Marrying a Dutch citizen or a Dutch resident does not make you Dutch, and it does not by itself let you move. What it opens is an application for a residence permit to live with your partner. Here is what that application actually requires, what it costs, and the conditions people most often get wrong.<\/p>\n
This is the distinction to start with, because the two are often run together. Marriage gives you a route to a residence permit<\/em>. Dutch nationality is a separate process, applied for later, with its own conditions including a period of legal residence and an integration requirement.<\/p>\n So the realistic goal of the application below is the right to live in the Netherlands with your spouse or registered partner. Everything else follows from that, years later.<\/p>\n The requirements are not complicated, but they are strict.<\/p>\n The income condition is the one that most often decides a case, because it is assessed against the sponsor’s actual, documented earnings rather than an estimate.<\/p>\n If you are coming from outside the EU and intend to stay longer than 90 days<\/strong>, you will normally need an MVV<\/a> \u2014 a provisional residence permit, effectively the entry visa that lets you come and collect the residence permit itself.<\/p>\n Not everyone needs one. Citizens of Australia, Canada, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Vatican City, the UK, the USA, South Korea, Switzerland and the EU\/EEA are exempt. Iranian nationals are not on that list<\/strong>, so for most readers of this page the MVV is the first step rather than an optional one.<\/p>\n Translation and legalisation take longer than people expect, and they sit on the critical path. Start them before you start anything else.<\/p>\n Depending on your nationality and situation, you may have to pass the basic civic integration exam at a Dutch embassy before the MVV is issued. It covers Dutch language at a basic level and knowledge of Dutch society, and it carries its own fee, set separately from the IND’s.<\/p>\n Check whether it applies to you before you budget, because it is a separate cost and a separate timetable.<\/p>\n IND fees are revised on 1 January each year. Translation, legalisation and insurance are on top, and they are frequently larger in total than the fee itself.<\/p>\n With the MVV you travel to the Netherlands, and then apply to the IND for the residence permit itself. You register with your municipality, and you collect the residence card.<\/p>\n The permit is granted for a set period and renewed while the conditions still hold. After a continuous period of legal residence \u2014 normally five years \u2014 permanent residence becomes a separate application. The IND sets the validity and renewal terms, so confirm the current rules with them rather than relying on a figure from an article.<\/p>\n Two things are worth knowing before anyone spends money. The income requirement is assessed on the sponsor, so it is the Dutch partner’s paperwork that usually determines the outcome. And the process is documentary throughout: the IND decides on what is filed, and the most common reason for delay is a document that is missing, untranslated or inconsistent with another one.<\/p>\n Check the current fee and conditions on the IND’s own pages before committing to anything.<\/p>\n Marrying a Dutch citizen or resident does not make you Dutch and does not by itself let you move \u2014 it opens an application for a residence permit. Both partners must be at least 21, the sponsor’s income is what usually decides the case, the IND fee is \u20ac\u06f2\u06f5\u06f4, and anyone staying longer than 90 days who is not on the exemption list needs an MVV first. Iranian nationals are not exempt.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":28034,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-immigration-to-netherlands"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28033"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28033\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28037,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28033\/revisions\/28037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/avalvisa.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The conditions both of you have to meet<\/h2>\n
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The MVV: the first step for most applicants<\/h2>\n
Documents for the MVV application<\/h2>\n
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The civic integration exam abroad<\/h2>\n
What it costs<\/h2>\n
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\n \nFee<\/a><\/th>\n Amount<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n \n IND application, residence with a partner (married or unmarried)<\/td>\n €254<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Extension of the same permit<\/td>\n €254<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n \n Civic integration exam abroad<\/td>\n Set separately by the Dutch government<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n After you arrive<\/h2>\n
What this route gives you<\/h2>\n
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Before you start<\/h2>\n
Common questions<\/h2>\n
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