Your bags are packed. Your flight is booked. You are ready to move to The Netherlands! But wait… there are several things that you will want to make sure you have before you move over.
Documents
There is nothing more important than your documents when you are moving to a new country. But which documents? Do you need to do anything to them?
Visa – EU citizens do not need a visa to visit or move to The Netherlands.
Birth Certificate
Marriage Certificate
Death Certificate
Divorce Certificate
These are the main documents you would require when moving. I can’t think of a scenario where you would need a Death Certificate but it is listed by the Dutch government. Once you have your documents, you will need to get them legalised. This is generally done with an Apostille.
Apostille
An apostille is an official stamp certifying a document. It legalises the document and will tell the Dutch authorities that it is what is claims to be. The most important document to get “apostilled” in your Birth Certificate. Citizens of the United Kingdom can do it through the Legalisation Office and Irish citizens can do it through the Department of Foreign Affairs. You can do this from The Netherlands but the cost of postage will be much higher (it has to be registered post) so doing it before you leave will make life much easier.
Be warned! An apostille has a short validity time. About three months. So do not do it too early!
Other nations can refer to the list of Competent Authorities (i.e. those with the authority to give apostilles) on the website of the Hague Convention on International Private Law
What other document would require an Apostille?
There are other documents that would require an apostille, such as official statements on private deeds that were not made a notary.
Any document that was drawn up by diplomatic or consular employees do not need an apostille.
But what about the Use of Public Documents in the EU? Isn’t there a regulation for that?
Yes, there is. The Regulation on Public Documents (Regulation 2016/1191) came into force on 16 February 2019. The regulation aims at cutting red tape and costs for citizens when they need to present in an EU country a public document issued in another EU country. You can see what documents can be done via this here but in short it covers the documents listed above.
However, this is not for citizens to do ourselves. You can request the issuing authority (i.e. the government authority for Births) to issue a multilingual standard form to accompany the public document.
Passport
Ensure your passport has at least six months validity remaining on it. This is good practice anyway, but if you are moving country it is especially important.
Being Dutched 