Legalizing and verifying foreign documents
Your foreign document is not automatically legally valid in the Netherlands. The municipality needs to know that your documents were issued by the right person or authority.
What to do?
Get your document legalized. On the central government website you will find information for each country on whether a document needs to be legalized and, if so, how to do it.
You can only have original documents legalized. It can be a deed of:
- birth
- marriage
- divorce
- death
- acknowledgement
- adoption
Bring
Register
To have your foreign document registered in the BRP, bring:
- The original foreign document (possibly with translation)
- your valid ID
Translation
If the document is not in Dutch, English, German or French, you must have a translation made by a sworn interpreter/translator in the Netherlands. Are you using a translator abroad? Then you must also have the translation legalized.
Collection of foreign source documents
To pick up your document bring:
- your valid ID
Register marriage
Do you want to register a marriage where one of you both does not have the Dutch nationality? Then both of you must sign a declaration that you did not enter into the marriage/registered partnership to obtain the right of residence in the Netherlands.
For Dutch:
- Download the Request for registration of marriage or registered partnership (pdf)
- Complete the form and submit it along with your marriage certificate (make an appointment to do so).
For English:
- Download the Request registration marriage or registered partnership (pdf).
- Fill in the form and submit it together with your marriage certificate (make an appointment for this).
This statement is not required if:
- You have been married or in a registered partnership for 10 years or more.
- Your marriage or registered partnership has since ended.
- You are both nationals of a country in the European Union or of Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland or Switzerland.
- You have an indefinite residence permit.
Making an appointment
At this time, you cannot make an appointment online to turn in documents. To make an appointment, please call 14 079.
Change or delete appointment?
Once you have made an appointment you will receive a confirmation e-mail. This e-mail also contains a link that allows you to change or delete your appointment.
Do you no longer have the e-mail? Call 14 079. A staff member can change or delete the appointment for you.
Costs
| Product | Costs |
|---|---|
| Registration of documents in the BRP | free |
How long will it take?
Legalization of documents can take several months. It depends on the local authority that has to legalize the documents.