If you want to live in the Netherlands, you have to deal with Dutch bureaucracy. The latest challenge? New students have to wait in line for an entire day to register their new address.
It’s not exactly the warmest welcome, especially considering that many students are missing their university’s Intreweek (introduction week) for this.
How many students exactly? Oh, you know, just 500. And it doesn’t stop there: according to Het Parool, Amsterdam expects up to 8,000 new students when university starts next week.
Biking around the city is about the get a lot more stressful — and unless something changes, queues are about to get long.
Why are people waiting for hours?
Why are the queues so long? You guessed it: staffing shortages. Classic.
So far, the registration centre at Amsterdam’s Bos en Lommerplein hasn’t been this busy, but six of their employees are currently ill — which doesn’t bode well for future queuers.
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On top of that, students can only visit the centre on one of 20 different days. To make this easier for students, two of the main universities in Amsterdam (UvA and VU) have divided these days among themselves to bring back some sense of order.
However, this means that instead of spreading out the demand, students are arriving en masse on the designated registration days. The result? Queues. Long ones.
Registration? What does that mean?
If you’re confused about this whole situation, let us clarify it for you.
If you want to live in the Netherlands, you have to register your address at your local municipality.
Once you do this, you’ll receive a burgerservicenummer (citizen service number) or BSN for short — and you need this to do basically anything.
Only after you have this BSN can you open a Dutch bank account and take out Dutch health insurance.
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This has to be done within five days of your arrival in the Netherlands, which explains why so many people are waiting in line in the rain and missing their Intreweek: they don’t have a choice.
But it gets worse: you can’t register for a BSN online, and you can’t schedule an appointment in advance. You just have to show up and hope for the best.
(Quick question: is the Dutch bureaucratic system trying to create chaos? Because it’s really good at it).
Unwavering spirits
In their time of having to deal with this lovely, welcoming, and very easy process to get a mandatory legal document, students have started to bond.
Walking through the line, it’s possible to see new friendships budding, students playing cards and eating marshmallows with each other, and exchanging phone numbers.
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Way to be adaptable, huh? Truly making the best of a bad situation. These students will fit in the Netherlands just fine — once they make it to the top of that queue.
What has been your experience registering as a Dutch citizen? Tell us in the comments below!
