When you already have a Dutch residence permit for some other purpose (for example as a highly skilled migrant, stay with family member or au pair) but wish to change to a residence permit for study purposes, then please follow the procedure below.
If you do not wish to change the purpose of your residence permit,please upload a copy of your current residence permit (front and back side) in your VU Dashboard so your residence permit can be verified by the Student Desk. Please check step 2 below for more information.
Please note that if you have not been (conditionally) admitted yet or still have deficiencies, you won't be able to start the residence permit application process. However, if you have a Dutch residence permit for a purpose other than study and don't need to apply for one, you can forward the copy of your permit to the Student Desk beforehand by emailing it to studentdesk@vu.nl.
How to apply
In order to apply for a Change of Purpose of Stay, please follow the steps below.
Step 1: Confirm your participation
The visa section in your VU Dashboard on vu.nl will only open once you confirmed your participation in the study programme. You have to confirm your participation in your dashboard in the COMPLETE APPLICATION section.
Step 2: Submit the online visa form in your VU Dashboard
Now that you confirmed your participation, the visa section will become available in the COMPLETE APPLICATION section of your dashboard. Here you can fill out the visa form which is a short questionnaire.Please indicate that you already hold a Dutch residence permit for another purpose, and what the expiry date of your residence permit is.You can then indicate whether you would like to apply for a student residence permit or not. If you do, please select 'yes' and continue on to step 3 below.
If you don't, please select 'no' and upload a copy of your current residence permit (front and back) so that the Student Desk can verify it. In this case you don't have to follow the next steps outlined below, as the Student Desk will inform you that your residency status has been verified. If you're having trouble uploading the copy of your permit, you can email it to the Student Desk.
Step 3: Pay the visa fee
Students need to pay for their residence permit by using the online payment tool in their VU Dashboard. We need to have received the fee before we can submit the application. The costs are specified as follows:
- Residence permit (VVR) costs €275*.
- Residence permit (VVR) when you have a valid residence permit of a Schengen member state costs €275*.
- Extension residence permit (VVR) for study purposes costs €275*.
* These fees are valid as of 1 January 2024 and are subject to change.
We strongly recommend that you use the online payment tool in VU Dashboard to transfer the visa fee.Please note that it may take a few days before the tool is activated in your Dashboard after you have started the residence permit procedure. In case you wish to transfer the fee the old-fashioned way, the bank details are as follows:
Account name: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
Name of bank: Deutsche Bank
Address of bank: De Entree 99-197, 1101 HE Amsterdam, The Netherlands
IBAN: NL49DEUT0488004470
BIC: DEUTNL2A
Please state your name and S+ student number (e.g. s1234567).When paid from abroad, all banking costs are to be paid by the applicant. You can pay your visa and housing fee in one transaction.
Step 4: Complete your application in VisaCare
After submitting the visa form and paying the visa fee you will receive an email from us with instructions on how to access VisaCare. You will need to log in to VisaCare and check your student details. You can then proceed to your To Do's page where you will need to upload your visa documents.
The following documents are needed to complete your immigration procedure:
- Copy passportincluding your signature and any stamped pages. Your passport needs to be valid for at least 6 more months.
- Copy of yourcurrent Dutch residence permit(front and back side).
- Antecedents certificatesigned by hand (on paper). At 2.4 you have to fill in your date of signing, not your date of birth again.
- Proof of financial means.Inthis manual,you will find detailed information and the requirements concerning the proof of financial means. In the case of a sponsor, the sponsor(s) need(s) to sign the Financial Statement form, which you can findhere. Please be aware that the current monthly minimum for the living expenses is€1400 (as of 1-1-2024).
- Finally, your International Student Advisor needs to have verified your English language test results before we can submit the visa application to the IND. Therefore please make sure that your English test results are received by VU Amsterdam before 1 June as well.
The documents do need to meet some strict requirements so please make sure that they do before you upload them in your personal dashboard on vu.nl. You can usethis checklistto double-check that your documents are correct. We strongly recommend that you do so. N.B. your documents cannot be older than 2 months. Additionally, we can only accept documents in English. Documents in any other language will have to be translated into English by an official and certified translator. Finally, please note that we only accept PDF files. We will reject the documents if they are uploaded in any other type of format.
Deadline
The deadline for completing the residence permit procedure is 1 June for the first semester and 1 December for the second semester. Please keep in mind that the application procedure takes approximately 6 to 8 weeks, so please make sure you upload your documents in time!
N.B. While we have to submit the application to the IND, it is at all times your own responsibility to complete the procedure before the deadline and to provide documents that are correct. Please also note that VU Amsterdam cannot guarantee that a residence permit is granted by a certain date, or at all. The timeline as sketched under the section INTRODUCTION: TYPES OF IMMIGRATION PROCEDURES AND TIMELINE depends on how quickly you correctly submit your documents, and the time it takes for the IND to process your application. As a result, VU Amsterdam can never guarantee that your residence permit will be approved by a certain date. The procedure cannot be expedited as all applications are already submitted using the priority procedure for students.
