The mvv and TEV procedure: entry and residence in the Netherlands

If you are a non-EU national and want to live in the Netherlands for more than 90 days, you usually need a provisional residence permit, known by its Dutch abbreviation mvv (machtiging tot voorlopig verblijf). You apply for it together with the residence permit in the entry and residence procedure (TEV, Toegang en Verblijf), which the IND decides within 90 days; nationals of countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan are exempt from the mvv but not from the residence permit conditions.

What is an mvv, and what is it not?

An mvv is a long-stay entry visa. It is a type D visa sticker placed in your passport by a Dutch embassy or consulate, and it exists for one purpose: to allow you to travel lawfully to the Netherlands in order to take up residence for longer than 90 days. The Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) describes it as an entry visa for people who want to stay in the Netherlands for more than 90 days.

An mvv is not the residence permit. It does not itself give you the right to live, work or study here. That right comes from the residence permit, which is granted in the same decision and issued as a plastic residence document after you arrive. The mvv is the key that opens the door; the residence permit is what allows you to stay in the room.

An mvv is also not a Schengen short-stay visa. A short-stay visa allows a maximum of 90 days in any 180-day period for tourism, family visits or business, and cannot be used to settle. The mvv, by contrast, is a multiple-entry visa valid throughout the Schengen area, so you may travel to the Netherlands via another Schengen country and, while it remains valid, enter more than once.

In statutory terms, the absence of a valid mvv is a ground on which a regular residence permit for a fixed period may be refused (Article 16 Vreemdelingenwet 2000). The exemptions are set out in Article 17 Vreemdelingenwet 2000 and elaborated in Article 3.71 Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000, which also contains a hardship clause allowing the requirement to be waived where applying it would be unreasonably harsh.

Who needs an mvv, and who does not?

The requirement depends first on nationality, then on your situation. The table below sets out the main categories.

Beyond nationality there are situational exemptions: holders of a valid Dutch residence permit applying for a change of purpose from within the Netherlands, certain minors, and applicants covered by the hardship clause. Turkish nationals occupy a special position because of the standstill provisions of the EEC-Turkey Association Agreement.

Being exempt from the mvv does not mean being exempt from the substantive conditions. A US or UK national still has to meet the income, relationship or employment requirements in full; they simply apply for the residence permit alone, without the mvv, and may travel to the Netherlands before the decision.

How does the TEV procedure work?

TEV stands for entry and residence. It is a single procedure in which the mvv and the residence permit are applied for together and decided in one decision. This is the crucial structural point: you do not apply for an mvv first and a residence permit afterwards. The IND assesses the residence permit conditions, and if they are met it issues a positive decision authorising the embassy to place the mvv sticker.

The application is normally submitted in the Netherlands by the sponsor (referent), not by the applicant abroad. Who may act as sponsor depends on the purpose of stay:

• Family and partner cases: the family member or partner in the Netherlands, who must hold Dutch nationality or a valid Dutch residence permit. Some permit types cannot sponsor at all, including au pair, working holiday, cultural exchange, work experience, seasonal work, seafaring, and residence under the EU-UK Trade and Cooperation Agreement.
• Work cases: the employer, which for the highly skilled migrant scheme and several others must be a recognised sponsor (erkend referent) admitted to the IND public register.
• Study: the educational institution, which must likewise be a recognised sponsor.

A sponsor who is themselves subject to the civic integration obligation must generally have lived in the Netherlands for at least one year on a valid residence permit before bringing a partner over, unless the interests of minor children justify an exception.

Where there is no sponsor, the applicant can lodge the application personally at the Dutch embassy or consulate in their country of residence or origin. This route is slower in practice, because the file travels to the IND for assessment.

What documents do you need, and how are they legalised?

Most delays in TEV cases are documentary, not substantive. Foreign official documents must normally be legalised before the IND or a Dutch municipality will accept them. There are three routes:

• Apostille for documents from states party to the 1961 Hague Apostille Convention: a single certificate from the competent authority in the issuing state.
• Full legalisation for states outside the Convention: a chain running through the issuing state’s own authorities, its ministry of foreign affairs, and finally the Dutch embassy.
• Exemption where a treaty removes the requirement, notably for many public documents circulating within the EU, and for documents from Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Saba and Sint Eustatius, which are recognised in the Netherlands without legalisation.

