Some of you who wish to attend the IFAJ2018 World Congress Dutch Roots need a visa for entering the Netherlands. The procedures for visa application have changed since 2016, so be advised to check the details applicable for your country at the website of the Dutch Foreign Ministry.
Letter of invitation
In most cases you will need additional documents. One of which is a Letter of Invitation. The Dutch Roots organization can provide you with such a letter. Your request for this letter can be sent via email to Jacqueline Wijbenga. To help speed up this process, please give the following details in your email for the request of a Letter of invitation:
- Full name as written in your passport
- First name
- Last name/surname
- Date of birth
- Passport number
- Employer details
- Name of employer
- Address of employer
- Your function at this employer
After this information is provided, Jacqueline will make sure you get a personalised letter as soon as possible.
Further details
Not every country has a Dutch embassy. Visa applications for the Netherlands are handled by an embassy, a delegated office (mostly VFS) or in some cases by a befriended embassy from one of the other Schengen countries. In the two latter situations the visa application is fully handled by these other parties; the Dutch government is not involved in the ruling.
In all cases the visa application is sent to a regional service organization. Usually several countries in a certain region (e.g. East Africa/Southeast Asia) are serviced by this office that judges the visa applications. This takes time. Depending on the nationality of the applicant, it can be necessary that other Schengen countries have to approve the application. According to the ministry of Foreign Affairs this part of the procedure again might take up to 10 working days.
In some cases the application has to be done in person at an office. Beware that there are waiting lists for appointments at these offices. So if such an appointment should be necessary, please make an appointment as soon as you can.
Complete dossier
For a successful visa application, be advised you should supply the embassy or delegated office with a dossier that is as complete as you possible can make it. Beside your own passport and a Letter of invitation, a prove of residence (permanent address), prove of employment (contract of your employer) and prove of working relation (bank receipt of income) will be very helpful to speed up the application procedure. Please make sure you carefully follow all the guidelines given to you by the website of our Foreign Affairs ministry and contact them with any questions you might have on this matter.
As the organization of Dutch Roots we have been in touch with all Dutch embassies that have a Agricultural Liaison office. This means that quite a lot of embassies are aware of the IFAJ2018 World Congress Dutch Roots taking place in July. However, these agricultural representatives don’t judge and rule about visa applications. Furthermore, agricultural representatives are not present in all countries where IFAJ members are located. This means that some embassies and/or delegated offices might request additional information on the congress. If you need this, please contact the Dutch Roots organization, so that we can provide you with any extra information required.