by a recognised sponsor? Then the IND usually needs less time to decide. If the application is complete, the target decision period is 2 weeks.

Shorter decision period in some cases

Are you applying for the residence purpose of scientific research? And do you currently have a residence permit for one of the following purposes?

• Paid employment
• Work as a highly skilled migrant
• European Blue Card (EBK)
• Research under Directive (EU) 2016/801
• Employment as non-privileged military personnel or non-privileged civilian staff

In that case, a legal decision period of 45 days applies. In special cases, the IND may extend this period by 15 days.

What if IND does not decide within this decision period? Then you are allowed to work for the new employer for the rest of the validity period of your current permit.

A legal decision period of 60 days applies to this application.

Was your application submitted by a recognised sponsor? Then the IND usually needs less time to decide. If the application is complete, the target decision period is 2 weeks. 

A legal decision period of 90 days applies to this application.

Did you previously have a residence ​permit for seasonal work in the Netherlands? And was this no longer than 5 years ago? Then the IND will take a decision on your application within 60 days.​​​

A legal decision period of 90 days applies to the following applications:

• Regular temporary residence permit without a provisional residence permit (in Dutch: machtiging tot voorlopig verblijf or MVV)
• Regular temporary residence permit with MVV; this is the procedure for entry and residence (in Dutch Toegang en Verblijf or TEV)
• Extension of regular temporary residence permit
• Change of residence purpose of regular temporary residence permit

A legal decision period of 6 months applies to this application.

A legal decision period of 6 months applies to these applications.

A temporary asylum residence permit before 1 January 2024

Did you apply for temporary asylum before 1 January 2024? Then the legal decision period for your application is 15 months. From 27 September 2022, the legal decision period of 6 months has been temporary extended by 9 months. This applied to asylum applications for which the decision period of 6 months had not yet expired on 27 September 2022. And it applies to asylum applications submitted between 27 September 2022 and 1 January 2024.

Decision sometimes later

Unfortunately, it may also take longer before you receive a decision. Many asylum applications are still awaiting a decision and many asylum applications are still being made. 

A legal decision period of 9 months applies to this application.

A reasonable decision period of 90 days applies to this application.

A legal decision period of 6 months applies to this application.

A legal decision period of 6 months applies to this application.

A legal decision period of 90 days applies to this application.

Withdrawal Agreement permanent residence document

A legal decision period of 90 days applies to this application.

Withdrawal Agreement residence document

A legal decision period of 6 months applies to this application.

A reasonable decision period of 8 weeks applies to the following applications:

• Replacement of residence document in case of theft, loss, damage or change of personal details
• Extension of permanent residence document, long-term EU resident or permanent residence

A reasonable decision period of 8 weeks applies to this  application.

A legal decision period of 1 year applies to this application.

The decision period of a first asylum application starts on the day you inform a government organization in the Netherlands that you want asylum.

Have you applied for a permanent asylum residence permit? Then the decision period will start no earlier than 4 weeks before the current permit expires.

The decision period of an application for naturalisation starts when the application is complete. And when you have paid the costs of the application.

The IND can extend the decision period by a maximum of 45 days if extra information or investigation is needed.

The IND can extend the decision period by 6 months if extra information or investigation is needed.

The decision period varies per application. The IND can extend the decision period by several weeks to a maximum of 6 months. If your application is not complete, you or your authorised representative will receive a letter. You can send the documents within 2 weeks. Then the decision period will be extended by 2 weeks.

Extension of decision period for initial application residence permit for work

You have submitted an initial application for one of the following residence purposes:

• Paid employment
• Work as a highly skilled migrant
• Orientation year
• Employment as non-privileged military personnel or non-privileged civilian staff

From 27 September 2022 until 1 January 2024, the IND has extended the legal decision period by 9 months. This means that the legal decision period is 15 months for these asylum applications.

There was also an extension of the decision period for applications submitted from 1 January 2024. The IND has reversed this extension.

In the following situations, the IND can also extend the decision period:

• In exceptional situations, the IND can extend the decision period by another 3 months.
• In the event of a postponement of decision, the IND can extend the decision period by a maximum of 1 year. The Minister for Asylum and Migration has decided that for the time being no decision will be taken on the application. This happens if the Minister for Asylum and Migration expects that a country will be unsafe for a short time.

The IND can extend the legal decision period to a maximum of 21 months.  

The IND can extend the decision period by 6 months. After this, the decision period can be extended once more by another 6 months. The IND can extend the decision period by 1 year in total.

The IND will decide on the objection to the decision within 6 weeks. The decision period can be extended for another 6 weeks. Therefore, the IND must have decided on your objection within a total of 12 weeks.

The IND decides on the objection to the decision within 6 to 19 weeks. The decision period depends on the type of application. The IND can extend the decision period by 6 weeks.

Is the objection letter not complete?

Then you or your authorised representative will receive a letter from the IND saying that you must complete the objection. The IND letter also says that it will extend the decision period by 2 weeks. If investigation is necessary, the IND can extend the decision period by a maximum of 13 weeks.

The IND decides on the objection within 6 weeks. The IND can extend the decision period by 6 weeks.

You can appeal to a court against the rejection of your asylum application or objection. What happens if the court declares your appeal well-founded and the IND has to take a new decision? Then the decision period will be the same as for the first decision. Except if the judge sets a different period in its decision. A well-founded appeal means that the court proves you are completely or partly right.