Initial registration in the Netherlands

When you move to the Netherlands for the first time, you need to register in the Personal Records Database (BRP). You register with the municipality where you will be living. This is called 'initial registration'. This is how you obtain a Citizen Service Number (in Dutch: 'burgerservicenummer', BSN). You will need this BSN, for example, if you want to work in the Netherlands or open a bank account.

If you have lived in the Netherlands before but moved abroad before October 1994, you also need to do an 'initial registration'.

After your arrival in the Netherlands, you must register within 5 working days.

The requirements for an initial registration in the Netherlands are:

• You have a Dutch nationality, or a passport from an EU/EEA country, 
• or you have a residence permit for a certain or indefinite period of time. 
• You will be living in the Netherlands for more than 4 months. 

This is how you make your initial registration in the Netherlands:

• Come to the municipality in person. All individuals who are moving with you should also come in person. 

Bring with you: 

• Your valid identity document (showing your nationality). 
• Proof that you have a place to live, such as a rental contract or proof of ownership. 
  • If you are moving in with someone: written permission from the main occupant (pdf, 34 kB) and a copy of the main occupant's valid identification document.
• If you were not born in the Netherlands: your birth certificate. 
• If you do not have a European nationality: proof that the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND) has approved your stay. 
• If you come from Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten, Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, or Saba: a moving notice if applicable, the following certificates: 
  • a  marriage or divorce certificate; 
  • a death certificate of your partner (as proof that the marriage was dissolved due to death);
  • birth certificates of your children.

If you have a proof of deregistration from the previous country, please bring that as well. 

Are the requested documents not in Dutch, English, German, or French? And you do not have a multilingual model form? Then you will need to have them translated.

If the translator is sworn in the Netherlands, you do not need to legalize the translation. If the translator is sworn outside of the Netherlands, you will need to re-legalize the original document(s) in the Netherlands. You can find more information about this on netherlandsworldwide.nl.

• Information about registration in the Personal Records Database (BRP)
• Information about legalization of foreign documents, per country

The Netherlands aims to generously accommodate refugees from Ukraine. Therefore, different rules apply to them.