Frequently asked questions

The IND does not provide information on the status of your application as long as a decision has not been made. In most situations, a (statutory) decision period applies. The IND can make use of the entire decision period to process your application.

It does not help to call or mail the IND, or to visit the IND Desk to ask the status of your application if the statutory or reasonable decision period has not yet passed. The IND cannot give you information on the status of your application.

If you (or your sponsor) have submitted an application in writing, the IND will send you an acknowledgement of receipt. If you have received this letter, you have to go to an IND-desk within 2 weeks to provide us with your biometric information. The IND needs this data in order to make your residence document.

Please make an appointment online to provide your biometrics. At the IND-desk, your fingerprints will be taken. Also, a photo will be made and you give your signature.

If you would like information on your application (requirements, requested documentation, decision period, letters sent by the IND), we advise you to check our website first. If you have any additional questions, you can call us at 0880 - 430 430 (normal charges apply, Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm). Have you received a letter from the employee who is processing your application and do you have specific questions concerning this application? Then, you can contact the employee who is processing your application directly. For instance, if you cannot provide us in time with requested documentation. You will find the direct phone number of the employee concerned in those letters (under ‘Contactpersoon’).

​If you have sent an application to the IND, a notification of receipt will be sent to your home address. If you have not heard from us after 10 working days , you can contact us at 0880 - 430 430 (normal charges apply, Monday to Friday from 9am to 5pm). If you call us within these 10 working days, chances are that your application form has not yet been processed and we therefore cannot confirm receipt of your application.

Do you ​have a valid residence permit? Then sometimes you may qualify for an alien’s passport. For example, if you are unable to obtain a passport from your country of origin. You can use your alien’s passport to travel to all countries except your home country. You still need a visa for many countries. You can apply for a passport to the municipality where you are registered.

​The V-number is your number as a foreign national (vreemdeling). You receive such a number as soon as you initiate the application for a residence permit. You'll find the number as a reference in letters from the IND and on the back of your residence document.

​The Citizen Service Number (BSN) is an identity number for all communications with the Government authorities. You receive a BSN when you register in your municipality in the Personal Records Database (BRP).

​If you have informed your municipality (BRP/Personal Records Database) in time that you are emigrating or have moved within the Netherlands, it is not necessary to notify the IND. In time means notifying the BRP before your emigration or within 4 weeks of your moving house. The IND has then already gotten this information from the municipality (BRP).

If the deadline has passed, please use the Reporting Form for Foreign Nationals.

​This depends on your age, nationality and whether you are already in the Netherlands.

EU/EEA citizens and Swiss nationals are not required to give biometric information. When you apply for a residence document the IND does need a passport photo. Please use the Appendix Passport photo form.

Are you still abroad and do you apply for an mvv? Your biometric information is taken at the Dutch embassy. Are you not required to have an mvv and has your sponsor in the Netherlands submitted your application? Upon arrival in the Netherlands you first need to go to an IND Desk to give your biometric information. You can read more information on the page Appointment biometric information.

To children the same rules apply, except for children under 6 years old: they do not have to give their finger prints.

​With your residence permit you may travel to the other Schengen countries without a visa. You have to take your passport and your valid residence permit with you. Your residence permit must be valid for your entire trip. Will your residence permit expire during your trip? Then apply for a return visa before you start on your trip.

​You are not allowed to change your main residence. The period of time that you are allowed to stay outside the Netherlands depends on your residence permit. Find out the period you may stay outside the Netherlands with your type residence permit.

​Just like everyone in the Netherlands, you have to have health care insurance.

​When the validity of your residence permit expires, you have to leave the Netherlands before the end date of your permit. However, if you wish to stay in the Schengen area shortly after, this is possible in one of the following situations:

You are subject to a visa requirement
If you are subject to a visa requirement, you first must leave the Schengen area and apply for a short stay visa. Once you have a visa, you are allowed to return to the Schengen area.

You are not subject to a visa requirement
If you are not subject to a visa requirement, you can make use of your visa-free access period. If you wish to stay in the Netherlands for a short period, you must first leave the Schengen area. You can then re-enter the Netherlands again straight away. If you wish to shortly stay in another Schengen country, you do not need to leave the Schengen area first. Please first contact the authorities of the country you wish to visit.

