The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has now implemented the new Modern Migration Policy Act, effectively re-organising the procedure and some rules for immigrants looking to move or remain in the Netherlands.

Streamlined procedure

The act, which was announced earlier this year, is effectively a re-organisation of the old system in order to make the process more streamlined.

Key changes include the transference of responsibility to the sponsors of migrants in the Netherlands. Institutions or employers are now able to apply for residency permits for their employees and will be responsible for the maintaining of their employee’s dossiers.

Furthermore, both the provisional residency permit application (MVV) and the regular residency permit application (VVR) have been combined into one procedure.

Extensions & Transfers

Depending on the purpose of your stay in the Netherlands, many residency permits will have their validity extended so that in some cases migrants may not have to apply as often.

If your sponsor changes during your stay in the Netherlands, it is now also possible to simply change the details of your sponsor instead of re-applying for a new permit.

Penalties

The transference of responsibility to sponsors has allowed the IND to take a step back from the forefront of residency applications, allowing it to act more as a supervisor of the process.

This new role has also allowed the IND to increase its enforcement of penalties upon sponsors who fail to abide by the regulations, with some fines running into the thousands.