Arriving in the Netherlands to study

First: where is your passport from

This single answer changes several of the rules below, so it is worth settling before anything else.

If you are from the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, you do not need a residence permit and you do not need a work permit. You can work as many hours as you like.

If you are from anywhere else, your university normally applies for your student permit. That permit limits your working hours, and an employer has to apply for a work permit for you.

• ›The EEA is the EU plus Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.
• ›Switzerland has its own agreement with the Netherlands, with the same effect.
• ›If you are British and were living here before 2021, the Brexit withdrawal agreement gives you similar rights.

Register with your gemeente

This part is the same for everyone. If you live here for longer than four months, you have to register with your gemeente within five days of arriving. That appointment is how you get a BSN.

Almost nothing else can start without a BSN. No salary, no health insurance policy, no DigiD.

The five days and the appointment calendar do not agree. In the bigger student cities the first free appointment is often weeks away. Book the earliest one you can get on the day you land, then carry on with the tasks that do not need the number yet.

• ›Bring your passport, proof of your address, and a legalised birth certificate. Getting an apostille from your home country is much harder once you have moved.
• ›Staying for less than four months, or living in Belgium or Germany and travelling in? Then you register through the RNI instead. Not every city has an RNI desk.

How many hours you may work

This section is for students from outside the EU. If you are from the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, none of it applies to you. You may work as much as you want, and no employer needs a permit for you.

On a student permit you may work a set number of hours a week during term, and full time in the summer months. Your employer applies for the work permit, before your first day. If they skip it, the fine is theirs. That is why some employers say no to international students rather than find out how it works.

Placements have their own rule. A placement that is a required, unpaid part of your course needs no work permit. A paid job or a paid placement does, however short it is.

Whether you need Dutch health insurance

This part is the same for everyone, from the EU or not. While you only study, insurance from your home country is often enough, and Dutch basic insurance does not apply to you.

As soon as you take any paid work, even a few hours a week, you have to take Dutch basic insurance. You get four months to arrange it. Those four months are counted from the day the duty started rather than the day you notice it.

Your policy is backdated to that first day. So waiting does not save you a premium. It builds up a bill.

If a letter arrives telling you to insure yourself, and you think you are exempt, ask for a free assessment. That is the document that settles it.

Student housing is a waiting list

The student housing organisations give out most rooms by how long you have been on their list. So join every list you can on the day your university accepts you. Joining in August for a September start is too late.

Ask your university international office early. Incoming international students often get first-year rooms that never appear on the public list.

• ›Never send a deposit for a room you have not seen in person or on a live video call. Fake adverts target new students in every Dutch student city.

Money you may be able to claim

Students from the EU who work enough hours each month can claim DUO student finance. They can also claim the student travel product, which makes public transport free or cheaper.

You claim both with your DigiD. DigiD needs your BSN, and your BSN needs your gemeente appointment. That chain is why it pays to start early.

Your first calendar year here also has its own tax return, called the M-form. If you had a part-time job, tax was probably taken from your pay as though you earned that amount all year. If you arrived partway through the year, too much was usually taken, and you can claim it back.

What happens after you graduate

If you are from outside the EU, you can apply for an orientation year. It gives you twelve months to find work, and during it no employer needs a permit to hire you.

You can apply for a few years after you finish your course rather than only in the weeks after the ceremony. It is worth knowing your own deadline while you still have time to use it.

If you are from the EU, you do not need any of this. You can simply stay and work.