​An application for rent subsidy, health care subsidy, child care benefits or child benefits has no impact on your right of residence. The Tax Administration decides whether you are entitled to benefits. You have to apply to the Tax Administration yourself for this. However, an application for benefits from public funds can have an impact on your right of residence. 

You have to ask for a decision in writing. Submit a GVA-request (General Data Protection Regulation) to the IND. The IND will require the following information and documentation:

• your personal details
• your signature
• a copy of proof of identity, i.e. one of the following:
• the pages with your identity details from your valid passport;
• the front and back of your valid identity card or your valid residence permit;
• if someone else is submitting the request: an authorization and a copy of a proof of identity/identity document of the person who is filing the request for you.

Send your request to: Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND), Post Office Box 16, 9560 AA Ter Apel.

You will receive an answer within 6 weeks (statutory time limit).

​You can request a payment reference from the IND. Call +31 (0)88 - 043 0430 (normal rate).

​No. It is not possible to pay the fees in installments. You application is only processed when you have paid the total fee of your application.

​You still have to pay the fees even if you have been declared bankrupt or are undergoing debt restructuring.

Yes, this is possible. You can transfer the fees from your foreign bank account to the account of the IND.

​Yes. If you want to apply for recognition for each business unit or faculty, you have to sign and submit a request for recognition to the IND for each branch or business unit. The different business units or faculties can also apply for recognition jointly. For a joint recogition, however, only 1 main contact person and 1 bank account number can be submitted for the different organisational units.

​No. As recognized sponsor you are not obligated to submit a minimum or maximum number of applications per year.

​An application for Social Assistance Benefits or other benefits from public funds may have consequences for your right of residence. For nationals of the EU/EEA or Switzerland and their family members the right to general resources increases with the number of years that they have lived in the Netherlands. The IND decides whether a General Application for Social Assistance Benefits or other general resource has consequences for the right of residence. If you live in the Netherlands for 5 consecutive years then you usually have complete rights to general resources.

​A Dutch national is an EU citizen. But Dutch nationals usually cannot derive rights from EU law.

​If you have lived in another EU Member State as a Dutch national, you have used the EU law to free movement of people. You may therefore be seen as a community citizen. You partner can apply for a residence document family member of an EU citizen if all of the following conditions are met:

• You have both lived in that other EU Member State.
• You have met the conditions of EU Community Law during the whole period you lived in that EU Member State. This means that your right of residence as an EU citizen has not been revoked due to for instance an appeal on social benefits.
• You have lived together for at least 3 months in that Member State. 

As long as Great Britain has not yet formally left the EU it continues to comply with EU rules. This means that Brits are still EU citizens. Until the date Great Britain has formally left the EU nothing changes for you.

If after leaving the EU anything changes or what will change for Brits leaving in another EU Member State, is currently unknown. This is a subject of the negotiations about Britain leaving the EU.

Are you already living in the Netherlands for a long time, then you can choose to become a Dutch citizen by naturalisation. However, you cannot always keep your British nationality. Some people may become a Dutch citizen by option. In that case you can usually keep your British nationality.

More information on Brexit:

https://www.government.nl/topics/brexit

http://www.consilium.europa.eu/en/policies/eu-uk-after-referendum/

​If you have a contract that is no longer valid for 12 months then in some cases your contract can be added in.

​In some cases temporary work can be counted in.

​This is possible, the probation period gets counted in. The employment contract (including probation time) must be valid for 12 months at the time the IND receives the application.

​Student grants are not counted as income. Student grants are subsidies from the Dutch government. They are not independent sources of income.

This is not possible when you apply for a residence permit to stay with a family member. You (the sponsor) must yourself have a sufficient independent and long-term income in order to support your family member.

Is your family member coming to the Netherlands with a visa for short stay, then another person may be the sponsor of your family member.

​An application for Social Assistance Benefits or other benefits from public funds may have consequences for your right of residence. The IND has to decide whether receiving a general resource has consequences for your right of residence.

​You must have enough money to support your family member or relative. Unemployment does not have consequences for your residence permit as long as your income is still sufficient and comes from an independent source. For example, Unemployment Benefits (WW-uitkering) count, but Social Assistance Benefits (Wwb-uitkering/bijstand) do not.

