Collecting your residence permit card
Your residence permit card is what actually gives you the right to start au pair tasks, and you may not begin before you collect it. When to report to the IND, what to bring, and why the card date matters more than your arrival date.
Collecting your residence permit card
Report to the IND to collect your residence permit card within 2 weeks after you arrive (checked 2026-08-21). Your agency tells you which desk and when. You may only start doing light supporting tasks for your host family from the day you actually have the card in hand, not before.
What happens at the IND desk
Take your valid passport and the appointment code from your appointment email. At the desk the IND takes a digital passport photo and your fingerprints. Giving biometrics is free. The card itself shows your name, nationality, permit type and a V-number, which is an IND number and not your BSN.
The card carries a maximum validity period. 1 year (checked 2026-08-21). Check the end date printed on your card rather than assuming. Note that this appointment is separate from registering at your gemeente: collecting the card does not register you in the Basisregistratie Personen, and registering at the gemeente does not collect your card. Both have to happen. See registering-at-the-gemeente-and-your-bsn for the other one.
Why the collection date, not your flight date, is the one that counts
You may not carry out any au pair tasks before you have physically collected the card, even though you already landed and even if your host family is used to you helping out. Whatever your travel date was, the day you collect the card is the day your permitted tasks start. If your host family has you doing childcare or household tasks before that date, say so plainly and point at this rule: it protects both of you.
The tuberculosis-test deadline in the-tb-test-at-the-ggd runs from a different date, the day your residence permit was issued, which is not always the same day as your collection appointment. Check that article separately rather than assuming the two dates match.
If your EU or EEA passport means none of this applies
If you hold an EU or EEA passport, you do not go through the IND residence permit process at all, so there is no card to collect and this article does not apply to you. Registering at the gemeente still does.
If the card is lost or the appointment is delayed
The card is not free to replace if it is lost or stolen, so keep it somewhere safe rather than carrying it day to day once you have registered elsewhere with it. If your collection appointment is delayed, that is between your agency and the IND desk, not something you can move up yourself: tell your host family and your agency in writing so everyone knows why your start date has moved.