Visa application for exchange students

Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam will apply for a visa and/or residence permit when you have been (conditionally) admitted. First, you need to confirm your participation in the Exchange programme before you can upload your documents. Please also take a look at our step-by-step visa application video.

The visa/residence permit application procedure will open on 1 April 2023 for the Fall semester 2023/2024. The deadline for completing the visa and/or residence permit application procedure is 1 June. The application procedure takes approximately 6 to 8 weeks. Once the visa section in your VU Dashboard is open, you first need to answer our short questionnaire. Then you will receive an information email shortly after, including your unique login details to our online immigration platform ('VisaCare'). Please check below under the procedure applicable to you, what documents you need.

When you are eligible for this procedure, you are only required to have a residence permit (VVR) but not an entry visa (MVV). This means that you can enter the Netherlands with just your passport. While you need to apply for the residence permit in advance, you will receive it in the Netherlands. In case you hold a valid residence permit of another EU Schengen country, you are exempted from an entry visa and possibly from a Dutch residence permit as well. Please upload a copy of your residence permit in VisaCare or e-mail a copy to studentimmigration@vu.nl in order for us to assess whether you require a Dutch residence permit for study purposes or not.

Please note that exchange students from Canada, Australia and New Zealand are advised to apply for the residence permit of the Working Holiday Programme/Scheme (WHP/WHS). Exchange students from Argentina, Hong Kong SAR and South Africa have to check with the Dutch Embassy first if they can use this option. Please consult our information sheet for details.

How to apply

Step 1: Confirm your participation on your VU Dashboard
The visa section on your VU Dashboard will only open once you confirmed your participation in the study programme. You have to confirm your participation in the COMPLETE APPLICATION section. Please take a look at our step-by-step visa application video.

Step 2: Upload the required documents to VisaCare
Now that you confirmed your participation, the visa section will become available in the COMPLETE APPLICATION section. Here you can upload all required documents as PDFs. The following documents are needed to complete your immigration procedure:

• Copy of passport (valid > 6 months): ID page, signature, stamped pages.
• Antecedents certificate signed by hand (not digitally), mentioning place and date of signing (under 2.4). V-number can be skipped.
• TB Statement. Exchange students from Indonesia, Peru, South Africa and Thailand need to sign part A. All other exchange students need to sign part B.
• Proof of financial means. In this manual you will find detailed information and the requirements concerning the proof of financial means. In case of a sponsor, the sponsor(s) need(s) to sign the Financial Statement form.

The documents do need to meet some strict requirements so please make sure that they do before you upload them in VisaCare. You can use this checklist to double check that your documents are correct. We strongly recommend that you do so.

Please note that we only accept PDF files. We will reject the documents if they are uploaded in any other type of format. Finally, we can only accept documents in English. Documents in any other language will have to be translated into English by an official and certified translator.

Step 3: Pay the visa fee
Students need to pay for their residence permit by using the online payment tool on their VU Dashboard. We need to have received the fee before we can submit the application. The costs are specified as follows:

• Residence permit (VVR) costs €275
• Residence permit (VVR) when you have a valid residence permit of a Schengen member state costs €275

These fees are subject to change.

We strongly recommend that you use the online payment tool on your VU Dashboard to transfer the visa fee. Please note that it may take a few days before the tool is activated in your on your VU Dasboard after you have started the residence permit procedure. In case you wish to transfer the fee through bank transfer, the bank details are as follows:

Please state your name and S+ student number (e.g. s1234567) otherwise we cannot trace the payment. When paid from abroad, all banking costs are to be paid by the application. You can pay your visa and housing fee in one transaction.

Deadline

The deadline for completing the residence permit procedure is 1 June (first semester) and 1 December (second semester). Please keep in mind that the application procedure takes approximately 6 to 8 weeks, so please make sure you upload your documents in time!

N.B. While we have to submit the application to the IND, it is at all times your own responsibility to complete the procedure before the deadline and to provide documents that are correct. Please also note that VU Amsterdam cannot guarantee that a residence permit is granted by a certain date, or at all. The timeline as sketched under the section OVERVIEW OF APPLICATION PROCEDURE depends on how quickly you correctly submit your documents, and the time it takes for the IND to process your application. As a result, VU Amsterdam can never guarantee that your residence permit will be approved by a certain date. The procedure cannot be expedited as all applications are already submitted using the priority procedure for students.

