Entry ban

You can only get an entry ban if you have received a return decision. And if you do not have the nationality of an EU or EEA country  or Switzerland. From now on, we call all these countries EU.

Who issues an entry ban?

The IND, Police (Aliens Police, Identification and Human Trafficking Department, or AVIM), Seaport Police and Royal Netherlands Marechaussee (KMar) can impose an entry ban. Are they unable to give you the decision with an entry ban in person? In that case you will receive it by post if your address is known. And the entry ban will then be published in the Government Gazette (in Dutch: Staatscourant. You can check this yourself by searching your full name on the website of the Staatscourant (only available in Dutch).

When you will get an entry ban

You can get an entry ban in the following situations:

• You have received a return decision. And you have not left the Netherlands and other EU countries (except Ireland) in time.
• You have to leave the Netherlands and other EU countries (except Ireland) immediately (departure time limit 0 days). And no exception from imposing (giving) an entry ban has been granted.
• If you overstay. You have overstayed in the following situations: 
  • Your visa is no longer valid, and you have not left the Schengen Area in time.
  • You remain longer than the visa-exempt period. The visa-exempt period is the maximum amount of time during which you are allowed to be in the Schengen Area. This is 90 days out of a period of 180 days.
• You are in the visa-exempt period, but you no longer fulfil the general rules of the visa-exempt period. For example, because you do not have enough means.
• You are an asylum seeker with little chance for asylum and you withdraw your asylum application. Withdrawing your application means stopping or cancelling it.
• The IND withdraws or does not extend your regular residence permit (this is not an asylum residence permit). You still fulfil the residence purpose. The permit has been withdrawn or not extended for a different reason.

• Travelling to the Netherlands and being in the Netherlands is punishable. You can get a prison sentence of 6 months at most or a  fine of a few thousand euros. This can be found on wetten.overheid.nl in Section 197 of the Dutch Penal Code (in Dutch: Wetboek van Strafrecht) and Section 108 of the Aliens Act (in Dutch: Vreemdelingenwet). Both are only available in Dutch.

• The government enters an alert for an entry ban on you in an EU information system.

An entry ban usually lasts 2 years. Sometimes an entry ban can be longer or shorter. The decision states how long your entry ban lasts. This depends on your situation:

• 1 year: for an overstay of over 3 and up to 90 days.
• 2 years: usual period. For example, you have received a return decision and have not left the Netherlands and other EU countries in time.
• 10 years: if you pose a danger to the public order.
• 20 years: if you pose a danger to the national security.

Start and end of entry ban

The duration of your entry ban starts on the date that you leave the EU. Does the IND know that you have left the EU? Then the entry ban will stop if the duration of the entry ban is over. In that case we will remove the alert from the SIS. Afterwards you will be allowed to travel to the Netherlands and EU countries again.

Border guards and police of Schengen countries can check alerts in the Schengen Information System (SIS). By entering your personal details they can see that an entry ban applies to you.  After checking they can stop you. In that case you will not be allowed to enter the country.

An alert for a return decision comes first

An alert for an entry ban will not be entered immediately. You are in fact first the subject of an alert for the return decision. Are you leaving the EU and does the IND know that? Then your alert changes to an alert for the entry ban. You are no longer allowed to travel to or be in the EU.

Do you not have an entry ban anymore, or has the time limit of your entry ban expired? Then the IND will delete the alert from the information system.

Entry ban from before 7 March 2023

Is there an alert in the SIS on you for an entry ban from before 7 March 2023? Find out the situations in which this can change to an alert for a return decision on our web page about the return decision.

Report your departure

Report your departure to the IND. Then we will be able to determine when the period of the entry ban stops. Send a letter to the IND telling us when you departed. Also send evidence of your departure and the entire journey. For example: all entry and exit stamps in your passport, tickets and other travel documents. Our postal address can be found on our Contact page.

Decision to enter an alert with an entry ban and posing a danger to public order

Do you pose a danger to the public order or the national security? Then the IND will impose an entry ban on you of more than 2 years. The IND will also give you a decision to enter an alert for the same period rightaway. A decision to enter an alert means you are not allowed to enter of be in the Netherlands. An alert for the decision to enter an alert on you can be entered in the Dutch information system Implementation & Detection (in Dutch: Executie & Signalering, or E&S) or in the SIS. It is only possible to enter an alert on you in 1 information system.  Only the police and the marechaussee are able to check the E&S. Do you get a right of residence in another EU country in the future? Then the IND can enter an alert for the decision to enter an alert on you in E&S.