​No, that's not necessary. You and your family member must live together at the same address. Both of you must be registered at this is the address in the municipal Personal Records Database (BRP). There are no requirements concerning the type of housing.

​No, that is not allowed. In the Netherlands you are only allowed to be married to one person. That also means that only 1 spouse with his/her children is allowed to live with you in the Netherlands.

​This is possible. You have to satisfy all the conditions that apply to stay with family member or relative. You do not have to have lived for 1 year in the Netherlands before you can bring your partner over to the Netherlands. Because both of you live outside the country, you may travel together to the Netherlands as soon as the Regular Provisional Residence Permit has been issued.

​In general it is not possible to bring a child who has reached the age of majority to the Netherlands. Only in exceptional situations can a child at the age of majority receive a residence permit. For further information, contact the IND.

If you get divorced and no longer live together with your spouse and children they no longer fulfil the conditions for a residence permit for family member or relative. They have to leave the Netherlands. Or they have to apply for a different residence permit.

In some cases your partner can apply for a residence permit. For example, if your partner has had a residence permit for 5 years or more and has received the civic integration diploma. 

Children can receive an independent residence permit if they have had a residence permit for 1 year or more before they reached the age of 18. If the children continue to live with you then their reisdence permit remains valid.

Your partner and childeren may, by the way, also apply for the independent residence permit when you are not getting divorced.

​You can apply for an independent residence permit for continued residence after you have lived in the Netherlands for 1 year continuously as a child younger than 18 years with a residence permit to stay with a parent. If you have fulfilled the conditions of this residence permit for 1 year continuously, then the residence permit for continued residence may be issued.

​When applying for residency at the IND, you sometimes have to submit documents that have been issued by the authorities of a country outside the Netherlands. In some cases, these documents have to be legalised and/or translated first before you can use them in the Netherlands. For more information, check Legalisation and translation of official documents.

​You can find information about student grants at DUO.

​This is allowed if you and your family satisfy the conditions for a residence permit for residence as family or relative.

​Yes, but the new educational institution must also be recognized as sponsor. The new educational institution also has to notify the IND of your switch. Your residence permit remains valid.

Your residence permit for study after graduation will remain valid until 3 months after deregistration from your educational institution. Or until the start date of your orientation year. If you wish to stay in the Netherlands after your study you have to apply for a different residence permit. As a graduate you can make use of the orientation year for graduates. With your permit for the orientation year you have one year to find a job in the Netherlands, for example as a highly skilled migrant. For more information also check the FAQ.
You can also apply for a start-up residence permit. This gives you one year to start an innovative company.
Do you have the possibility to do scientific research? Then, you can apply for a residence permit as a researcher highly skilled migrant or as a researcher under directive (EU) 2016/801.

If you change your employer, either you or your employer must notify the IND. Whether you have to apply for the new residence permit depends on the residence permit you currently hold. And whether you will still satisfy the conditions for your residence permit when you go to work for your new employer.

If you have a residence permit for highly skilled migrants, a European blue card, an Intra-Company Transfer (ICT Directive) or  researcher/research worker permit (Council Directive (EU) 2016/801) then you only have to give notification of change of employer. Your residence permit remains valid. You do need to keep satisfying the conditions of your residence permit.

Do you have a single permit (GVVA) for residence and work? You or your employer have to submit a new application. All supporting documents have to be submitted again. In such a case the IND asks the Netherlands Employees Insurance Agency (UWV) whether you fulfil the criteria of the Foreign Nationals Employment Act. The Emplyees Insurance Agency (UWV) will the advise the IND . If the advice from the UWV is positive and your residence permit is still valide for a period of 3 months or longer, then you will receive only a new additional document. If your residence permit is valid for less than 3 months, then you will receive a new residence permit and additional document.

Do you hold a residence permit for paid employment (not a single permit/GVVA)? Your new employer has to apply for a new work permit (TWV) from the Employment Insurance Agency (UWV). Have you worked for 5 years continuously? Then you are free to work in the Netherlands. You don't need a work permit (TWV) anymore.

