How to get a BSN in the Netherlands

The short version

• You get a BSN in the Netherlands by registering with a gemeente. There is no separate application.
• Longer than 4 months means resident registration at the gemeente you live in. 4 months or less means non-resident registration at one of 19 RNI desks. Both give you a BSN.
• The law gives you 5 days from arrival, and you have to go in person.
• No address, no registration, no BSN. Check that you can register at an address before you sign for it.
• Most non-EU arrivals need a legalised birth certificate, which is the one document you cannot sort out after you land.

Your BSN (Burgerservicenummer, the Dutch citizen service number) is how the Netherlands identifies you. Your employer needs it before they can pay you, your health insurer needs it before they can cover you, and the Belastingdienst uses it for anything to do with your tax. Very little works without it.

You do not apply for one. You register your address with your gemeente (your local municipality) and the number comes with the registration. So the real work is the appointment, and the real bottleneck is the address.

How you get a BSN in the Netherlands

Everyone recorded in the BRP (Basisregistratie Personen, the Dutch population register) is given a BSN. Registration is what triggers it. There is no application form, and nobody you can call to speed it up.

Your gemeente does the registering. You book an appointment, turn up in person with your documents, and a clerk records you at your Dutch address. The number is issued off the back of that.

One consequence is worth stating early. Nobody can do this for you. Your employer cannot apply on your behalf and neither can your university, however much they would like the number for their systems. They can tell you which gemeente is yours and remind you to book. That is the limit of it.

Resident or non-resident registration

Which register you belong in depends on how long you are staying, and that changes where you go.

Longer than 4 months and you register as a resident with the gemeente where you live. That covers almost every degree student and anyone on a normal employment contract. Your address goes into the BRP and your BSN comes with it.

Staying 4 months or less and you register as a non-resident instead, at one of the 19 gemeenten that run an RNI desk (Registratie Niet-Ingezetenen, the register of non-residents). Exchange semesters, short internships, and project contracts usually land here. You still get a BSN. What you do not get is a registered Dutch address, which banks and insurers often want on top of the number.

If a short stay turns into a long one, you register as a resident at that point. The BSN you already have does not change.

When you have to register

The rule is 5 days from the day you arrive, in person, at the gemeente you are going to live in.

In practice the appointment is the constraint rather than your willingness to book it. Slots in the big cities run weeks out, and late August into September is the worst of it because every university starts at once. Book as soon as your address is confirmed. You do not have to be in the country to do that.

What to bring

Document lists differ by gemeente and by where you are coming from, so check yours rather than trusting any list you read online, including this one. Most ask for some version of the following.

• Your passport or national identity card.
• Your birth certificate, legalised or apostilled, with a translation if your gemeente asks for one.
• Something showing you live at the address, usually your rental contract.
• Your residence permit decision or the MVV sticker in your passport, if you are from outside the EU.
• A marriage certificate and your children's birth certificates, legalised the same way, if you are registering as a family.

What happens at the appointment

You go in person. Everyone being registered goes, children included, and each of them needs valid identification. The clerk checks your documents, records your address in the BRP, and your BSN is issued on the strength of that registration.

There is no BSN card. Nothing gets issued for your wallet. Ask your gemeente how your number will reach you, and save a scan of it, because you will be typing this number into forms for years. It also turns up later on your payslip, on your health insurance policy, and in MijnOverheid once your DigiD is active.

If a document is missing, the registration cannot be completed that day. Nobody wants to make that trip twice, which is why the document list is worth a call to your gemeente first.

What you can do once you have it

Once the number exists, the rest of the paperwork becomes possible. Your employer can put you through payroll. Most banks will open an account for you. You can take out the health insurance that Dutch law requires of residents, request a DigiD to log into government services, and claim any toeslagen (allowances) you qualify for.

None of it is optional, and none of it can start earlier. That is the real reason to treat the gemeente appointment as the thing you book straight after your housing, rather than the fifth thing you get around to.