The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) assesses all residence permit applications from the people who want to live, work or study in the Netherlands. The IND also assesses applications from the people who want to become Dutch. For this purpose, the IND processes a lot of personal data of customers and employees.
The IND believes that privacy is very important. That is why we process your data with great care and attention. In this Privacy Statement, you can read which data the IND collects and why. We also explain who we share your information with and what rights you have.
To keep the information clear, each topic is subdivided into two layers of information. First you read the most important information. Do you want to know more? Then click on the "more information" link.
The IND processes personal data of the people who apply for a residence permit in the Netherlands or the people who apply to become Dutch nationals. We also process personal data from sponsors, family members, interpreters, agents, employees of the IND and employees of other organisations. The IND receives the personal data from these people personally or from other persons or organisations involved.
The IND processes general personal data. For example, name, contact information, nationality and passport number, date and place of birth and marital status, and also special personal data if it is necessary for the work of the IND, for example, racial or ethnic origin, political views and beliefs, and also genetic and biometric data, sexual orientation and information about criminal cases or a criminal record. For a comprehensive overview, see ‘more information’.
The IND obtains personal data in various ways:
The IND needs your personal data to implement the Policy on Foreign nationals. This policy stems from the Aliens Act 2000 and rules and regulations that go with it, as well as from the Dutch Nationality Act. In addition, there are rules based on international treaties.
The IND manages the administration of foreign nationals. After identification, the personal data of the foreign nationals are registered herein.
According to the Aliens Act 2000, the IND may or must provide other government organisations with information to perform their duties. For this purpose, such organisation requests (request) or demands information (claim).
The IND assesses whether it is necessary to provide your personal data and whether it does not harm your personal life. The IND checks why the organisation wants to get the data and whether it can do with less or no personal data.
The IND has taken measures to protect personal data and prevent misuse. All persons who can access the data must keep this information secret.
The IND does not store personal data for longer than necessary for the purpose for which the IND has collected it. The retention periods are laid down in the archive policy. How long personal data are preserved, varies per situation and also depends on the purpose of storage. This period can be a few weeks to many years.
On 25 May 2018 the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) became effective. This means the IND wants to handle persons information as carefully as possible. To do this we also need your help.
Persons details of customers should only be accessible by that person and not by others. This of course does not apply when the customer has a parent or legal representative.
In that case, please add a declaration of permission to the application or documents. This declaration clearly states that your client gives permission to use these documents and, therefore, the documents may be added to the file of this customer. We do wish to inform you that Archive Law applies tot he file of the customer.
We thank you for your co-operation to be as carefully as possible with the personal details of our clients.
Regarding your personal data, you have the right:
You also have the right to object to processing of your personal data.
Do you want to use these rights? Click the button and fill out the form.
Request for documents (Dutch only)Or send a letter to:
IND
ter attentie van Privacy Officer
Postbus 17
9560 AA Ter Apel
Your letter should contain:
You will receive a response to your request within a month. This period can be extended by two months. This happens when the IND needs more time.
The IND does not use automated decision-making without human intervention. This means that an employee always looks at the case.
Do you have any questions, do you want more explanation or are you not satisfied with how the IND handles your personal data? Then contact our Privacy Officer.
You can file a complaint by using this complaint form. Or send a letter to:
IND
Privacy Officer
Postbus 17
9560 AA Ter Apel
Are you not satisfied with the answer to your complaint? Then you can submit a complaint to the Dutch Data Protection Authority. This is possible via the website: www.autoriteitpersoonsgegevens.nl.
The legislation and our services are not standing still. We closely follow these developments and adjust our organisation as well and as quickly as possible. This can also have consequences for the way we handle personal data. We therefore adjust the Privacy Statement. For this reason, read our Privacy Statement regularly. We will inform you of major changes.
We updated this Privacy Statement last on 15 January 2020.