This is how you get a personal number (BSN) to handle your affairs in the Netherlands

You need your personal

Dutch citizen service number (BSN)

If you have been in the Netherlands for more than 6 months, apply for a BSN yourself. You do this as follows:

Register with the municipality.

You can register for free with the municipality in which you live. This is called the Dutch population register (BRP). You have to go to a special counter of the municipality to do this. This is called the 'BRP-straat'. You can find these at the five locations of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). You can find these locations in:

• Hoofddorp

• Ter Apel

• Budel

• Zevenaar

• Den Bosch

You will automatically receive a letter with your BSN from the government.

Usually you will receive this number within 4 weeks of registering.

Please note that there is currently a longer than normal waiting period for registration in the BRP. People who have already received an asylum residence permit are given priority for registration in the BRP.

Sometimes it is possible to get priority registration through an emergency process. This urgent process is for:

• People with an asylum residence permit who have already found work

• People with a residence permit asylum who are offered housing

• People who need a BSN for medical reasons

• People with a

  

  work permit (TWV)
  whose identity is known to the IND.

Through the information desk at a Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) location, you can apply to be considered for urgent registration in the BRP by a 'BRP-straat'.

You cannot register in the BRP if any of the following situations apply to you:

• You fall under the Dublin procedure

• You come from a country that is considered a safe country by the Netherlands

• You already have a residence permit in another country within the European Union

• Your identity has not yet been established by the IND.