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 (give) an entry ban. The entry ban is issued in a decision from the IND that is sent by post to your legal representative. The decision usually includes a folder about the entry ban. Do you not have a legal representative and is the last address known where you live? Then the decision will be sent by registered post to your address. Do the AVIM, Seaport Police or KMar impose the entry ban? Then generally they will give you the decision.

When sending the decision with the entry ban, your name  will also be published in the Government Gazette (in Dutch: Staatscourant). You can check your entry ban by searching your full name on www.officielebekendmakingen.nl (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 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  • Your visa is no longer valid, and you have not left the Schengen Area in time.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 term. The visa-exempt term 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 term, but you no longer fulfil the general rules of the visa-exempt term. 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 The permit has been withdrawn or not extended for a different reason.

An entry ban has consequenses:

• 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 www.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 in an EU information system containing your personal details.

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 is the 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 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 EU information system. 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 at the border. In that case you will not be allowed to enter the country.

Do you want to check whether there is an alert concerning you in SIS? Or do you want to submit a request to be removed from SIS? Then go the website of the Dutch police for more information. 

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 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 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.

You can object to or appeal against the entry ban. 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. And the duration of the entry ban is already over. For this you can use the following form by filling it out and sending it to the IND:

Or, you can send a letter to the IND in which you request (temporarily) lifting of the entry ban and explain why. 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 SIS.

Someone else can also request the entry ban to be lifted for you. You must give this person official permission. 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 temporarily is essential in your situation.
• In case of an entry ban of 2 years or less these 3 rules apply:
  • 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 for the duration of the entry ban.
• 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.
• Must you go to the Netherlands because of a criminal case? Then also enclose the following information:
  • Explain why it is essential for you to have the entry ban lifted temporarily. And give information about your role in the criminal case.
  • Documents showing that the Netherlands Public Prosecution Service (in Dutch: Openbaar Ministerie or OM) or court thinks you should be in the Netherlands at the criminal case. And explaining why a legal representative on your behalf is not sufficient.
  • Information on the current state of affairs and the expected course of the criminal case.
• If you give someone else permission to ask for the pronouncement of undesirability 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.

The IND issues a decision to alert if you pose a danger to the public order or national security. A decision to alert looks like an entry ban, lasts up to 10 or 20 years and is contained in an IND decision. 

With or without entry ban

The decision may contain a decision to alert along with a return decision and an entry ban. This happens if an entry ban is imposed on you because you are a danger to public order.

The decision may also contain only a decision to alert, even if you are a danger to public order. This happens if you cannot return to the country you came from. This is called a return impediment. Then the IND cannot give you a return decision and cannot impose an entry ban.

Consequences decision to alert

A decision to alert has consequenses:

• Entering an alert on you in an information system. Because of this alert the government can see that a decision to alert applies to you.  After checking you can be stopped at the border. Then you will not be allowed to enter the country. There are 2 systems:
  • Implementation & Detection (in Dutch: Executie & Signalering, or E&S): this is an information system used by the Dutch police and the Royal Netherlands Marechaussee.
  • Schengen Information System (in Dutch: Schengen Information Systeem or SIS): this is an European systeem in which border guards and the police of Schengen can see.
• You are not allowed to travel to and stay in the Netherlands in case of an E&S alert.
• You are not allowed to travel to and stay in the EU in case of a SIS alert.

Details entering an alert

There are details entering an alert:

• An alert on you can only be entered in 1 system. For a decision to alert, you will usually be identified first in E&S and immediately after in SIS.
• Do you have a right of residence in the EU (except Ireland)? Then the alert will only be entered in E&S.
• Do you gain the right of residence in the EU after a decision to alert by the Netherlands? And is there an alert on you in SIS? If so, the IND will delete SIS alert and enters an alert on you in E&S.
• Start duration of alert in E&S: date of departure from the Netherlands.
• Start duration of alert in SIS: date of departure from the EU (except Ireland).
• An alert in SIS for an entry ban or a return decision with an entry ban has priority over an alert on you for a decision to alert.
• Is an alert for a return decision on you with an entry ban or just an entry ban not possible (anymore)? Then an alert for a decision to alert will be entered in SIS on you if possible and if not in E&S.

Objection or appeal and (temporarily) lifting the decision to alert

Do you not agree with the decision to alert? The IND-decision in which the decision to alert is contained says what you can do. You can read more information on our page Object or appeal decision.

Has the period of your alert ended? Then you can request to have the decision to alert lifted. Do you urgently need to be in the Netherlands during the duration of the decision to alert you? Then you can request to have it lifted temporarily. You request this in the same way that you request the lifting a pronouncement of undesirability. 

Are you a non-EU national? And do you already have a right of residence in an EU country? And does the Dutch government impose an entry ban on you of more than 2 years together with a decision to alert? Then an E&S alert on you will be entered for the decision to alert. And the IND will ask the EU country to withdraw your residency. The EU country's reaction will determine what the IND does afterwards:

• Does the EU country withdraw you right of residence? Then the IND will delete the alert for the decision to alert from E&S. The IND will replace this by a SIS alert.
• Does the EU country not withdraw your residency within 9 months? 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 alert will remain in E&S.

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 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 you? Then the IND will enter an alert on you in E&S for the decision to alert.

• Return decision
• Pronouncement of undesirability
• Leaving the Netherlands