Registering at the gemeente and getting your BSN

Register in person at the gemeente (town hall) where you live within 5 days after arrival (checked 2026-08-18). This puts you in the Basisregistratie Personen (BRP) and produces your BSN, the number that almost nothing else in the Netherlands works without: no bank account, no health insurance, no DigiD.

What the gemeente actually does with you

Registering in the BRP tells the Dutch government where you live. Whether you register as a resident depends on how long you will live here: you register as a resident at the gemeente of your host family's address if you will live in the Netherlands longer than 4 months (checked 2026-08-21), and a shorter stay uses a different, non-resident route this guide does not cover. You go yourself, in person, with your own documents. Your host family can book the appointment and come along, but they cannot register you in your place, because the signature and the biometric check are yours.

Registration itself is free. What is not free is doing it late or at an address you do not actually live at: both can lead to a fine, and repeated non-compliance can trigger an address check.

What to bring

Take originals only, never copies or photos. You need a valid passport or ID card, proof that you are allowed to live in the Netherlands (your residence permit card, or the sticker in your passport if you have not collected the card yet), proof of the address where you live, and your original birth certificate. A driving licence is not accepted as identification.

A foreign birth certificate usually needs an apostille or full legalisation before it is valid here, and a translation by a sworn translator if it is not already in Dutch, English, French or German. Arrange this in your home country before you fly if you can. Fixing it from inside the Netherlands means sending documents back home, which adds real delay on top of the registration itself, so bring everything complete on day one if at all possible.

The permission form from your host family

Because you are moving into someone else's home, most gemeenten also require a signed permission form from the main resident of the address, often called a toestemmingsverklaring hoofdbewoner. Who signs it, whether a landlord also has to agree, and how it is submitted differs per municipality. This is a household and gemeente matter, not something this guide can answer for you: ask your host family to sort out the correct form with their own gemeente before your appointment.

Booking the appointment, and what to do when it slips

There is no national number for how long you wait for a first appointment. It varies by city and by how busy the counter is, and any figure printed here would be wrong within a month. Book as soon as the arrival date is known, waits of several weeks are common, and treat the booking confirmation as your evidence that you tried on time.

If the appointment falls later than the deadline, that is not something you did wrong. Keep the confirmation email, tell your host family and your agency in writing on the day you find out, and ask your agency to record it.

Getting your BSN afterward

You do not receive your BSN at the counter. It is generated once your registration is processed and sent to you by letter at your host family's address, so do not expect it on the spot and do not plan a bank account or insurance appointment for the same week as the gemeente visit. Photograph the letter once it arrives and keep it somewhere safe. Only government bodies and organisations with a legal basis, such as your insurer, your doctor and your bank, may ask for your BSN: never post it in a group chat.

Once you have it, health insurance, DigiD and a bank account are the next things that need it. See the-tb-test-at-the-ggd for the other clock that starts once your residence permit, not your registration, is issued.