The mvv and the TEV procedure: how entry and residence in the Netherlands actually works

Almost every application made from outside the Netherlands runs through the same gate: the provisional residence permit, known by its Dutch abbreviation mvv (machtiging tot voorlopig verblijf), applied for through the entry and residence procedure, or TEV (Toegang en Verblijf). This article explains what an mvv is, who needs one, who does not, how the TEV procedure works, and what commonly goes wrong.

What an mvv is, and what it is 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 plainly as an entry visa intended 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 the 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, and 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.

The TEV procedure and the role of the sponsor

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 and several other schemes 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.

The contrast with an application without an mvv is straightforward. An mvv-exempt applicant travels to the Netherlands first and applies here; there is no embassy stage and no travel window to manage.

Documents, legalisation and translation

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 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. Which countries those are is a designation that is revised from time to time, so establish the position for the country in question with the Dutch mission that will handle the documents, at the outset of the file rather than when the application stalls. Start collecting these documents before anything else. They routinely take longer than the IND decision itself.

The basic civic integration examination 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 (Article 3.98a Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000). Each component costs €50, so €150 where all three are sat. A component can be taken again; there is no requirement that all three be passed in a single sitting (Article 3.98d Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000).

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. The evidential burden sits with the applicant, and a wrongly assumed exemption produces a refusal rather than a request for further information.

Decision periods, the statutory time limit and delay

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 the applicant is 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, an appeal for failure to decide may be lodged with the district court (Article 6:12 Algemene wet bestuursrecht), which can order a decision within a set period and attach a penalty for non-compliance. No administrative penalty payment accrues on top of that: under the Wet afschaffing dwangsomregeling the penalty payment for late decisions is abolished for immigration cases generally, not only for asylum, so the court-imposed penalty is the only financial lever.

Fees

Fees (leges) are set annually and change on 1 January. For 2026 the principal amounts are:

• residence with a family member or partner: €254; child under 18 joining a parent: €85;
• highly skilled migrant, EU Blue Card, and residence with a single permit for work: €423;
• orientation year for graduates and researchers: €254;
• Turkish nationals, family and work categories: €85, reflecting the standstill provisions.

Those are the amounts that come up most often, not the whole table. The complete list by residence purpose — study among them — is published on ind.nl and replaced on 1 January each year, and it is also the place to 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.

Collecting the mvv, the travel window and entry

Once the IND approves, it notifies the sponsor and instructs the Dutch mission abroad. The applicant then books an appointment at the embassy or consulate named in the decision, attends in person, gives biometrics (facial image, fingerprints and signature), and has the mvv sticker placed in the 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.

The 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. A point of common confusion is worth settling here: the EU Entry/Exit System, which began operating progressively on 12 October 2025 and reached full operation on 10 April 2026, does not apply to holders of long-stay visas or residence permits (article 2 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226). An mvv is a long-stay visa, so entry on one is not registered in that system, and the border formalities for an arriving mvv holder are not those described for short-stay travellers.

After arrival

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.
• 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. The list is fixed by nationality in the immigration rules and is amended as incidence figures change, so read the exemption against the decision letter and the referral form issued with it rather than against a list found elsewhere.

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

Refusal and the remedies against it

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, objection is the right route.

The most common practical mistakes

• Travelling to the Netherlands on a short-stay visa and then applying. Where an mvv is required, presence in the country does not remove the requirement, and the application is refused on that ground alone.
• Assuming an exemption. Nationality-based exemption, EU-law family status and diploma-based exemption from the civic integration exam are all narrower than they appear.
• Leaving legalisation to last. Apostille and full legalisation chains run on foreign timetables that no Dutch deadline can compress.
• Missing the collection or travel deadline after a positive decision, which forces the whole application to be made and paid for again.
• Sponsor income measured wrongly. Income must be sufficient, independent and durable; short contracts, variable income and self-employment need careful evidencing rather than optimistic arithmetic.
• Silence when the IND asks for documents. The response period is short and the consequence of missing it is a refusal, not a reminder.