Bringing your foreign partner back to the Netherlands: what the IND asks

You have lived in Bangkok, Cape Town or Houston for ten years, you got married there, and now you are going to the Netherlands together. You are Dutch. That seems enough. It is not: for your partner an application to the IND starts here, and that application sets requirements for you.

This is the part of a return that takes longest and goes wrong most often. So start with it, and not with the mover.

First: which passport does your partner hold?

If your partner holds the nationality of a country of the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, free movement applies. Your partner does not have to report to the IND. They do register with the municipality and take out health insurance within four months, just like you.

If your partner holds a passport from outside the EU, the rest of this article is for you both.

The ordinary route: residence permit as a partner

Your partner applies for a residence permit to stay with you. If a provisional residence permit (mvv) is needed, the two go in one application. The conditions in brief:

• You are both 21 years or older.
• You will live together in the Netherlands and register at the same address with the municipality.
• Before the application your partner passes the civic integration exam abroad: reading, speaking and knowledge of Dutch society. The full exam costs € 150.
• You have independent, sustainable and sufficient income.

The application costs € 254 in fees, and the IND has a decision period of ninety days. After a positive decision your partner makes an appointment within three months at the Dutch embassy or consulate to collect the mvv.

Holders of the nationality of, among others, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, the United States or South Korea do not need an mvv, and then no civic integration exam abroad either.

The income requirement is where it gets stuck

For the second half of 2026 the required amount is € 2,337.00 gross per month, excluding holiday allowance. The amount changes every half year.

Sufficient is not enough: the income must also be sustainable. It is if your employment contract still runs for at least twelve months at the moment of the application. If you do not have that, the IND looks back three years and you must have earned enough on average over that period. And it must be independent: income from work that is permitted. Social assistance does not count.

Here is the pitfall for returners. Whoever gives notice abroad, moves to the Netherlands and then starts looking for work has no twelve-month contract at the moment of the application. Your partner then cannot come right away. The order that works is the other way round: first the Dutch contract, then the application, then the move.

Whether you can already submit the application as a sponsor while you still live abroad yourself, and how the IND weighs a foreign contract, is not on the IND's pages. Ask the IND before you plan.

Back from another EU country: a different test

If you lived together in another country of the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, there is a second way. Whoever made use of free movement there takes that right back with them. The IND then assesses under EU law instead of under the Dutch rules for family migration.

The conditions: you lived together there for at least three consecutive months under the European residence rules, and you genuinely had a family life there. The verification costs € 85, the IND decides within six months, and the document is valid for five years.

The IND looks at the facts: a rental contract, work, a registration, a life together. An address on paper is not residence.

After arrival

Your partner registers with the municipality within five days, just like you, and takes out health insurance within four months. On registration your partner gets a citizen service number. For a marriage concluded abroad the municipality wants to see the certificate, legalised or with an apostille, and you arrange that in the country of issue, before you leave.

What you take from this

Your partner's permit determines your planning, not the other way round. Count on months, start with the exam and the contract, and when in doubt ask an immigration lawyer: this is the one part of a return where a mistake keeps a family apart.

The Vertrekklaar return plan puts this step first if you indicate that your partner has no EU passport, with the rest of your return behind it, on your own arrival date.