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How can I sponsor a visitor from abroad?

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You can financially sponsor someone who is coming to the Netherlands for a short stay (up to 90 days). Your visitor will need financial sponsorship if they do not have sufficient income. Read how you can sponsor them.

Step 1: Check whether a sponsor is needed

Whether your visitor needs to be sponsored depends on their nationality and country of residence, and on whether your visitor is an immediate family member of a national of an EU/EEA member state or Switzerland.

Check whether your visitor needs proof of sponsorship

Information: If your visitor will be staying with you, they may also require proof of private accommodation. Check how to provide accommodation to a visitor from abroad.

Step 2: Check whether you can be a sponsor

You can sponsor someone if you meet the following 4 conditions:

  1. You live in the Netherlands.
  2. You are an adult (18 years or older).
  3. You have a citizen service number (BSN).
  4. You will have a steady and sufficient income in the Netherlands for at least the next 12 months. For example, a salary, pension or income from your own business. Social security supplementary benefits do not count. Step 5 explains how you can provide proof of your income. Check the minimum income needed to sponsor a foreign visitor on the website of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND).

If you are married or have a registered partnership, you will be considered joint sponsors. Add your spouse or partner’s income to your own. Your spouse or partner will also need to fill in the form too (step 3) and gather additional documents (step 5).

If you need to have your signature legalised (step 4), your spouse or partner will also need to accompany you to the town hall of a Dutch municipality.

You can sponsor your own spouse or partner who is coming to the Netherlands. In that case, you provide the financial guarantee solely on the basis of your own income. Your partner will not need to fill in the form (step 3) or sign it or have their signature legalised (step 4). They will also not need to gather additional documents (step 5).

Step 3: Fill in the form

To provide your visitor with proof of sponsorship, complete the proof of sponsorship form. If you and your spouse or partner are joint sponsors, your spouse or partner will also need to fill in the form.

Fill in the proof of sponsorship form (IND)

Some Dutch municipalities allow you to fill in the form online. Check your municipality's website.

Information: Each visitor requires their own proof of sponsorship, including children.

If you and your spouse or partner are joint sponsors, but your spouse or partner is not in the Netherlands, you have 2 options:

  1. Your spouse or partner can return to the Netherlands to sign the form.
  2. Your spouse or partner can draw up a written declaration giving permission for the sponsorship. You will need to include a photocopy of the biographical data page of their passport and signature.

You cannot change anything once the form has been legalised. You also cannot render information unreadable, such as your citizen service number (BSN). If you do change something or render data unreadable, the form will be invalid. If some of the information is incorrect, you will need to fill in a new form and have it legalised.

Step 4: Check whether your signature needs to be legalised

Sometimes themunicipality must legalise your signature on the form. This depends on whether your visitor needs a visa to visit the Netherlands.

Check whether your visitor needs a visa

If your visitor needs a visa, your signature will need to be legalised. Make an appointment at a Dutch municipality and bring your ID with you. You will have to sign the form in the presence of an authorised municipal official. If you and your spouse or partner are acting as joint sponsors, your spouse or partner will need to come with you to the municipality to have their signature legalised, too.

After the legalisation has taken place, your visitor must apply for a visa within 6 months. After that, your visitor may travel to the Netherlands.

If your visitor does not need a visa, legalisation is not necessary. You can sign the form by yourself. Are you sponsoring a visitor together with your spouse or partner? If so, your spouse or partner will also need to sign the form.

Step 5: Gather the required documents

In addition to the form, you have to gather supporting documents. Which documents you need to provide depends on your personal situation.

Are you sponsoring a visitor together with your spouse or partner? If so, your spouse or partner also needs to collect additional documents.

You have an employment contract

  • A photocopy of your employment contract. The contract must be valid for at least 12 months from the date on which your visitor applies for their visa.

  • A recent employer's declaration.
  • Photocopies of your 3 most recent salary statements.
  • A photocopy of your valid passport, ID card or Dutch residence permit. Ensure that the citizen service number (BSN) on the copy of your passport or ID card is clearly visible. Your residence permit must be valid for at least as long as your visitor’s planned stay.

You are self-employed

  • A recent extract of your business registration from the Chamber of Commerce Business Register.
  • Your most recent final income tax assessment.
  • A recent profit and loss account, showing your net profit.
  • A photocopy of your valid passport, ID card or Dutch residence permit. Ensure that the citizen service number (BSN) on the copy of your passport or ID card is clearly visible. Your residence permit must be valid for at least as long as your visitor’s planned stay.

You receive a pension or benefit

  • Proof of income showing that you will continue receiving the pension or benefit for at least 12 more months.
  • A photocopy of your valid passport, ID card or Dutch residence permit. Ensure that the citizen service number (BSN) on the copy of your passport or ID card is clearly visible. Your residence permit must be valid for at least as long as your visitor’s planned stay.
Information: If you receive a benefit paid from general public funds, such as a social assistance benefit, a Work and Employment Support (Young Disabled Persons) Act benefit or another Participation Act benefit, you cannot act as a sponsor. If you are unsure if you can be a sponsor, contact your municipality.

You are not allowed to render information on the documents unreadable. This includes your BSN and income details. Your visitor needs to be able to show the documents, including your BSN and income details, at Dutch border control.

If your own income already meets the income requirement, you do not have to demonstrate that your partner has a steady and sufficient income. Under step 6, you will only have to send the form, your own additional documents and a photocopy of your partner's passport, ID card or residence permit to your visitor.

Step 6: Send the form and the correct documents to your visitor

Send the original form (step 3) and the documents (step 5) to your visitor by post. Your visitor must bring them when they travel to show at Dutch border.

Your visitor will also use these documents if they need to apply for a visa.

Step 7: Sponsor your visitor

As a sponsor, you act as a guarantor for any costs relating to your visitor’s stay, medical care and repatriation. The sponsorship ends:

  • as soon as your visitor leaves the Schengen area, or
  • 5 years after the form has been legalised.

If your visitor is coming to the Netherlands again, they will need a new proof of sponsorship form.

The sponsorship does not end when your visitor applies for asylum. The sponsorship ends 5 years after the form is legalised or when your visitor leaves the Schengen area.

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