Conditions and deadlines

• Once you have been admitted to your study programme at the University of Amsterdam (UvA), you will need to start your application for your residence permit (VVR). The UvA will process the application for a residence permit for the purposes of study on your behalf. 
• It is therefore not necessary to contact the Immigration and Naturalisation Department (IND) yourself unless you intend to request a residence permit for purposes other than study (e.g. family reunification).
• Please note: while the UvA assists with residency formalities, your legal residency remains your own responsibility.

Costs

The cost of a student residence permit is €195. This fee is not refundable.

Deadlines

• The procedure can take several months. Your residence permit application has to be approved before the start of your programme (1 February or 1 September).
• Please note that the UvA cannot guarantee that a residence permit is granted by a certain date, or at all.
• If you arrange to travel to the Netherlands without knowing that your residence permit will be granted on time, you do so at your own risk.

Duration of your student residence permit

• Student residence permits will be issued for the duration of the nominal study programme plus three months.
• The nominal duration of study programme is three years for a Bachelor’s programme and one or two years for a Master’s programme. 

50% Minimum Threshold 

• By law you need to attain at least 50% of the credits of your study programme each year. If you do not attain the 50% threshold, the UvA will verify whether there is an excusable reason for you to be exempted from the threshold.
• If you are not exempted, the UvA has to inform the IND and your student residence permit will be withdrawn.

Immigration procedure

• Once you have been admitted to your study programme, you will be invited by email to start the online residence permit application process. These procedures will start approximately four months before the start of the semester.
• Once you have submitted the required documents (see below) online, the UvA will start reviewing them. Please note that in case we need the original documents the UvA always has the right to ask you to send the original documents by express mail to us. In general we need about two to three weeks to approve and process your documents
• Once the UvA has approved your documents, your application will be sent to the IND. The IND will generally need about two to three weeks to process your entry visa (MVV). The IND will generally need about two to three weeks to process your application. You can travel to the Netherlands on your passport.
• During your Start Appointment, we will assist you through the last stages of your residence permit application.

Please note: timeline

The timeline sketched above is dependent on how quickly you correctly submit your file, and the time it takes for the IND to process your request.

Required documents

• All documents must be in Dutch, English, French or German.
• If your documents are in another language, you must arrange for the documents to be translated by an official translator.
• All documents should be uploaded in PDF-format (max. 20MB per file).

The documents are:

• A valid passport (which needs to be signed and valid for at least 6 months after the start of the semester)
• Proof of financial means:
  • Funds to finance your stay in the Netherlands - this amount does not include your tuition fee
  • Funds to finance your tuition fee - not applicable to exchange students
• Antecedents certificate (the form needs to be signed by hand, not digitally). Please make sure that you sign the form with the same signature as on your passport.