Living in the Netherlands without a residence permit
If your asylum residence permit is rejected, you can choose to remain in the Netherlands without a residence permit. You will be in the Netherlands without permission from then on. On this page you will find information about shelter, income and healthcare.
Information
Shelter
If you are living in the Netherlands without a residence permit, it is difficult to get housing. There are different kinds of reception centre you can go to. You can read about them on this page.
No postal address, but important letters: what can you do?
Sometimes you do not have your own home or a fixed address. Nevertheless, you need to be able to receive important letters from the IND, the municipality or the court. In this article, you can find out what options are available for receiving post.
Healthcare
If you do not have a Dutch residence permit, it may be difficult to get healthcare. Nevertheless, like any other person, you are entitled to medically necessary healthcare. You can read more about this on this page.
Working without a residence permit
If the IND rejects your application for asylum, you may no longer stay in the Netherlands. You must return to your country of origin. Do you not do that and choose to stay in the Netherlands without a residence permit? Then according to Dutch law you are not allowed to work. If you do try to work, you run a high risk of becoming a victim of human trafficking and exploitation.
Scams in the Netherlands
In the Netherlands, there are people who try to trick others into getting money or personal information. This is called fraud. Anyone can become a victim, including people who are new to the Netherlands. That is why it is important to know how scams work, what forms they take and what you can do if it happens to you.
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