Uploading documents for your online application

Digitising documents using a mobile device

There are different ways to transfer physical documents to a computer or mobile. This is called digitisation. Do you have a mobile device such as a smart phone or tablet? Then you can use apps to scan documents. There are several scan apps. Search in your app store. Make sure that the scanner saves the document as a pdf or jpg. There is a video about the use of the Adobe Scan app on this web page.

Scan apps use the camera from your phone or tablet. Place the document on the table, open the app. The app digitises your document using the camera on your phone. Make sure you place the document on a dark background. And remember to save the document as a pdf or jpg.

Digitising documents using a scanner

Do you have a scanner, for example, on your all-in-one printer? Then you can scan your documents and save them on your computer. When you scan a document, it is not always immediately saved as a pdf or jpg: you often have to convert the document yourself to pdf format or jpg format.

Digitising documents at a copy shop or printing service

If you do not have a mobile device or scanner, you can have your documents digitised at a copy shop or printing service.

Convert documents from a different file format to pdf or jpg

Do you have a digital document, but is it not a pdf or jpg? There is a lot of information on the internet about converting documents to pdf or jpg.

Merge documents into a single pdf or jpg

Would you like to merge several documents into one pdf or jpg? There is a lot of information on the internet about merging several pdfs or jpgs into one file. Please, make sure not to make a pdf portfolio of the documents. The IND cannot open a pdf portfolio.

Uploading a document works like this:

Click “select a file”. Locate where you have saved your pdf. Select the file. Click the open button.

You can see that the document is added in the online application window:

You can only upload files up to 8 MB

If your file is larger than 8 MB you will see the following message: the maximum file size is 8 MB.   

Make sure your file is smaller than 8 MB.

Add several pdf files to one upload request

Sometimes you can add several pdfs per upload request in your online application, for example, when uploading information about your income. Choose “select a file” several times to add all the different pdfs. You cannot upload several documents at once.

You have now uploaded three files to your online application.

Remove a pdf file from your online application

Click “remove” next to the file you would like to delete. The document is then removed from the list of uploaded files.