A total of 17,870 applications for residence to study in the Netherlands have been received by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) up to this point. Of the total, nearly 14,000 have been granted with a positive response up to this point.
The recent figures show that the number of foreign students from outside the European Union applying for a residency permit to study in the Netherlands continues to increase notably.
The data for residence permits only involve foreign students from outside the EU countries, Liechtenstein as well as Norway, Switzerland, and Iceland, as their residents are not required to hold a residency permit in order to study in the Netherlands. However, they are required to hold a valid passport or travel document.
“Most of the students who opt for the Netherlands come from China, India, the United States, Turkey, and Indonesia. Up to and including July, the IND received approximately 1,200 more applications than the year before,” IND noted.
This means that a total of 17,870 residency applications were filed by potential students located outside the EU, up from 1,6630 registered in 2022 and 14,970 in 2021.
In addition, the head of IND, Rhodia Mass, said that more applications are still expected.
“We know when the peak in study applications occurs so that we can organize our work accordingly. Despite that, it remains a tough job to process all requests in such a short period of time, especially with the increasing number of students,” Mess noted.
According to the NL Times, the IND approves 98 per cent of these applications. The increased approval rate comes after applications for a residency permit to study can only be made by a recognized sponsor, the educational institution that the student has applied to, which makes the initial assessment of whether the student meets the residency conditions.
In addition, as a result of a large number of residency permits that have been granted, the IND announced that it organised central pickup times.
“Students can collect their residency permit on Saturday, September 2, or Sunday, October 7, at the Jaarbeurs in Utrecht. Students from various educational institutions in the Groningen and Maastricht region do not have to come to Utrecht; they will receive their residence document in the region,” the IND noted.
In spite of the fact that the IND receives a large number of applications, last year, the IND paid a total of €2.4 million in penalty payments through the Temporary IND Suspension Penalties Act.
