Applicable to students who are not nationals from Australia, Canada, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, South Korea, United Kingdom, United States of America or Vatican City State. The student also doesn’t hold a valid residence permit from another Schengen country.
The MVV is an entry visa into the Netherlands and will need to be collected from a Dutch embassy/consulate, either in the country of citizenship or the country where the student holds long term (i.e. more than three months) residency. If that country does not have Dutch diplomatic representation or the embassy/consulate does not process MVV applications, the student will have to travel to one in a country recommended by the Dutch government to collect the MVV. Please note that you won't be able to collect your MVV anywhere else in this case. For example, if you are a citizen of Mauritius, you will have to collect your MVV in Tanzania.
If there are multiple embassy/consulate options in your country, you can choose the location most convenient to you.
An MVV is valid for 90 days from the date of collection, and students have those 90 days to enter the Netherlands. VU Amsterdam organises the MVV/residence permit (VVR) procedure in such a way that entry will be possible before the academic year starts, to collect the residence permit.
How to apply
VU Amsterdam will apply for a residence permit when students have been (conditionally) admitted. To apply for a visa and residence permit, please follow the steps below. The required documents must be uploaded before 1 June when starting in September (before 1 December when starting in February). From 1 April onwards, it is possible to upload the required documents to our immigration portal called VisaCare.
Step 1: Confirm your participation
On the VU Dashboard students can confirm their participation in the “complete application” section. Once this has been completed, the visa form will become available. Please be aware that it is only possible to complete this step once students have been admitted to the exchange programme.
Step 2: Submit the online visa form in your VU Dashboard
Now that participation has been confirmed, the visa section will become available and an introductory visa questionnaire needs to be completed. For students who are re-enrolling, or if this visa questionnaire does not appear, please contact the student immigration team as soon as possible.
Step 3: Pay the visa fee
The immigration application needs to be paid for using the online payment tool in the VU dashboard. The fee must be received before the application can be submitted (to the IND). The online payment tool can take several days to be activated in the VU Dashboard after completion of the visa questionnaire. If the online payment tool does not work, it is possible to transfer the old-fashioned way, using the following bank details:
Account name: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Name of bank: Deutsche Bank
Address of bank: De Entree 99-197, 1101 HE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
IBAN: NL49DEUT0488004470
BIC: DEUTNL2A
When transferring this way, the student's full name and student number (e.g S1234567) must be stated. When paying from abroad, all banking costs are paid by the applicant. Paying both the visa and housing fee in one transaction is possible and recommended.
Step 4: Complete the application in VisaCare
After submitting the visa questionnaire and paying the visa fee, there will be information sent via email regarding access to VisaCare. Log in to VisaCare, check your personal information and if there are any discrepancies, contact the student immigration team. Once the application has been started there will be a To Do page on the VisaCare website which will include more detailed information and is where documents must be uploaded.
The following documents need to be uploaded to complete the residence permit procedure:
- Passport: including signature and any stamped pages. There must be at least 6 months of validity on the passport from the date of application.
- If the MVV will be collected in a country which is not one’s native country, include proof of residency of the country where the MVV will be collected. This is not necessary for those who do not have Dutch representation in their native country.
- Antecedents certificate signed by hand, on paper. We cannot accept digital signatures.
- TB Statement: not all students need to fill in this form, it is dependent on nationality. Note: the TB test is not taken in your home country, but in the Netherlands within 3 months of arrival in the country. Further information will be provided by email in September (for those starting in the 1st semester) and February (students starting in the 2nd semester). The TB test costs €60 (as of 1/1/26, subject to change).
- Proof of financial means. In this manual, detailed information about the requirements from the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) can be found. Please be aware that the current monthly minimum for living expenses is €1200 (as of 1/1/26, subject to change).
The documents which are uploaded need to meet the strict requirements of the IND. If documents do not meet these requirements, the student immigration team will have to reject these documents, and this will slow down the immigration procedure.
Please use this checklist to check if documents are correct.
Step 5: Application sent to the IND
Once all the required documents have been uploaded, reviewed and approved by the immigration team, the application will be sent to the IND. The IND usually takes 2-3 weeks to approve an application. Once VU Amsterdam has received a decision on the application from the IND, we will notify the student of this by email. We will also forward a copy of the official IND approval letter by email as well, which we usually receive around two weeks after the application has been approved.
Step 6: Collection of the MVV (long stay entry visa)
Once the MVV/VVR application has been approved, students must schedule an appointment with the Dutch embassy or consulate that was chosen at the start of their application for collection of the MVV. Students will require their v-number for this, which is included in both the approval email we send and the IND approval letter they receive a few weeks after. The embassy often requires students to bring their IND approval letter with them, so please keep this in mind when scheduling your appointment. Students will provide their biometric information during the appointment (photo and fingerprint). More information about visiting the embassy can be found under step 1 in the To Do list in VisaCare.
Students will have to hand in their passport and the MVV will be placed inside it within 10 working days.
Step 7: Collection of the residence permit
VU Amsterdam will send students a notification once their residence permit is ready to be collected, and this email will contain further information regarding collection location and how to schedule an appointment.
At the end of summer, the IND organises central collection days spread over multiple weekends for all students to collect their residence permit cards. More information about this will be sent directly to the applicable students. Please be aware that it is not allowed for students to schedule separate appointments with the IND to collect their permits in this period. The IND will cancel these appointments.
For students enrolling in February, the residence permit will have to be collected at the IND desk chosen by the student during the initial application process.
Deadline
The deadline for completing steps 1-4 above is 1 June for the fall intake, and 1 December for the spring intake. Please be aware that the application procedure takes about 6-8 weeks, so ensure documents are uploaded in time. Failure to upload documents on time will impact the immigration procedure and could lead to students not being able to start at VU Amsterdam at the desired time, and we might have to ask students to defer their enrolment.
Whilst the immigration team submits the application to the IND, it is always the responsibility of the student to complete the procedure before the deadline and to ensure that documentation provided is correct. Please note that VU Amsterdam cannot guarantee that a residence permit is granted by a certain date, or at all. The procedure cannot be expedited as the IND already prioritises student applications.
Strict requirements of the IND
As an educational institution, VU Amsterdam needs to apply for residence permits for study purposes on behalf of all non-EU students (if they don't have a valid Dutch residence permit already). The university acts as the legal sponsor as soon as the IND has approved the residence permit application. As such, VU Amsterdam is liable and bound by the strict and specific requirements set by the IND. Not meeting these requirements means that VU Amsterdam will not submit the application.
After arrival
For further information on other matters to take care of after arrival in the Netherlands, please visit this page.
After completion of exchange
Once students complete their exchange period at VU Amsterdam (or cut their exchange short), we are obliged to deregister their permits with the IND. As a result, their residence permit will be revoked. Students should keep this in mind when making plans to travel within Europe after their exchange.
Contact
Our contact information can be found at the bottom of this page.