nawc residency

North American Women's Club of Eindhoven, The Netherlands

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Residency in the Netherlands

Welcome to the world of bureaucracy. You get to go through the process of applying for an annually renewable residence permit. After five years or residency, you can apply for the five-year Vergunning tot vestiging (Permission to remain). Your employer should be able to help you maneuver through this process.

Non-EU citizens are required to register with the aliens police (vreemdelingenpolitie) within five business days of arrival. Look under politie in the phone book. At this meeting the police will put the necessary stamp in your passport stating that you are applying for residency.

Once you have registered with the police, you'll need to go to the local town hall (stadhuis or gemeentehuis) to put yourself on the population register (bevolkingsregister), even if you do not have a fixed address. At this point you must have all the necessary identity papers as well as two passport photographs. In particular you must have your birth certificate, and your marriage/divorce certificate.

All official documents from the U.S. must have an apostille. This is a special stamped paper, which is attached to your birth/marriage/death certificates. Check with the state where your records are kept to find out how to get an apostille.

You'll be asked back to the Vreemdelingenpolitie at a later date to get your identification/ resident card. At that meeting you'll need to bring all of your official documents such as passports, birth/marriage/divorce certificates, housing contract (lease or purchase agreement) work permit and employee contract/agreement. You'll also need to provide two passport photos of each person in your family applying for residency.

Your residency permit is good for one year. Each year before the expiration date , you must make an appointment with the vreemdelingenpolitie to reapply for your annual residency. If you fail to do so, you may face stiff fines and maybe even deportation.

For information about club activities/membership contact dn.belt.@chello.nl

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