​This depends on several factors. Often the residence permit is already ready and waiting to be picked up when an employee with a Regular Provisional Residence Permit enters the Netherlands. In that case, the employee can go directly and pick up the residence permit and work according to the rules of the permit. Has the employee made an application without Regular Provisional Residence Permit (mvv) or is the residence permit not ready yet? The employee can request a Residence Endorsement sticker. The Residence Endorsement sticker states whether the employee is allowed to work and under what conditions. In order to request a Residence Endorsement sticker you need to make an appointment.

As holder of the European blue card you can apply for the status of long-term resident third country national in the Netherlands after 2 years. There are two extra conditions:

• You have lived in the European Union legally and continuously for a total of 5 years.
• Immediately before your residence in the Netherlands you lived in another EU Member State for 18 months with a European blue card.

After living in the Netherlands for 2 years with a residence permit as 'family member of a holder of a European blue card', your family members can apply for a residence permit for 'continued residence'. They have to have resided legally and continuously for a minimum of 5 years in the territory of an EU Member State. And they have to fulfil the other conditions for the residence permit humanitarian non-temporary.

You have to apply for a residence permit in the other EU Member State. The IND cannot indicate what rules apply to holders of a European Blue Card in the other Member States. Before you move to a different Member State, you are responsible for finding out from the immigration service of that Member State how you can apply for a residence permit.

When you move to another Member State, it may be that you have to deregister from the Personal Records Database (BRP) of your municipality. Find out from your municipality.

Higher salary criteria apply to holders of a European blue card than to highly skilled migrants. But often the holder of a European blue card can more easily apply for a residence permit in another EU Member State.

In addition, with a European blue card you can apply more quickly for the status of long-term resident EC, i.e. after 2 years instead of after 5 years, as applies to highly skilled migrants (and other Dutch residence permits). Your family members can apply for an independent residence permit in the category 'humanitarian non-temporary' earlier, i.e. after 2 years instead of after 5 years. For more information see the question: 'What are the advantages of the European blue card?'

​Yes. The employee has to fulfil the conditions of the residence permit for highly skilled migrants. And applying for this residence permit is more expensive than applying for an EU residence card.

A researcher that wants to apply for a residence permit highly skilled migrant, needs to have an employment contract (or appointment decision). A researcher based on the Directive (EU) 2016/801 only needs a hosting agreement.

​In addition to the Netherlands, you can visit the other countries in the Schengen area.

​In any given period of 180 days you are allowed to remain maximum of 90 days in the Schengen area. So if you stayed in one of the Schengen countries for 90 days continuously, you have to wait a minimum of 90 days before you can enter the Schengen area again.

​By signing a sponsor declaration you inform the Netherlands that you guarantee the expenses of the stay/residence of a foreign national in the Netherlands. You also guarantee that this foreign national will leave the Netherlands at the appointed time. The sponsor declaration tells you exactly what your obligations are.

​There is no legally set period of validity regarding the legalization of the 'Proof of Sponsorship/Accommodation'. The embassies and consulates use different periods of validity. That's why you should always get the most current information for this from the relevant embassy of consulate. In the case of a possible objection, you will not need to have the form legalized again.

​Yes, this is possible. You do have to use a separate form 'proof of sponsorship/accommodation' for each person. You also have to legalize your signature on every form.

This is only necessary if it concerns a sponsorship and you are married or in a registered partnership.

​Yes. Both people have to fill in the form Proof of Sponsorship and/or Private Accommodation. They also both have to have their signatures legalized in their municipalities.

You must have travel medical insurance coverage for any costs of repatriation on medical grounds, urgent medical attention and/or emergency hospital treatment. You must take out travel medical insurance that:

• Is valid for the entire Schengen area;
• Has a minimum coverage of € 30,000;
• Extends over the entire period of your stay/residence.

The travel medical insurance has to be taken out in your country of residence. If this is not possible, you can take out insurance in another country. If you have an invitation then the hosting party may take out insurance in his own place of residence.

​Only in very exceptional cases are you allowed to extend your visa, for example, if you are temporarily incapable of leaving due to circumstances beyond your control. You can have your short stay visa extended for a maximum of 90 days. This extension should be applied for at one of the IND Desk. To extend the short stay visa you have to first make an appointment.