Tuberculosis test

Depending on your nationality, you may need to complete a tuberculosis (TB) test in order to receive your residence permit. Please read the TB form carefully to see if you need to be tested upon arrival in the Netherlands. It is important to have yourself tested as soon as possible upon arrival (within 3 months of arrival). Please note that it is not necessary to have yourself tested in your home country. VU Amsterdam will make appointments for the TB test. In case you cannot make it to any of the proposed days, you can make an appointment yourself at the municipal doctor's office (GGD). Please check the website of GGD Amsterdam for more information. The TB test costs €51.

The address of the GGD Amsterdam office is:

Public Health Service Amsterdam
Nieuwe Achtergracht 100

You can easily get there by public transport as it is very near to Weesperplein, a large public transport station. From Central Station: Metro (all lines), alight at Station Weesperplein. From De Boelelaan or Amsterdam Zuid: Metro 51, alight at Station Weesperplein.

Strict requirement of the IND

As an educational institution, we need to apply for residence permits for study purposes on behalf of all our non-EU students. We act as your legal sponsor as soon as the IND has approved the residence permit application. As such, we are liable and bound by the strict and specific requirements set by the Dutch Immigration Service (IND). Not meeting these requirements means we will not submit your application. When we have submitted your application and it is rejected by the IND, or you decide to no longer study at VU Amsterdam, your visa fee will not be refunded. So please make sure that your application is both valid and complete!

After arrival

After your arrival in Amsterdam you need to go to the Dutch Immigration Service (IND) to have your biometrics (photo and fingerprints) taken. We will make appointments for this prior to the Arrival Days. Your residence permit will be ready in approximately four weeks after your first visit to the IND. We will inform you when your residence permit is ready. You need to collect your residence permit within 90 days after arrival.

Deregistration at IND

When you are no longer a student at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, we are obliged to deregister you with the IND. As a result, your residence permit will be revoked. We will deregister you with the IND in the following cases:

• your exchange programme at VU Amsterdam has officially ended
• you quit the exchange programme

When we have deregistered you with the IND, you will need to leave the Netherlands. When your residence permit is valid for three months or less at the moment of deregistration, the residence permit will not be revoked which means you can stay until the expiry date of your residence permit. In case your residence permit is still valid for longer than three months at the moment of deregistration, your residence permit will be revoked with immediate effect. As a result, you will need to leave the Netherlands as soon as possible.

Contact

Please contact the services team at studentimmigration@vu.nl should you have any questions.

VU Amsterdam needs to apply for a long stay entry visa (MVV) and residence permit (VVR) when you are a non-EU citizen from a country that is not exempted from an entry visa. In case you hold a valid residence permit for study purposes of another EU Schengen country, you are exempted from an entry visa and possibly from a Dutch residence permit as well. Please upload a copy of your residence permit on your VU Dashboard

Step 1: Confirm your participation on your VU Dashboard
The visa section in your VU Dashboard will open once you confirmed your participation in the study programme. You have to confirm your participation in the COMPLETE APPLICATION section. Please have a look at our step-by-step visa application video.

Step 2: Upload the required documents to VisaCare
Now that you confirmed your participation, the visa section will become available in the COMPLETE APPLICATION section. Here you can upload all required documents. The following documents are needed to complete your immigration procedure:

• Copy of passport (valid > 6 months): ID page, signature, stamped pages.
• Antecedents certificate: signed by hand (not digitally), mentioning place and date of signing (under 2.4). V-number can be skipped.
• TB Statement. Exchange students from Indonesia, Peru, South Africa and Thailand need to sign part A. All other exchange students need to sign part B.
• Proof of financial means. In this manual you will find detailed information and the requirements concerning the proof of financial means. In case of a sponsor, the sponsor(s) need(s) to sign the Financial Statement form.
• In VisaCare, you can indicate at which Embassy or Consulate you would like to collect your entry visa. Before you submit your choice, please check whether the representation issues long stay entry visas (MVV) on this website. N.B. when you choose a representation that does not issue long stay entry visas, we will choose another Embassy/Consulate for you.

The documents do need to meet some strict requirements so please make sure that they do before you upload them in VisaCare. You can use this checklist to double check that your documents are correct. We strongly recommend that you do so.

Please note that we only accept PDF files. We will reject the documents if they are uploaded in any other type of format. Finally, we can only accept documents in English. Documents in any other language will have to be translated into English by an official and certified translator.

Step 3: Pay the visa fee
Students need to pay for their residence permit by using the online payment tool on their VU Dashboard. We need to have received the fee before we can submit the application. The costs are specified as follows:

• Long stay entry visa (MVV) and residence permit (VVR) cost €275.

These fees are subject to change.

