• Information: European Union (EU) / European Economic Area (EEA)
• Information residence permit
  • How to open a bank account
  • How to arrange health insurance
  • How to register at City Hall
  • Arranging a return visa
  • Working alongside your studies
  • How to change your address
  • Extending the residence permit
  • The alternative residence permit for exchange students from Canada, Australia or New Zealand
  • The tuberculosis (TBC) test
• Information entry visa
• Information for students of Maastricht University

The alternative residence permit for exchange students from Canada, Australia or New Zealand

Exchange students from Canada, Australia and New-Zealand can choose a cheaper and easier way to spend their exchange period in the Netherlands. Canadians can make use of the so-called Working Holiday Program (WHP) and Australians and New-Zealanders of the so-called Working Holiday Scheme (WHS).

First and foremost you should consider the consequences of this procedure:

1. The UM Visa Office is not allowed to act on your behalf in this procedure, so you will have to do it all by yourself.
2. The residence permit is valid for a maximum of one year. Once applied for it cannot be extended.
3. It is a single opportunity. Once used, you can never apply for this same permit again.
   

These are also the reasons why the Dutch embassies in Canada, Australia and New-Zealand have frequently discouraged the use of the WHP and WHS for an exchange study period. So if you wish to use this option, we strongly advise you to not consult the Dutch embassy on this subject and simply travel to the Netherlands with all required documents.

Please note that contrary to what the title of the program may suggest, you do not have to work, but you can if you want to.

You must meet the following conditions and hold the following documents in order to take part in the WHP or WHS:

1. You must have a valid passport
2. You must be at least 18 years of age and you cannot be older than 30 years of age
3. You must have health insurance with cover in the Netherlands
4. In all cases you must have sufficient funds for the first 6 weeks of your stay in the Netherlands (approx. €1000)
5. You must have a return ticket
6. You must not constitute a risk to public order
7. Pay the legal fees of €43 (subject to change)

Upon arrival you can call Dutch Immigration (IND) at 0900-1234561 (preferably between 9 and 10 am or 4 and 5 pm) and explicitly ask for an appointment for the application of a WHP- or WHS-residence permit at the Immigration office in Eindhoven.

When going to the appointment please bring the following documents:

• your valid passport
• a valid return ticket
• a passport photograph, not older than 6 months, that was made by an acknowledged photographer in the Netherlands
• € 43 in cash
• a completed form called “Application for a residence permit without MVV or change to purpose of stay”. You can find the appropriate form HERE.
  

As the application form is a rather complex one and consists of 47 pages including annexes, we have composed an instruction for completion. In general, you should only complete the indicated pages in the described way, using a black or blue pen, writing in capital letters and writing dates as DD-MM-YYYY.

The instructions per page are as follows:

PAGE 1: Complete all requested data and write the number 3 as number of appendices.
PAGE 3: Complete all requested data in section 1. You do not yet possess a V-number or a public service number (BSN), so leave those blank. DO NOT complete section 2 on page 4.
PAGE 4: Answer section 3 truthfully. In section 4, check the first box where it says “I do not have to undergo a tuberculosis test, because I have the nationality of one of the following countries: Australia, Canada, Israel, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, Surinam, Switzerland, United States of America, the EU/EEA countries”
PAGE 5: Only check the box where it says “I have a nationality that is exempt from the MVV requirement”.
PAGE 7: Only check the box where it says “for exchange purposes” (bottom left corner).
PAGE 15:  Only check the box where it says “exchange on the basis of the ‘Working Holiday Scheme’ or the ‘Working Holiday Program’”
PAGE 19: read section 23 at the bottom of the page carefully.

Take the completed and signed form and the other required documents with you to the appointment of IND.

As soon as you receive your residence permit, you should make an appointment with City Hall  in Maastricht to register in the Municipal Records Database. You can call City Hall on 14043 (Monday to Friday between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m.) to make an appointment. After the voice-response and the beep, please clearly speak the word MAASTRICHT. Then wait for the operator and clearly state that you wish to make an appointment for a registration in the GBA that falls outside the GBA-registration sessions at the university because you are an exchange student