A Union Annex Decides the Visa; Dutch Law Only Sets the Clock and the Conditions
Whether a short visit to the Netherlands needs a visa is not answered anywhere in Dutch law. Regulation (EU) 2018/1806 carries two annexes: nationals of the third countries in Annex I must hold a visa to cross the external border, and nationals of those in Annex II are exempt for stays of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period. What Dutch law supplies is the rest of it. Article 12 of the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 permits a stay for a term fixed by decree for as long as you keep the rules, can pay for both the stay and the journey out, do no work in breach of the Wet arbeid vreemdelingen and pose no danger to public order, and it caps any such term at 360 days. Article 3.3 of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000 then fixes the term itself: 90 days for someone who came for a stay of no longer than that, 180 if the Minister extends it for special circumstances, and eight days for a foreigner who falls into none of the listed categories.
At a glance
- Who decides whether you need a visa
- A Union regulation, applied by the Netherlands as it stands
- Visa-free stay
- 90 days in any 180-day period
Article 4(1) of Regulation (EU) 2018/1806. The window rolls; it does not reset on each entry.
- The free period Dutch law grants for a short visit
- 90 days, or 180 where the Minister extends it for special circumstances
Article 3.3(1)(c) of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000.
- The ceiling the Act puts on any free period
- 360 days
Article 12(2) of the Vreemdelingenwet 2000, which leaves the term itself to a decree.
- The free period for a foreigner in none of the listed categories
- Eight days
Article 3.3(1)(h) of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000, the last and shortest limb of the list.
- What you must hold for the whole of the free period
- Means for the stay and for the journey out, and no work in breach of the Wet arbeid vreemdelingen
Article 12(1)(b) and (c) of the Vreemdelingenwet 2000.
Requirements
- A visa, if your nationality is in Annex I to Regulation (EU) 2018/1806
- No visa, for a stay of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period, if your nationality is in Annex II
- Means covering both the stay and the journey to a place where your entry is guaranteed
- No work for an employer in breach of the Wet arbeid vreemdelingen
Exceptions by origin
No Visa, and the Ninety Days Are Counted Backwards From Whatever Day You Are Asked
Your nationality is in Annex II, so no visa is required for a stay of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period. The measure is not per entry: on any day you are in the area the question is how many days of the preceding 180 you have spent in it, so leaving and returning does not begin a new count. Dutch law then sets the free period inside that: article 3.3(1)(c) of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000 gives 90 days to someone who came for a stay of no longer than that, and 180 where the Minister extends it for special circumstances.
A Visa Is Required, and the Regulation Offers No Test You Could Pass Instead
Your nationality is in Annex I, so a visa is required to cross the external border. The Regulation states the requirement as a list of countries and gives an individual nothing to satisfy in order to fall outside it. Dutch law adds a second document for anyone coming for longer than 90 days: article 2.3 of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000 requires a provisional residence authorisation, the machtiging tot voorlopig verblijf, on top of the travel document.
What the law says
«Nationals of third countries listed in Annex I shall be required to be in possession of a visa when crossing the external borders of the Member States.»The visa requirement, stated as a list of countries rather than as a test.
