Residence permit for orientation year

Conditions you must meet

• Meet the general requirements that apply to everyoneIND links a separate general-requirements page, not a registered source.
• ONE of the qualifying situations must apply — they are alternatives, not a checklistThe structural point of this permit. IND lists four alternative routes (Dutch degree, Erasmus Mundus master's, scientific research in the Netherlands, or a foreign degree from a top-ranked institution). An applicant needs ONE, not all. Recording them as parallel conditions would imply otherwise.
• A subject ranking must be for your own study or research subjectIND also allows combining a general ranking with a subject ranking, provided they are from different publishers.
• The master's, doctoral or post-master's programme must have been in English or Dutch
• Foreign diplomas must be evaluated by Nuffic before they are acceptedIND exempts diplomas from accredited programmes in Flanders, Belgium, provided the programme is in the Flanders higher education register.
• A valid provisional residence permit (mvv) is needed
• Foreign documents must be legalised and translated into Dutch, English, French or German
• Pay no later than 3 weeks after your appointment, and wait a week after itA two-sided timing window that is easy to miss: not before one week, not after three.

Documents you must provide

• The application form lists the documents you need

Government fees

• Application feeEUR 254Excerpt preserves IND's own broken word ('f ees') where a link splits it.

Also stated by the authority

Not requirements in themselves. These are alternatives, exemptions, rights and warnings the authority publishes alongside the requirements — quoted here because they can change what applies to you.

• Route: scientific research in the Netherlands in the 3 years before applyingOne of the alternative routes. Not officially required in itself — see one_qualifying_situation. IND adds that the contract job code from the university job classification system (UFO) must start with 01 to count as scientific research.
• Route: a master's degree from an Erasmus Mundus joint programme in the last 3 years
• Route: an accredited Dutch bachelor's or master's, or a post-master's of at least 10 months
• Route: a foreign degree from an institution in the top 200 of at least 2 of 3 named rankingsThe three publishers are Times Higher Education, Quacquarelli Symonds (QS) and ShanghaiRanking Consultancy. A live external test, assessed as at the graduation date — not a static list.
• A further orientation year is possible after each new qualifying programme or research projectRecorded because people assume this permit is once-only. IND requires the new qualification to post-date the previous orientation year.