Documents drawn up in a language other than Dutch, French, German or English must be translated into one of those four languages, and the translation must be made by a translator sworn before a Dutch court.

The civil-status documents that cause the most trouble are birth certificates, marriage or partnership certificates, and certificates of unmarried status or of no impediment to marriage. Recurring problems: a birth certificate that is a recent extract rather than a long-form certificate; a marriage certificate that is legalised but never translated; documents from countries subject to additional verification, where the Dutch mission investigates content as well as form and the file can stall for months. Check the position for your country with the Dutch mission at the outset. Start collecting these documents before anything else: they routinely take longer than the IND decision itself.

Do you need to pass the civic integration exam abroad?

For family migration, the partner or family member abroad must in principle pass the basic civic integration examination (basisexamen inburgering buitenland) before the mvv can be issued. The requirement and its exemptions are set out in Article 3.71a Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000.

The examination is taken at a Dutch embassy or consulate and has three components: reading, speaking and knowledge of Dutch society, examined at level A1. A fee is charged for each component and is payable again where a component is resat; the amounts are fixed by ministerial regulation and published on the website of the Dutch mission that administers the examination. A component may be taken again on its own: there is no requirement that all three be passed in a single sitting.

The main exemptions are:

• nationals of EU, EEA and Swiss states, and of the mvv-exempt countries listed above;
• Turkish nationals, on the basis of the Association Agreement standstill provisions;
• family members of highly skilled migrants, EU Blue Card holders, researchers, intra-corporate transferees and students, because these are not treated as ordinary family migration;
• applicants who hold a qualifying Dutch-language diploma or an equivalent qualification;
• applicants who cannot take the exam for medical or psychological reasons, or for whom preparation would be impossible despite serious effort.

Do not assume an exemption applies to you. The evidential burden sits with the applicant, and a wrongly assumed exemption produces a refusal rather than a request for further information.

How long does the decision take, and what if it is late?

The statutory decision period for a regular residence permit application, including a TEV application, is 90 days (Article 25 Vreemdelingenwet 2000). The IND often decides faster in recognised-sponsor cases and slower in family cases. The period can lawfully be extended, most often where further investigation abroad is needed or where you are asked to supply missing documents. In the latter case the clock is suspended for the period allowed to respond, which is why an incomplete file is expensive in time even when it is eventually cured.

If the time limit passes without a decision, the route is to send a written notice of default (ingebrekestelling), giving the IND a further two weeks to decide. If it still does not decide, you can lodge an appeal for failure to decide with the district court (Article 6:12 Algemene wet bestuursrecht), which can order a decision within a set period and attach a penalty for continued non-compliance. Since 15 April 2025 the IND no longer owes an automatic penalty payment (dwangsom) for a late decision in immigration cases, so the court order is your main pressure point.

What does it cost?

A fee (leges) is payable on every application. The amount depends on the purpose of residence, and the differences between purposes are substantial: work and knowledge-migration categories are charged at a markedly higher rate than family categories, a child joining a parent at a lower one, and Turkish nationals at a reduced rate in family and work categories because of the standstill provisions of the EEC-Turkey Association Agreement.

The amounts are fixed by ministerial regulation, revised on 1 January each year and published in full by residence purpose on ind.nl. Take the figure from that current table rather than an older page, and check whether a separate amount is charged where an mvv is sought without a residence permit. The fee is payable on lodging and is not refunded if the application is refused, only if it is not taken into consideration at all.

How do you collect the mvv and enter the Netherlands?

Once the IND approves, it notifies the sponsor and instructs the Dutch mission abroad. You then book an appointment at the embassy or consulate named in the decision, attend in person, give biometrics (facial image, fingerprints and signature), and have the mvv sticker placed in your passport.

Two deadlines matter. The mvv must be collected within three months of the positive decision, and the mvv sticker itself gives an entry window of 90 days, within which you must actually travel. Missing either deadline means the approval lapses and the application, and the fee, must be repeated.

