Ministry of Foreign Affairs Information Service

The Information Service is for Dutch nationals who are or will be travelling or living abroad. Dutch nationals in the Netherlands who have a particular interest in one or more countries can also sign up.

It is important to sign up to the Information Service if you are or will be travelling to another country or will be abroad for an extended period. This will help you stay up-to-date on the situation there. If the travel advisory changes colour or the Dutch embassy issues an important warning, you will receive an email or text message.

When you sign up, you can also specify your departure and arrival dates. If there is an unexpected disaster or crisis, the Dutch authorities will know you are in the country. They will be able to inform you and, potentially, help you.

The Information Service provides information about the security situation in a country. You will be informed in the case of:

• a change in the country’s travel advice
• an ongoing or developing crisis or disaster in the country.

If you are living outside the Netherlands, either temporarily or permanently, you can also opt to receive information about:

• Dutch elections, Dutch government services like passport renewal and DigiD; and
• events organised by the Dutch embassy in your country of residence, such as King’s Day celebrations.

You can sign up to the Information Service, update your details or unsubscribe (ask to stop receiving notifications) on the Information Service website.

You can register via the Register button. You can change or unsubscribe via the Change button.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs handles your data with care. We do not share your data with other parties. We only use it to send you important information.

In an emergency or crisis situation, we may call you or your designated contact person. We may want to check whether you are still in the country or offer help, for example.

Reminder emails

The Information Service sends reminder emails to ensure that we do not store your details for longer than necessary. It works as follows:

• If you are only visiting a country, we will delete your details after the travel dates you have provided. You will receive an email about this.
• If you are living in another country, you will receive an email once a year asking you to confirm whether you are still living there. If you do not provide confirmation, we will delete your details.
• If you sign up for country updates without providing any travel dates, you will receive an email once a year asking if you still want to be registered with the Information Service. If you do nothing, we will continue to send these emails. You can also unsubscribe from the Information Service.

Which information?

When you sign up to the Information Service you must provide your email address. You can also give us:

• your name
• your mobile phone number
• your contact person’s phone number
• your arrival and departure dates (or choose the option ‘Ik woon (tijdelijk) in het land’ (I’m (temporarily) living in the country)
• your address(es) while in the country
• the number of people in your party.

After unsubscribing from the Information Service

If you unsubscribe we will delete all the details you provided.

You may have recently received a notification email from the Information Service. This is because we want to check whether you are still in the country that you registered with us.

If you are, please confirm this. If we do not receive your confirmation, we will delete your details. This ensures we don’t keep your details longer than required and helps us keep our database clean.