How to register in Maastricht and get your BSN
Your BSN, the burgerservicenummer, is the number everything else in the Netherlands hangs off. A bank account, a phone contract, a job, health insurance, huurtoeslag: all of them ask for it. You get one by registering your address with the gemeente, and you cannot get one without an address.
That last point is why this article exists on a housing company's website. Registration is the step where housing stops being about comfort and starts being about paperwork.
The order things happen in
- Sign a tenancy for a property where the landlord permits registration.
- Book an appointment with Gemeente Maastricht. Do this the week you know your address, not the week you arrive.
- Attend in person with your documents. Nobody can do it for you.
- Your BSN arrives by post, usually within a couple of weeks.
What to bring
- A valid passport or EU identity card. Not a photocopy.
- Your rental contract, showing the address and your name.
- Proof of enrolment from your university.
- A birth certificate, and this is the one that catches people out.
The birth certificate is the trap. Many countries' certificates must be legalised or carry an apostille, and translated into Dutch, English, French or German by a sworn translator. Arranging that from Maastricht is slow and expensive. Arranging it at home before you fly is neither. Check what your country requires before you pack.
The second trap: not every address allows registration
Some landlords do not permit registration at the address. Sometimes that is because the property is not legally split into separate units, sometimes because the owner would rather the municipality did not know how many people live there. Either way, an address you cannot register at is an address that cannot give you a BSN.
Ask before you sign, in writing. "Can I register at this address with the gemeente?" is a fair question and a landlord who will not answer it plainly has told you something.
How long you have
If you are staying longer than four months you must register within five days of arriving. In practice the gemeente's appointment calendar decides your timeline, and in August and September it fills quickly. Book early, even if the appointment is weeks out.
Staying under four months? You register as a non-resident instead, at an RNI desk, and you get a BSN without a Dutch address. Fewer students need this than think they do, but if your exchange is one semester it may apply to you.
After the BSN arrives
Open a Dutch bank account, arrange Dutch health insurance if you are working here, and apply for any allowances you qualify for. Each of those is a separate queue, so start them as they become possible rather than saving them up.
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