Asylum is granted in the Netherlands to Syrians, Iraqis, Yemenis, Palestinians, or other Arab countries or other countries if they are at risk if they return to their country. First, special procedures are followed to determine whether the asylum seeker really needs protection.
International treaties on refugee protection
The Netherlands recognizes people who would be at risk if they returned to their country. The obligation to do so is stipulated in various international treaties, in particular:
- The Geneva Convention on Refugees, which states that every refugee has the right to protection;
- The European Convention on Human Rights, which states that no one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
Applying for asylum in the Netherlands
Foreign nationals seeking asylum must inform the Immigration and Naturalization Service in Ter Apel. After identification and registration, asylum seekers are transferred to a reception centre, which is usually close to the application center that will process the asylum application.
Asylum seekers entering the Netherlands by plane can report to the Royal Netherlands Maraishausen at Schiphol Airport. As a rule, they are prohibited from entering the Netherlands.
A border procedure was initiated to process their asylum application. The asylum seeker remains at the application center at Schiphol Airport throughout the duration of this procedure.
If the individual is from one of the countries on the list of safe countries of origin, or if there are indications that he or she already enjoys protection in another EU Member State, a special fast-track asylum procedure applies.
When to submit an asylum application in the Netherlands
Asylum seekers are given at least 6 days to recover from their journey. The asylum procedure does not begin until after this period. During the rest and preparation period they are given:
- Information about asylum procedures;
- Help from a lawyer.
- Medical authorization for use during their asylum procedure.
Asylum applications are evaluated in the Netherlands
The Immigration and Naturalization Service evaluates asylum applications based on:
- An asylum seeker's narrative.
- The security situation in the country of origin of the asylum seeker.
You want to apply for asylum. This means that you are applying for an asylum residence permit in the Netherlands because you need protection. On this page, you can find out the conditions for obtaining an asylum residence permit. You can also find out what the steps are for seeking asylum, and how long these steps take in the general asylum procedure.
Asylum conditions in the Netherlands
You may be granted a residence permit if you meet one of the following conditions:
- In your country of origin, you have real reasons to fear persecution because of your race, religion, nationality, political convictions or because you belong to a particular social group.
- You have real reasons to fear the death penalty, execution, torture or other inhuman or degrading treatment in your country of origin.
- You have real reasons to fear being a victim of indiscriminate violence due to an armed conflict in your country of origin.
- Your husband, wife, partner, parent or minor child has recently received an asylum residence permit in the Netherlands.
Asylum procedures in the Netherlands in steps
If you want to apply for asylum, you will follow the asylum procedure. The asylum procedure is a process with several steps. Read on to learn more about these steps. Or see an overview in the pictures and infographic of the asylum procedure in the Netherlands.
The first step: application, identification and registration
After arriving in the Netherlands, you first go to the application center (Aanmeldcentrum or AC) in Ter Apel or in Schiphol. There you are officially registered as an asylum seeker. The AC is the building where your asylum procedure begins. Which AC you should go to depends on how you enter the Netherlands.
Introduction and registration
The police will take care of identifying and registering you and a translator will translate the conversation. What happens when you are identified and registered?
- Identity: The police or KMar search your clothes and luggage to see if you have documents with you about your identity, journey and asylum story. Answer questions about your ancestry. This is how we find out your identity
- Registration: The police or KMar takes passport photos of you and takes your fingerprints. Your identity, passport photos and fingerprints are stored in a national computer system. This data is required to process your asylum application. You make a formal request for asylum by signing a printed asylum application form.
Asylum in the Netherlands by land
Did you come to the Netherlands by land (through Belgium or Germany)? You then apply as an asylum seeker at AC Ter Apel. There you first fill out a registration form from the Immigration and Naturalization Service. KMar checks whether your documents are original. After submitting the application, the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers or COA) will arrange a place to sleep, eat and receive medical care.
Asylum in the Netherlands by plane
Have you applied as an asylum seeker at an airport or seaport in the Netherlands? Then KMar usually registers and identifies you and verifies your documents. You will then be transferred to the order center in Schiphol. The Immigration and Naturalization Service processes your asylum application there following the border procedure.
The second step: TB screening
A nurse checks whether you have TB and also checks an X-ray of your lungs if necessary. Tuberculosis is a contagious and contagious disease. TB testing usually occurs the day after registration. The asylum procedure begins if you do not have TB, or after you have been treated for TB.
Third step: Interview to prepare an asylum report in the Netherlands
On the third day after registration, you will have a reporting interview. This is a conversation with an Immigration and Naturalization Service employee. For this interview, the Immigration and Naturalization Service uses the information you filled out on the registration form. You must answer questions on the following topics:
- Your identity, nationality, origin and place of residence
- family
- Documents
- education
- Work and military service
- Residence in other countries
- Your trip to the Netherlands
- In brief: the reasons why you should apply for asylum.
