Obligation to participate in a civic integration programme for Turkish new arrivals as from 1 January 2022
From 1 January 2022 onwards, Turkish (family) migrants and their family members who wish to come to the Netherlands for long-term residence will be obliged to participate in a civic integration programme. When assessing the application for authorisation for temporary stay (mvv) and the residence permit, the IND checks whether they passed the basic civic integration examination abroad.
Since 1 May 2020, the obligation to participate in a civic integration programme applies to Turkish new arrivals with asylum status and their family members. From 1 January 2022, Turkish family migrants who want to settle in the Netherlands and spiritual counsellors with Turkish nationality will also have to pass the basic civic integration examination abroad in Turkey first. As of 1 January 2022, this will be a condition for the mvv application. Currently, this group is still exempt from this obligation. Once arrived in the Netherlands, the new arrivals will start with a personalised and customised civic integration programme.
New civic integration system
The obligation for Turkish new arrivals to participate in a civic integration programme coincides with the introduction of the new civic integration system that will apply from 1 January 2022. As a result, the same rules will apply to new arrivals holding Turkish nationality and their family members as to new arrivals from other countries. Highly skilled migrants, students, or migrants who come to the Netherlands for a temporary purpose are not obliged to participate in a civic integration programme. New arrivals holding Turkish nationality and already in the Netherlands who have a residence permit, in principle, do not (as yet) have to complete the civic integration programme.