We strongly recommend that you use the online payment tool on your VU Dashboard to transfer the visa fee. Please note that it may take a few days before the tool is activated on your VU Dashboard after you have started the residence permit procedure. In case you wish to transfer the fee through bank transfer, the bank details are as follows:

Please state your name and S+ student number (e.g. s1234567) otherwise we cannot trace the payment. When paid from abroad, all banking costs are to be paid by the application. You can pay your visa and housing fee in one transaction.

Deadline

The deadline for completing the residence permit procedure is 1 June (first semester) and 1 December (second semester). When you submit the documents and pay the visa fee after the deadline, we can no longer guarantee that your residence permit will be ready in time for the start of the academic year. The application procedure takes approximately 4 to 8 weeks.

N.B. While we have to submit the application to the IND, it is at all times your own responsibility to complete the procedure before the deadline and to provide documents that are correct. Please also note that VU Amsterdam cannot guarantee that a residence permit is granted by a certain date, or at all. The timeline as sketched under the section OVERVIEW OF APPLICATION PROCEDURE depends on how quickly you correctly submit your documents, and the time it takes for the IND to process your application. As a result, VU Amsterdam can never guarantee that your residence permit will be approved by a certain date. The procedure cannot be expedited as all applications are already submitted using the priority procedure for students.

Tuberculosis test

Depending on your nationality, you may need to complete a tuberculosis (TB) test in order to receive your residence permit. Please read the TB form carefully to see if you need to be tested upon arrival in the Netherlands. It is important to have yourself tested as soon as possible upon arrival (within 3 months of arrival). Please note that it is not necessary to have yourself tested in your home country. VU Amsterdam will inform you about the procedure for undergoing a TB test. You are also able to make an appointment yourself at the municipal doctor's office (GGD). Please check the website of GGD Amsterdam for more information. GGD will charge a fee of €51 for the TB test. 

The address of the GGD Amsterdam office is:

Public Health Service Amsterdam
Nieuwe Achtergracht 100

You can easily get there by public transport as it is very near to Weesperplein, a large public transport station. From Central Station: Metro (all lines), alight at Station Weesperplein. From De Boelelaan or Amsterdam Zuid: Metro 51, alight at Station Weesperplein.

Strict requirements of the IND

As an educational institution, we need to apply for residence permits for study purposes on behalf of all our non-EU students. We act as your legal sponsor as soon as the IND has approved the residence permit application. As such, we are liable and bound by the strict and specific requirements set by the Dutch Immigration Service (IND). Not meeting these requirements means we will not submit your application. When we have submitted your application and it is rejected by the IND, or you decide to no longer study at VU Amsterdam, your visa fee will not be refunded. So please make sure that your application is both valid and complete!

After arrival

Prior to the Arrival Days we will make an appointment for you with the IND to collect your residence permit card. In case your residence permit is not yet ready at that point, the International Office will notify you when your residence permit is ready to be collected. You need to collect your residence permit before your entry visa expires. 

Deregistration at IND

When you are no longer a student at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, we are obliged to deregister you with the IND. As a result, your residence permit will be revoked. We will deregister you with the IND in the following cases:

• your exchange programme at VU Amsterdam has officially ended
• you quit the exchange programme

When we have deregistered you with the IND, you will need to leave the Netherlands. When your residence permit is valid for three months or less at the moment of deregistration, the residence permit will not be revoked which means you can stay until the expiry date of your residence permit. In case your residence permit is still valid for longer than three months at the moment of deregistration, your residence permit will be revoked with immediate effect. As a result, you will need to leave the Netherlands as soon as possible.

Contact

Please contact us at studentimmigration@vu.nl should you have any questions.

In case you currently hold a valid residence permit for study purposes but you wish to switch from your current university to Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, we will need to submit a so-called Change of Sponsor application to the IND. This means that we will take over your residence permit from your university or university of applied sciences, which means that we will become your legal sponsor. In order for us to apply for this, you need to upload some documents in your personal dashboard on vu.nl.

Required documents

The following documents are needed to complete your immigration procedure:

• Copy passport including your signature and any stamped pages. Your passport needs to be valid for at least 6 more months.
• Copy of your current Dutch residence permit (front and back side).
• Antecedents certificate signed by hand (on paper). At 2.4 you have to fill in your date of signing, not your date of birth again.
• Proof of financial means. In this manual, you will find detailed information and the requirements concerning the proof of financial means. In the case of a sponsor, the sponsor(s) need(s) to sign the Financial Statement form, which you can find here.

The documents do need to meet some strict requirements so please make sure that they do before you upload them in your personal dashboard on vu.nl. You can use this checklist to double-check that your documents are correct. We strongly recommend that you do so. N.B. your documents cannot be older than 2 months. Additionally, we can only accept documents in English. Documents in any other language will have to be translated into English by an official and certified translator. Finally, please note that we only accept PDF files. We will reject the documents if they are uploaded in any other type of format.