Fourth step: Preparing for the general asylum procedures
After your application interview, you can rest your trip to the Netherlands. This period is called the rest and preparation period (rust-en voorbereidingstijd or RVT). You will usually go to another reception center in a different location. The Alcoa Service Code also provides guidance.
Cases in which you will not have a period of preparation for the general asylum procedure
- You follow your Netherlands asylum procedures in immigration detention.
- You are in the simplified asylum procedure.
- Your statements about your identity, nationality, ancestry or ancestry appear to be incorrect.
- Causing disturbance to others in or at an application center or reception desk. You then immediately enter the general asylum procedure.
Special reception for unaccompanied foreign minors
- Under 15: You will NIDOS Foundation By arranging to live with a foster family. NIDOS is the organization that organizes the guardianship of unaccompanied minor asylum seekers.
- From 15 to 18 years: The City Council of Haa arranges for these minors to go to a special reception center for young asylum seekers.
Age test for unaccompanied alien minors
If the Electoral Service has doubts about the age of an unaccompanied asylum seeker who is a minor, the Institute offers an age test during the rest and preparation period. The test can also be done at a later time. During the age test, the nurse takes X-rays of the wrist and shoulder. Want to know more? Then continue reading about the main characteristics of the asylum procedure for AMVs.
During your stay at the reception site, a free medical examination will be performed. The nurse then checks your physical and mental health, and decides whether you are well enough to tell your asylum story. This way, the INS can take your health into account during interviews. The medical examination is there to help you and is not mandatory. Would you rather not have a medical examination? This is not a problem.
Submit documents during the interview
Are there important documents for your asylum application that you have not yet submitted to the INS? For example, documents about your identity or any support for your asylum application?
Information provided by the Dutch Refugee Council
You will also get help at the reception center to prepare yourself for the General Asylum Procedure (AA), free of charge. Staff from the independent human rights organization Dutch Refugee Council will give you information about the asylum procedure.
Preparing for an interview or with an attorney
The Legal Aid Board will arrange a lawyer for you. This is usually free. The lawyer helps you prepare your asylum story in the Netherlands for the interview with the Immigration and Naturalization Service. This applies to adult asylum seekers and unaccompanied minors. It also applies to your children from the age of 15 who applied for asylum with you.
Preparing children from 12 to 15 years old with a lawyer
Do you have children between the ages of 12 and 15 who applied for asylum with you? Do they have their own reasons for applying for asylum? If they wish, they can also talk about these reasons themselves during the asylum procedure in the Netherlands. You can tell your attorney about this and then your attorney can also prepare your child for the interview with the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Step Five: General asylum procedures
The general asylum procedure applies to most asylum seekers. AA usually takes 6 days. This is what happens every day during AA:
Day 1: Detailed interview
In this interview, you have a detailed interview with an INS officer, explaining why you are applying for asylum. The Immigration and Naturalization Service uses a freelance translator for translation. Independent means that the translator has no influence on your asylum application. You can ask the Dutch Refugee Council (VWN) to be present at the detailed interview. You will receive a detailed interview report.
Day two: Detailed interview discussion
The next day you will talk to your lawyer about the detailed interview. Your lawyer will check with you whether the detailed interview report is correct. Your attorney will notify the INS of any errors and additions.
Day 3: Initial decision
The INS employee reads the reports of your interviews with the INS, and your attorney's response to these reports. The Immigration and Naturalization Service then decides whether you will receive an asylum residence permit. There are 3 possibilities.
- You obtain a temporary residence permit. This residence permit is valid for 5 years.
- The INS needs more time to make a decision. Therefore your procedure will take longer. The Immigration and Naturalization Service continues to process your application in the Extended Asylum Procedure (Verlengde Asielprocedure or VA).
- The Department of Permits and Declarations does not plan to grant you a temporary residence permit. This initial decision is specified in a message and is called an intended decision. You will have the opportunity to respond to the intended decision.
Day four: Response to the decision
You talk to your lawyer about the rejection of your asylum application in the Netherlands provided for in the intended decision. If you disagree with the INS's decision, your attorney can send your point of view in a letter to the INS. In this letter you explain why you disagree with the intended decision.
Days five and six: The second decision
The INS officer reads your point of view. The INS then considers whether the intended decision should be changed. There are 3 possible outcomes.
- You are given a temporary residence permit. This is specified in the decision. You can stay temporarily in the Netherlands. Your lawyer will discuss this with you. The residence permit is valid for 5 years.