If you are a citizen of Surinam and 60 years old or older other conditions apply.

​You can only extend your tourist visa in special situations, such as serious illness. You need a declaration from a doctor or specialist to prove that you are not in any condition to travel. You can have your tourist visa extended for a maximum of 90 days.

Have you already been in the Netherlands for 90 days? Then you can apply for Suspension of Departure. To do this use this form.

​No. In order to stay in the Netherlands longer than 90 days you have to apply for a special visa. This is the Regular Provisional Residence Permit (mvv). You are not allowed to be in the Netherlands when applying for the Regular Provisional Residence Permit (mvv).

​You are only allowed to work if your employer has a work permit (TWV). The Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) issues this permit. Your employer can only receive such a permit if there is no one else in the EU (with the exclusion of Croatia) available for the job.

​The list of travelers is a visa replacement document for pupils (all schoollevels) from outside the EU/EEA or Switzerland who live in an EU Member State with a residence permit and want to travel within the EU for a schooltrip.

With the list of travelers pupils who would be required to have a visa can travel visa free within the EU. The pupils do have to meet national entry requirements if in place.

For pupils who do not have the required traveldocuments, the list of travelers is a passport replacement document within the EU also.

​The list of travelers is only issued to a teacher of a school at the IND Desk. An appointment has to be made. The list of travelers is stamped by a representative of the school and stamped by the IND after the fees are paid.

The following documents are required for the list of travelers:

• A mandate from the school director. The mandate states the name of the teacher that accompanies the pupils on the trip and that visits the IND Desk.
• Copy of the identity card of the school director.
• Detailled description of the school trip (form free).
• The names of the pupils for whom the list of travelers is intended and the teachers who come on the trip.
• Color cop of front and back of the valid residence permit and/or passport of the pupils.
• Recent color passport photo (only for the pupils that do not have a valid passport or valid identity card with photo).
• Stamp of the school.
• Valid identity card of the teacher who comes to the appointment.

​The list of travelers costs € 30 and € 1 for each child.

Yes, that's allowed. When you change to a different host family, you and the au pair agency or exchange organization must notify the IND. Use the notification form exchange (au pair agency or exchange organization) or the notification form for the foreign national (au pair or young person taking part in the exchange).

Your residence permit still remains valid. Switching to a different host family does not change the period of validity of your residence permit. An au pair or young person here on exchange is not allowed to stay in the Netherlands for longer than 1 year with their residence permit for exchange purposes.

​This depends on whether you are married and what land you would move to.

If you are married or in a registered partnership, then nothing will change regarding the application for naturalisation. You may also live together in another country. You do have to be able to prove that you also live at the same address abroad. And you are not allowed to live in the country of your partner's nationality.

If you are unmarried partners, then a move abroad does have implications for the application for naturalisation. This is because as unmarried partners you must live together in the Netherlands for the entire naturalisation process.

In addition, it is important that you do not go to live in the country where your partner is a citizen.

​The option procedure is a quick and easy way to acquire Dutch citizenship. Option can only be requested by specific categories of foreign nationals. Option has a number of advantages:

• For option you do not have to renounce your own nationality. Please note—there is one exception: you do have to renounce your citizenship if you are in the option category 'you have reached the age of majority and have lived in the Netherlands with a valid residence permit from the age of 4'.
• For option you also do not have to demonstrate that you are sufficiently integrated in the Netherlands. For the option procedure, therefore, there is no test of your knowledge of the Dutch language.
• The costs are lower than for naturalisation.

​The renunciation requirement applies to you also. Because your nationality cannot be determined does not mean you are designated as a 'stateless person'. In the legal procedure concerning foreign nationals you indicated a nationality, and under this nationality you received your residence permit. You must renounce this nationality.

After 5 years of lawful residence in Netherlands, an EU citizen may submit an application for naturalization. The EU citizen does not need to prove residence in the Netherlands with a residence document. This is also not required for a request for naturalization. The EU citizen must sign a declaration in the municipality where he/she lives. This states that he/she has lived in the Netherlands for the last 5 years. In that period of time not more than 6 months may have been spent outside the Netherlands.

​It is not possible for a married woman (or man) to have her own last name changed to that of her (Dutch) spouse in the naturalisation procedure. This is because under Dutch law a person may not use the last name of his spouse in official documents. You may use the last name of your husband in everyday life.