Visa Fee

When your residence permit does not need to be extended, the procedure is free of charge which means you do not have to pay any visa fees to us. However, if your residence permit needs to be extended as well you will need to pay a visa fee of €275.

Please note that exchange students from Canada, Australia, and New Zealand are advised to apply for the residence permit of the Working Holiday Programme/Scheme (WHP/WHS). Please consult our information sheet for details or review the website of the IND.

Exchange students from Argentina, Hong Kong SAR, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and Uruguay have to check with the Dutch Embassy first if they can use this option.

Intra-EU mobility for study purposes gives students the opportunity to study in several Member States of the European Union (EU). Directive (EU) 2016/801 makes provision for this. The scheme is for students who are not nationals of a country belonging to the EU/EEA or Switzerland. Instead, a non-EU student has to hold a valid residence permit for study purposes in another EU Member State. Please note: Denmark and Ireland are not taking part in Directive (EU) 2016/801.

Check the website of the IND to read more about the other conditions of the Intra-EU mobility for study purposes.

Please contact studentimmigration@vu.nl if you wish to make use of this procedure.

1. When do I need to extend my residence permit?

Holding a valid residence permit is your own responsibility. You are responsible for ensuring that your residence permit is extended on time. If you do not know whether you need to extend your permit, please contact your programme coordinator. He or she will know whether you are expected to finish your Exchange programme by the end of the current academic year. In case your student residence permit is not valid until the end of next academic year, we will apply need to apply for an extension.

2. How can I extend my residence permit?

We will inform you about the extension procedure. Please note that it is not possible to extend your permit if your current Dutch study permit is valid for more than three months.

3. Payment

For the extension of your residence permit you need to transfer €275 to the bank account of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam:

    • Do not forget to state “S” + your student number (e.g. S2345678).
    • Keep in mind that you are responsible for the payment of any foreign bank charges associated with the transaction(s). Ensure that the bank charges are added to the amount to be transferred.
    • Inform studentimmigration@vu.nl once you have transferred the fee.

4. How to collect your new residence permit 

We will inform you when the extension has been approved. After you have received confirmation from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam that your new residence permit is ready, you can go to the IND office to collect the new residence permit. You do not need to make an appointment. Please do bring your passport and current residence permit.

IND Office Amsterdam
Pieter Calandlaan 1
1065 KH Amsterdam

You can easily get there by public transport. Take Metro 50 from Station Amsterdam Zuid in direction of Isolatorweg and alight at Station Lelylaan.
Opening hours: Monday – Friday 09:00-16:00h.

5. What else do I need to know?

Holding a valid residence permit is your own responsibility 
You are responsible for ensuring that your residence permit is extended on time. If you do not know whether you need to extend your permit, please contact your programme coordinator. He or she will know whether you are expected to finish your studies by the end of the current academic year.

The IND may request proof of financial resources 
If necessary, the IND is authorised to request documentary proof of your financial situation. In this case, you will need to demonstrate that you have sufficient funds per months at your disposal (€1,000,- per month).

Inform the municipality of any address changes 
The IND will send all correspondence to the address at which you are registered with your local municipality (Basisregistratie Personen, BRP). Always make sure that you inform the municipality of any change in your address.

You cannot re-enter the Netherlands with an expired residence permit 
If you plan to go abroad but your new permit has not yet been issued, make sure you return before your current permit expires. If this is not possible, you will need to request a return visa before leaving the Netherlands. Please call the IND (0900 1234561) and make an appointment to arrange a return visa.

Extending your stay after graduation 
If you plan to stay in the Netherlands after graduation, you have the possibility to apply for a residence permit under the ‘Orientation Year for Graduates Seeking Employment’.

Biometrics
As of January 2014, all non-EU students who need a visa and/or residence permit need to have their photograph and fingerprints taken for their residence document.

6. Contact

Please contact studentimmigration@vu.nl should you have any questions.

When you are no longer a student at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, we are obliged to deregister you with the IND. As a result, your residence permit will be revoked. We will deregister you with the IND in the following cases:

• You finished your Exchange programme
• You quit your studies

When we have deregistered you with the IND, you will need to leave the Netherlands. When your residence permit is valid for three months or less at the moment of deregistration, the residence permit will not be revoked which means you can stay until the expiry date of your residence permit. In case your residence permit is still valid for longer than three months at the moment of deregistration, your residence permit will be revoked with immediate effect. As a result, you will need to leave the Netherlands as soon as possible.

Please look at the website of the IND what you must arrange if you have a residence permit and have to leave the Netherlands.

• Frequently asked questions