Do you already have a right of residence in an EU country? And does the Dutch government imposes an entry ban on you of more than 2 years? Then you will also receive a decision to enter an alert. Then an E&S alert on you will be entered for the decision to enter an alert. And the IND will ask the EU country to withdraw your residency. The EU country needs to react within 26 days. The reaction will determine what the IND does afterwards:

• Does the EU country withdraw you right of residence within 9 months? Then the IND will delete the alert for the decision to enter an alert from E&S. The IND will replace this by an alert in the SIS for the entry ban.
• Does the EU country not withdraw your residency? Or has the EU country not reacted within 9 months? Then the IND will lift your entry ban. And the alert on you for the decision to enter an alert will remain in E&S.
• Does the EU country only react after 9 months and has your entry ban already been lifted? And does the EU country withdraw your right of residence? Then the IND changes the alert on you for the decision to enter an alert from E&S to the SIS.

Does an EU country wish to give you a right of residence? But do you have an entry ban from the Netherlands? Then this EU country will ask the IND to delete the alert for the entry ban from the SIS. The IND will delete the alert and lift the entry ban. Does it concern an entry ban of more than 2 years? And have you also received a decision to enter an alert? Then the IND will enter an alert on you in E&S for the decision to enter an alert.

You can object to or appeal against the entry ban or decision to enter an alert. The decision explains what you can do: object to the IND or appeal to court. The decision also says whether you are allowed to wait for the objection or appeal in the Netherlands.

You can request (temporarily) lifting of the entry ban. For example because you have to be in the Netherlands when your entry ban has not yet ended. Or because the IND does not know that you have left the EU. For this you can use the following form by filling it out and sending it to the IND:

Request for lifting the pronouncement of undesirability or entry ban 9504 (in Dutch: Verzoek tot opheffing van een ongewenstverklaring of inreisverbod ).

Or, you can send a letter to the IND in which you request (temporarily) lifting of the entry ban and explain why. You can also make use of this for (temporary) lifting of the decision to enter an alert. The postal address is on our Contact page. Is your request for lifting your entry ban temporarily granted? The alert on you will remain in the SIS.

Someone else can also request the entry ban to be lifted for you. Then you must give this person official permission to take action on your behalf. You set this out on paper with your signature. This is called an authorisation. Enclose the authorisation with  the request to lift the entry ban. Our postal address is on our Contact page.

Requirements for lifting of entry ban

The IND can lift the entry ban (temporarily) if you meet one of the following requirements:

• Lifting the entry ban is essential in your situation.
• Only in case of an entry ban of 2 years or less:
  • You have been outside the EU for a consecutive period of half of your entry ban period or longer.
  • You have not committed any serious offences in the period that you have been outside the Netherlands.
  • You are not being prosecuted for a criminal offence at this time.

Documents needed to having the entry ban lifted

Enclose these documents and information with the form or your letter:

• Explain why it is essential to lift the entry ban in your situation.
• Your complete personal details and other names (aliases) that you used earlier.
• A copy of all the pages of every passport you have had since your entry ban, or other documents needed to travel and cross the border.
• Overview of all the countries and places where you have been to since your entry ban. This is to show that you are outside the EU during the request for lifting
• Official documents of the governments of each country you were in after your entry ban. It says in them that you have not committed any serious offences in the country. And that you are not being prosecuted for a criminal offence in the county at this time.
• Do you have to be in the Netherlands temporarily? Then also enclose the following information:
  • Date of your arrival in the Netherlands and the place where you will enter the Netherlands.
  • Flight numbers of the departing and return flight.
  • Overview of all places where you are going to stay in the Netherlands. And evidence that provides certainty about your stay and what it will cost.
  • In case of a criminal case: information on the state of affairs and course of the criminal case.
• If you give someone else permission to ask for the ban to be lifted on your behalf, an authorisation with your signature is needed.

Have official foreign documents legalised and translated into Dutch, English, French or German.

Deletion of SIS alert for your entry ban in another EU country

Do you have an entry ban in another EU country? And you want to have the alert of that entry ban deleted from the SIS? Then send a letter to the National Police Information Unit (in Dutch: Dienst Landelijke Informatie Organisatie, or DLIO) in which you request deletion. DLIO is a section of the National Unit of the police. The postal address can be found under Contact on www.politie.nl/en.

• Return decision  
• Pronouncement of undesirability 
• Departure from the Netherlands