​No, you cannot receive an exemption. The requirement is the satisfactory completion of a degree at an institution of learning above the elementary educational level. The preliminary phase of a professional or university degree (HBO or WO) is not a complete degree, it is only a portion of a degree.

Usually you can get proof from the foreign country where you lived that you were both registered in the persons administration there at the time the application for naturalisation was submitted. Unfortunately not all countries have a persons administration. If that is the case then there are also other documents that are acceptable. For example, a lease, bank statements or official documents from the Government/the authorities. It is important that both your names are on these documents, plus the address where you lived. Statements from family, friends or neighbours are not sufficient.

​The main rule is that you had a valid residence permit continuously for five years before you can become a naturalized citizen of the Netherlands. The 5 years begin all over again if you change your identity (your personal details). The new period starts on the day that your identity is changed in the Personal Records Database (BRP) of the municipality where you live. For example:

You have received a residence permit on 1 June 2015. You could apply for Dutch citizenship on or after 1 June 2020. But on 1 March 2017 you go to the municipality with a birth certificate. This birth certificate states a different name than on your residence permit. On 15 March 2017 the municipality changes your registration in the BRP to the name on the birth certificate you have submitted on 1 March 2017. You now have to wait until 15 March 2022 before you can apply for Dutch citizenship.

Sometimes no new term of 5 years is started after you change your identity. This is when the change is minimal. For example, a change in spelling from 'Mahammed' to 'Mohammed'. Or if you cannot be blamed for the change. For example, because you had a very good reason when you entered the Netherlands for not divulging your true identity. Or if the authorities in the country of origin previously made an error regarding your identity and this error has been adopted in the Netherlands by the municipality where you live. The IND takes a decision when processing your application for naturalisation whether you are to be blamed for the change of identity.

It is very important the your new details also appear on your residence permit. You have to have your residence permit renewed for this.

Whether you have the Dutch nationality by the fact that one of your (grand)parents is/was a Dutch national depend on various factors. You can become a Dutch citizen through birth or acknowledgement. It does not matter whether you were born in the Netherlands or abroad. Check for more information the page Dutch citizen by birth or acknowledgement. For an exact answer for your situation, you can contact your municipality. If you are residing outside the Netherlands you can contact the Dutch representatives (an embassy or a consulate) in your country of stay.

You can automatically lose your Dutch nationality by voluntarily taking another nationality. Find more information via Loss and the revoking of Dutch nationality.

​No. The Netherlands must be the designated country for the medical treatment. This means that you cannot get a comparable medical treatment in your own country or in another country that is more suitable to receive the medical treatment.

Before you leave the Netherlands you have to arrange a number of things. For example, deregistration with the municipality and handing in your residence document.

​Yes. You and your family members must meet the conditions for family reunification.

​You can get more information about benefits from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment (SZW) and from your municipality.

Applying to social assistance benefits or other benefits from public funds may sometimes have consequences for your right of residence.

In the Netherlands you can find a house either through a housing cooperative or through a private landlord. For general information on buying and renting please go to the site www.rijksoverheid.nl.

​If your residence permit is still valid you may travel with your residence permit via 1 of the Schengen countries. If your residence permit is no longer valid, you are not allowed simply to travel via another country. It is best if you get in touch with the embassy or the consulate of the country you wish to stopover in. It may be that you need to have a visa.

​You have to leave the Netherlands before your residence permit expires. There is no departure period. If you remain in the Netherlands after your residence permit has expired you could receive a return decision or perhaps even an entry ban.

​The repatriation and return of foreign nationals is a joint process involving many different agencies: the Repatriation and Departure Service (DT&V), the Aliens Police, International Organisation for Migration, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA), Royal Netherlands Marechaussee and the municipality where you live. Read more about Leaving the Netherlands.

​During your stay in the Netherlands for medical treatment your family members with independent residence permits are not allowed to work. On the residence permits the following employment status is stated: 'work not permitted' (in Dutch: 'arbeid niet toegestaan').

​Yes, but this will not stop the process of your removal. You will still be removed. Your complaint will perhaps be dealt with while you are already back in your country of origin.