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The Union's legal database. Publishes each act as adopted in the Official Journal and, separately, a consolidated version carrying every amendment to a stated date, identified as 0YYYYRNNNN-YYYYMMDD. The consolidated text marks each amended passage with the instrument that changed it.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A consolidated text is explicitly not authentic - EUR-Lex says so on the document - and only the Official Journal version has legal force. It also says nothing about how any member state applies the act: a regulation is directly applicable but the border practice, the evidence an officer may ask for and the national exceptions are in national law, which is published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«Nationals of third countries listed in Annex II shall be exempt from the requirement set out in Article 3(1) for stays of no more than 90 days in any 180-day period.»The exemption and its measure.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The Union's legal database. Publishes each act as adopted in the Official Journal and, separately, a consolidated version carrying every amendment to a stated date, identified as 0YYYYRNNNN-YYYYMMDD. The consolidated text marks each amended passage with the instrument that changed it.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A consolidated text is explicitly not authentic - EUR-Lex says so on the document - and only the Official Journal version has legal force. It also says nothing about how any member state applies the act: a regulation is directly applicable but the border practice, the evidence an officer may ask for and the national exceptions are in national law, which is published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
«1 Het is aan de vreemdeling die bij binnenkomst heeft voldaan aan de verplichtingen waaraan een persoon bij grensoverschrijding is onderworpen, gedurende een bij algemene maatregel van bestuur te bepalen termijn toegestaan in Nederland te verblijven, zolang hij: - a. de bij of krachtens deze wet gestelde regels in acht neemt; - b. beschikt over voldoende middelen om te voorzien zowel in de kosten van zijn verblijf in Nederland als in die van zijn reis naar een plaats buiten Nederland waar zijn toegang gewaarborgd is; - c. geen arbeid voor een werkgever verricht in strijd met de Wet arbeid vreemdelingen ; - d. geen gevaar oplevert voor de openbare orde of de nationale veiligheid.»Our translation - not official
A foreigner who on entry has met the obligations to which a person crossing the border is subject is permitted to stay in the Netherlands for a term to be set by general administrative measure, for as long as he: a. observes the rules laid down by or under this Act; b. has sufficient means to cover both the cost of his stay in the Netherlands and that of his journey to a place outside the Netherlands where his entry is guaranteed; c. performs no work for an employer in breach of the Wet arbeid vreemdelingen; d. poses no danger to public order or national security.
The free period is conditional throughout, not just at the border. Paragraph (b) asks for the cost of the journey out as well as the cost of the stay.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«2 De termijn, bedoeld in het eerste lid, wordt ten hoogste op 360 dagen bepaald. Voor bij algemene maatregel van bestuur te onderscheiden categorieën van vreemdelingen kunnen verschillende termijnen worden vastgesteld.»The Act sets only an outer limit and allows different terms for different categories of foreigner. The terms themselves are in the Besluit.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«1 De termijn gedurende welke het aan vreemdelingen krachtens artikel 12 van de Wet is toegestaan in Nederland te verblijven is: - a. voor houders van een doorreisvisum en voor vreemdelingen aan wie uitsluitend voor doorreis een bijzonder doorlaatbewijs is afgegeven: de tijd welke voor de voortzetting van hun reis noodzakelijk is; - b. voor houders van een doorreisvisum met bevoegdheid tot oponthoud of van een reisvisum: de duur waarvoor het visum is afgegeven of verlengd dan wel, voorzover het een visum voor meer reizen betreft, de in het visum aangegeven duur waarvoor ononderbroken verblijf is toegestaan; - c. voor vreemdelingen die voor een verblijf van niet langer dan 90 dagen naar Nederland zijn gekomen: 90 dagen of, in geval van verlenging door Onze Minister van de termijn wegens bijzondere omstandigheden, 180 dagen;»Limb (c) is the one a visitor is in. The 180 days is not an alternative entitlement: it is what the term becomes if the Minister extends it for special circumstances.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«h. voor andere vreemdelingen: acht dagen.»The residual limb. A foreigner who fits none of the categories above it has eight days, which is a different rule from the ninety a visitor gets and sits in the same list.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
Being exempt from a visa is not a right of entry. What an officer checks at the border is in the Schengen Borders Code, which was not read for this record.
The free period is permission to be here, not to work: article 12(1)(c) makes work in breach of the Wet arbeid vreemdelingen a breach of the permission itself.
The same two annexes govern Spain, Portugal, Italy and Germany, and those records rest on the same instrument as this one.
- consolidatesRegulation (EU) 2018/1806, consolidated version
EUR-Lex, Publications Office of the European Union · consolidated to 2025-12-30
About this source
The Union's legal database. Publishes each act as adopted in the Official Journal and, separately, a consolidated version carrying every amendment to a stated date, identified as 0YYYYRNNNN-YYYYMMDD. The consolidated text marks each amended passage with the instrument that changed it.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: A consolidated text is explicitly not authentic - EUR-Lex says so on the document - and only the Official Journal version has legal force. It also says nothing about how any member state applies the act: a regulation is directly applicable but the border practice, the evidence an officer may ask for and the national exceptions are in national law, which is published elsewhere.
We re-read it every 90 days. More about this source
- consolidatesVreemdelingenwet 2000
Overheid.nl, Wettenbank
About this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
- consolidatesVreemdelingenbesluit 2000
Overheid.nl, Wettenbank
About this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source