- The INS needs more time to investigate. Therefore your procedure takes longer. The Immigration and Naturalization Service processes your application further in the Extended Asylum Procedure.
- You do not obtain a residence permit. This is set out in the resolution. Your lawyer will discuss this with you. What if you disagree with the decision? Then you can appeal to a Dutch court. Your lawyer will help you with this. For more information,
Step Six: After the general asylum procedure
You have received a decision by the Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding your asylum application: you will or will not receive a residence permit. The consequences of the decision for you are as follows.
You obtain an asylum residence permit
- You will move to another reception centre
- You are allowed to work.
- You have the right to a house in a municipality. The municipality where you will reside will search for a suitable home for you. If a home is found, you will leave the COA reception center.
- Depending on your situation, you may also have family members come to join you in the Netherlands: family reunification with accepted asylum seekers. The Dutch Refugee Council can help you have your family members come to live with you.
- VWN staff will help you arrange other important matters, for example to find a job or study programme.
Do not obtain a residence permit for asylum
- You can appeal to a Dutch court. For more information, please see Registering an Objection or Appeal.
- You will go to a different reception centre. There you must arrange the return to your country of origin yourself. You must do this within 28 days (departure period). You will not get a departure period, or you will get a shorter departure period, if it is immediately clear that your application will be rejected. After the departure period you will not have the right to reception.
- Our Returns and Departures service will help you arrange your return. You can also contact the International Organization for Migration for assistance. IOM often has counseling hours at the reception centre.
- What if you did not leave on your own initiative, and did not accept help from other organizations? DT&V can then arrange your forced departure.
Withdrawal of the asylum application in the Netherlands
You can always withdraw (stop) your application for an asylum residence permit in the Netherlands. If you withdraw your application at the Immigration and Naturalization Service, there are consequences. Normally you may not live in the Netherlands anymore. You do not have the right to receive. The Dutch government can also impose an entry ban on you for two years.
After your asylum application is rejected, you can apply for asylum again. This is called a repeated asylum application (HASA).
The decision-making period for asylum applications in the Netherlands
The law states that the Law Service Review Service must make a decision on your asylum application within 6 months. This is the legal decision period. Do we need more time to examine your asylum application in the Netherlands? We then extend the legal decision period for a maximum of 15 months.
If you have been granted a temporary residence permit
Sometimes you have already received your residence permit immediately after receiving the official decision. If not, the Immigration and Naturalization Service will try to have your residence permit ready within a few weeks. You will receive a letter explaining when you will receive your residence permit at the Immigration and Naturalization Service office.
Make an appointment online to receive your residence permit. The letter tells you where you can collect the permit. This is usually near where you live. Upon receipt of the permit, you will receive your Foreign Nationals Identity Document (Type W). The residence permit is valid for 5 years.
Every citizen of the Netherlands, from the age of 14, may hold an identity card. Everyone should be able to show an identification document if checked by the government. Therefore, always carry your residence permit with you.
Asylum rights and duties in the Netherlands
1- Registration with the municipality
You must register in the municipal personal records database (BRP) in the municipality in which you live. If you haven't already done so, you should do so now. Take a positive decision to the municipality where you reside. If possible, also bring your personal documents from the authorities of your country, for example: birth certificate, marriage certificate and ID card.
Registration with the BRP is important. Many organizations in the Netherlands can only help you if you are registered with the BRP.
Make sure that the municipality has registered your name and date of birth correctly. Also check your children's data. It is difficult to change this data later.
If you move house, your address in the BRP must be changed by the municipality.
2- Health insurance care
In the Netherlands you are legally required to have health insurance. This allows you to receive medical help. This is arranged at COA reception centres. However, you must arrange health insurance yourself when leaving the COA Reception Centre. Once you have health insurance, you can register with a general practitioner (doctor) or dentist.
3- Civil integration in the Netherlands
If you have a temporary residence permit, you must take a civil integration course. Should you learn Dutch in this way you will receive a letter from the Education Executive Agency (DUO) about the commitment to integration.
Traveling outside the Netherlands for refugees
You are allowed to travel abroad if you have a residence permit, for example for a holiday or a business trip. You also need a valid passport because a residence permit is not a travel document.
If you do not have a passport you can apply for a refugee passport in your municipality. There is a fee for applying for 1 refugee passport. You may also need a visa in addition to a passport for some countries.
Do you have an asylum residence permit and are you traveling to your country of origin? Then you are indicating that you do not need the protection of the Dutch government anymore. The Immigration and Naturalization Service can cancel your residence permit.
After obtaining a residence permit for 5 years, you can apply for Dutch nationality.
