Corona and immigration / the IND

The corona crisis has a major human, emotional and societal impact. In addition to the many deaths that are to be mourned, there are still thousands of people in our hospitals, many of whom are in life-threatening conditions. This crisis is unparalleled in modern history.

We have been working from home for almost a month and the same goes for the government. This also applies to the IND and our foreign representatives, such as embassies and consulates. The IND has indicated that application procedures are not a vital process wherefore no risks are taken with regard to infection with the virus.

Therefore, the IND has announced that it will only deal with urgent matters at its branches. And that has consequences for you if an application or notification is currently pending on behalf of your organisation at the IND. In the near future, this will require a visit to an IND branch or an Expat Centre (which provides IND services). The IND branches are closed at least until April 28, 2020 (this includes the IND activities via the Expat Centres). As a result, all appointments already made will lapse and it will only become possible to schedule appointments at the IND counters or Expat Centres again – provided that nothing changes in the meantime – from 29 April 2020; one or more extensions cannot be excluded. For the time being it is therefore impossible to already make an appointment for the near future. When this becomes possible again, we will of course immediately follow this up for you.

For now, it is important that the foreign national can demonstrate that he/she may legally reside in the Netherlands and may legally perform work. Normally this can be done on the basis of a residence document or a sticker in the passport. Due to the fact that the IND branches and IND departments are closed via the Expat Centres, it is not possible to obtain such documents. How then is a foreign national to demonstrate that he/she may still legally reside and/or work in the Netherlands? Simple: allow us to first determine whether the foreign national is allowed to continue working in the Netherlands during the procedure, and ensure that the foreign national with a pending application procedure has a copy of the application packet with him or her, while he/she is already in the Netherlands or a copy of the confirmation of receipt from the IND and, if the IND has already decided on the application, a copy of this decision.

We will of course follow this closely, inform you when necessary and act timeously to complete everything as soon as possible. The request is therefore not to contact the IND yourself, as they are less accessible by telephone.

We would like to refer you to the special corona web pages of the IND in which much information is given and many questions are answered. Please  feel free to contact us if you would like to exchange thoughts on this or anything else.