Hi,

 

I am pretty confused about which document I need to move to the Netherlands.

 

I am the non-EU (New Zealand) wife of an EU (UK) citizen. We are moving to the Netherlands for just under one year for my husband to complete part of his PhD which is funded by his Australian university. 

 

Do I need to:

 

a) apply for a VVR/Residence Permit (on the basis of family reunification), or

b) simply register with the municipality and then submit the Application for Verification Against Community Law, or

c) something else altogether?

 

One more question:

As a visiting PhD student, will my partner enter the Netherlands as a student or as a worker? Does the distinction have any consequence?

tudor_geo (Feb 20 2011, 09:13 PM) said: > original post
See http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUri...077:0123:EN:PDF

Thank you for this. I had seen this, and interpreted from it that I would be entitled to the same fee scheme as EU students:

"(20) In accordance with the prohibition of discrimination on grounds of nationality, all Union citizens and their family members residing in a Member State on the basis of this Directive should enjoy, in that Member State, equal treatment with nationals in areas covered by the Treaty, subject to such specific provisions as are expressly provided for in the Treaty and secondary law."

It seems from the information out there that a spouse or registered partner should be subject to the same conditions as EU citizens. Is this correct? For example, on http://ec.europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/re...-parents_en.htm , it states:


'Equal treatment:

During their stay in your new country, your non-EU spouse, (grand)children or (grand)parents should be treated as nationals, notably as regards access to employment, pay and benefits facilitating access to work, enrolment in schools, etc.'

Is this observed by most educational institutions in NL in practice?

I see on Leiden's website it does say:

'Some non-EU students do pay the same fee as EU-students:

.... Students with a partner who holds the nationality of an EU country: one should be married to, or hold an official partnership registration with an EU-national.... '

I have not found a similar provision on UU's website however. Am I right in saying that even if these rules do apply, you need to be married or in a registered partnership? Or would a non-registered partnership ever suffice?

Is there a residence requirement to access domestic fees in the Netherlands? For example, despite his UK passport, neither my partner nor myself are entitled to domestic student fees in the UK or Ireland as we do not meet the residency requirement.

Thanks for your help,
Libby

valentijn (Feb 17 2011, 03:03 PM) said: > original post
Welcome to Utrecht! I take Dutch classes (mostly paid for by the city) at UU and am loving it. But as far as I know, the EU rate doesn't apply to us really foreign types. Even if married you'd have to wait a few years before getting the status to qualify.

Learn Dutch as quickly as possible, even if not required. It makes it soooo much easier to function, and there's some anti-foreign sentiment currently (we're all lazy drunks here to take advantage of their generosity and reshape the country in our image). It's a lot easier to make friends in a language class than in the general public, and it's nice having friends with similar experiences and problems. So far every fellow immigrant I've met speaks decent English, so it's pretty easy to chat.

Plan carefully what you want to bring. Moving items overseas is hella expensive, and airlines were charging US$50 for the second bag and $200 for each additional. Rates from commercial delivery companies were about the same. Vacuum packing my clothes helped a lot, but there's still weight limits. Leave behind all large electronics. You can buy european adapters here (at Saturn) for your laptops, Wii, DS, etc, but most other things won't work. For my DVD's I took them out of the cases and packed them in one of those cylinders that 50-ish blank CDs are sold in, and am slowly re-casing them here. Your Aussie DVDs won't work unless you're prepared to hack your new DVD player, however - ours now happily plays CDs from every region.

Make preparations for staying in touch with friends and family. You can get a basic Skype account for free, with pc-to-pc voice or video calling. You may need to help certain family members with setting it up, and writing instructions for how to use it.

Brace yourself. Overall I love it here and have a very supportive Dutch fiancee and in-laws, but it can feel pretty isolated, especially prior to getting into a class or job. Be prepared to put a lot of effort into keeping a positive outlook and staying motivated. Just being in such a different environment can be stressful.

Bring reminders of home. Almost all of the art hanging in our house is from Seattle and nearby areas, and is inspired by the local nature, tribes, and industry. I spent about a year before I moved collecting a few items here and there that I just loved. Then I packed them (without frames or borders) between 2 pieces of cardboard and put them somewhere they wouldn't get squished. Once in Amersfoort, we went to Ikea and found frames that would fit them (though usually not perfectly).

Thanks so much for this, great tips! We've started dutch lessons here and hope that we'll pick up enough in the next 18 months not to be completely useless when we arrive

Hi everyone,

I have browsed the topics and have got heaps of useful information so I thought I'd pose my specific scenario and hope someone had experienced a similar situation or could give some general advice.

My boyfriend of six years and I will be coming to the Netherlands next year. My partner is a PhD student and will be undertaking a year of his PhD at University of Utrecht as one of his supervisors works from there. While we are in the Netherlands, I would like to undertake a Masters of International Law at Utrecht as well, since our visit will coincide with the 2012-2013 academic year.

Though we are both New Zealanders currently living in Australia, my boyfriend is also a UK citizen/passport-holder. Neither of us have ever lived in an EU country.

Is there any way I can access domestic/EU student fees in the Netherlands as partner of an EU citizen, by way of my boyfriend's UK citizenship? Would it make a difference if we were married?

Are there any major issues you can anticipate that we will have to overcome when we travel to the Netherlands?

Cheers,
Libby