Waiting for the decision on your application for family reunification

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It may take some time for the IND to process your application

When the IND starts your application depends on the date of your application. And on the family members for whom you have applied for family reunification. Do you want to know how long it will take for the IND to process your application for family reunification? On the website of the IND you can find more information about in Dutch and in English.

There is still something missing from the application

Even when the IND is processing your application, more time may be needed for assessment. For example, because something is still missing. Or because there is a lot of time between the application and the processing of your application. The IND will then send you a letter. This is a letter requesting you to supplement your application with certain documents which are still missing. You must respond to this letter within 4 weeks. The IND may also ask questions in the letter. The questions are about you and your family members, and are therefore different for everyone.

Examples include:

• In your application, you indicated that your family members lost the passport. A lot of time has passed in the meantime. The IND wants to know what you have done in the meantime to get a passport or other identity document.

• In your application, you mentioned that your family members never had documents. The IND wants to know why this is so and how your family member managed in the country of origin in daily life without documents.

• You provided a brief explanation of how your family member depends on you. The IND wants more explanation about this.

Further investigation is needed: detailed investigation

It may also be the case that the IND will take longer to process your application if, according to the IND, there is insufficient evidence that your family members are really your family members. Or that it is insufficiently clear that they really depend on you (or vice versa). If the IND thinks so, you will receive a letter from the IND stating how much extra time the IND needs. The IND will then do further investigation. The letter from the IND tells you exactly what the detailed investigation looks like. There are two options:

• The IND wants to do

  DNA testing
  to prove the family relationship between you and your family members. You as the 'referent' (applicant) of the family reunification must make your own appointment for the delivery of DNA material at the IND desk in The Hague. Your family members will be called by the
  International Organisation for Migration (IOM)
  or the Dutch embassy to make an appointment to donate DNA. Sometimes this is in the country of origin, sometimes in a neighbouring country.

• The IND wants to hold a video hearing with your family members. Your family members must then go to an office of the

  UNHCR
  or to the Dutch Embassy. The IND will then ask your family members, for example, questions about their daily lives, work and relationships and whether or not they can take care of themselves. And if they cannot, the IND wants to know why not. And what the main reason is for wanting to live in the Netherlands.

Do you have any questions?

Do you have questions about a letter from the IND or the detailed investigation? Or do your family members not manage to travel to a neighbouring country (in time) for the detailed investigation appointment? If so, please contact the IND.

As of 1 December 2025, you can call the 'nareislijn' (post-travel line) Monday to Friday from 09:00 to 16:30. The phone number is 088 - 0430400. You can call this phone number of the IND if you have questions about your application for family reunification. You can call in Dutch or English. The phone number is also on the IND's contact page as of 1 December. View this page in Dutch

If you submitted your application before 1 December 2025 and are staying in the reception centre, or have a VWN contact in the municipality where you live, please contact

After the IND has made a decision on your application, you will receive the decision in a letter. This decision is either positive or negative:

• Positive decision: your family member may come to the Netherlands.

• Negative decision: your family member may not come to the Netherlands.

Has the IND approved your application for family reunification? If so, you will receive a letter from the IND. That letter will tell you what to do next.

In your application, you specified an embassy to which your family members can travel upon a positive decision to pick up their visa. This visa is called a

If there is no Dutch embassy in your country of origin, your family member will have to go to a neighbouring country where there is a Dutch embassy. The IND will inform you about this.

After arriving in the Netherlands, your family member will receive the residence permit.

Has the IND not approved your application for family reunification? Then your family member will not receive a visa to come to the Netherlands. You can appeal the decision of the IND. This is best done with the help of a lawyer.

In objection to the IND decision

If you have received a negative decision, a lawyer can appeal on your behalf. Contact a lawyer as soon as possible. In fact, objections must be filed within 4 weeks after you receive the negative decision on your application for family reunification.

• Did you file your application for family reunification before 1 December 2025, are you staying in the reception centre and need a lawyer to appeal, but do not know where to find one? Or do you have housing in the municipality? Then make an appointment with someone from VWN on this page on RefugeeHelp. VWN may be able to refer you.

• Have you filed your application for family reunification after 1 December 2025, are you living in the reception centre or in a municipality that does not have a VWN and need a lawyer to appeal, but do not know where to find one? Het Juridisch Loket can refer you to a lawyer

  .