Your passport must remain valid well beyond the mvv, and its remaining validity is checked at the appointment. On entry, the mvv is presented at the external Schengen border.

What happens after you arrive?

Arriving on an mvv is not the end of the procedure. Four steps follow, and they are sequential in practice:

• Collect the residence document. The IND letter states where and from when the plastic card can be collected. Biometrics already given at the embassy are normally reused.
• Register in the BRP. Registration in the Personal Records Database at the municipality of residence is required for anyone staying longer than four months. An appointment and proof of address are needed, and the legalised civil-status documents are produced again here.
• Receive the citizen service number (BSN). The BSN follows automatically from BRP registration. Without it there is no salary payment, no health insurance, no bank account in practice, and no tax administration.
• Take the tuberculosis test. Where the obligation applies, the test must be taken at the municipal health service within three months of receiving the residence permit, using the referral form supplied with the decision. Nationals of a defined list of low-incidence countries are exempt. That list changes as incidence figures change, so read the exemption against the decision letter and referral form you were sent rather than against a list found elsewhere.

Health insurance is a separate obligation with its own deadline, enforced independently of immigration law.

What can you do about a refusal?

Because the TEV procedure produces one decision, a refusal of the mvv is a refusal of the residence permit application. It is an administrative decision of the IND and is challenged in the ordinary administrative way.

The first step is an objection (bezwaar) to the IND itself, lodged within the statutory time limit, which in immigration matters is four weeks (Article 69 Vreemdelingenwet 2000). The objection must state grounds; a bare notice is possible, but grounds must follow within the period allowed.

If the objection is dismissed, appeal lies to the district court (Article 8:1 Algemene wet bestuursrecht) and, from there, further appeal to the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State. An objection or appeal does not automatically suspend the effect of the decision; where suspension matters, a separate interim relief application is needed.

Often the better response to a refusal is not litigation but a fresh, properly documented application, particularly where the refusal turns on a missing document or an income shortfall that can be cured. Where it turns on the interpretation of a condition, an exemption or the hardship clause, an objection is the right route.

What should you check as the applicant abroad?

As the applicant, you control the documents and the travel deadlines. Check these points before the sponsor files the application.

• Whether your nationality or status really exempts you from the mvv; travelling on a short-stay visa and applying here leads to refusal if an mvv is required.
• Whether your civil-status documents are long-form, apostilled or fully legalised, and translated by a sworn translator.
• Whether you must pass the civic integration exam abroad under Article 3.71a Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000, or can prove an exemption.
• That your passport remains valid well beyond the mvv.
• That you collect the mvv within three months of the decision and travel within the 90-day entry window.

What should you check as the sponsor in the Netherlands?

As the sponsor (referent), you file the application and must meet your own conditions. Check these points before you apply.

• Your residence permit allows you to sponsor; au pair, seasonal work and similar permits do not.
• If you have a civic integration obligation, you have lived here for at least one year on a valid residence permit, unless your minor children’s interests justify an exception.
• Your income is sufficient, independent and durable, with evidence for short contracts or self-employment.
• For work or study, the employer or institution is a recognised sponsor in the IND public register.
• You respond within the period the IND sets when it asks for documents.

What can we do for you with an mvv application?

Our immigration law team handles regular migration from the first document check to the residence card.

• We check whether you need an mvv and whether an exemption or the hardship clause applies.
• We review the civil-status documents and the legalisation route before the file is lodged.
• We prepare and file the TEV application with the IND as or for the sponsor.
• We send the notice of default and file the appeal for failure to decide if the IND exceeds the 90-day period.
• We draft the objection (bezwaar) and file it with the IND within the four-week deadline.

Summary

• The mvv is an entry visa, not the residence permit; the TEV procedure decides both together in one IND decision.
• Whether you need an mvv depends mainly on nationality and, for a defined group, on your existing status in the Netherlands or another EU country.
• Legalisation and translation of foreign documents, and the civic integration exam abroad where it applies, usually take longer than the IND’s own 90-day decision period.
• After a positive decision, you must collect the mvv within three months and travel within the 90-day entry window, or start again.
• A refusal can be met with an objection within four weeks, or, where the problem is curable, a fresh application is often faster.

Frequently asked questions