Schengen Short-Stay (Type C) — Entry / Return Verified 2026-04-24Netherlands Entry Visa (Return Visa for Residence Permit Holders)
Apply for a Netherlands Entry Visa (Return Visa) if your Dutch long-term residence permit was lost, stolen, or expired while you were abroad. Complete documents, fees, and process.
- Processing time
- Up to 45 days
- after you submit
No visa is ever guaranteed — the final decision always rests with the The Netherlands visa authority. We make sure your file is presented at its strongest.
Processing
Average 15 calendar days
Stay Duration
Up to 90 days
Starting Fee
₹9,790
Apply At
12 VFS centres
Your whole The Netherlands Entry Visa,
handled for one honest price.
A strong The Netherlands file clearly explains your travel purpose, funds, and ties to India. We structure and submit everything properly — so your case is presented clearly and professionally.
All-in · 18% GST included · no hidden charges
File-ready in 3–5 working days after documents
5★ · 100+ reviews · reply in 5 min
Everything below — included, nothing extra
- Document checklist
- Application form guidance
- Document review
- Cover letter
- Purpose of travel structure
- Financial proof review
- Sponsor document guidance
- Submission & appointment support
- Post-submission guidance
Not sure you qualify? Start with a refundable ₹499 possibility report — an honest Yes / Maybe / No, credited to this fee.
Price is for our consultancy service only and includes 18% GST. No agency can guarantee a visa — the final decision rests with the visa authority.
Your fee, in one glance
What the ₹12,999 fee covers for a The Netherlands file
- We work out what your case actually is, before touching a form
- We build the checklist around your profile, not a template
- We read your documents against each other, not against a list
- Financial proof review
- Purpose of travel structuring
- Cover letter / explanation support
- Return ties review
- Sponsor / invitation guidance
- Application form guidance
- Submission & appointment support
- Biometrics guidance
- Post-submission support
Government, VFS, insurance, ticket and hotel costs are separate and charged at cost. Read what each item means, in full.
Good to know before you apply
Rules that apply to every The Netherlands visa type — worth a quick read so nothing trips up your file.
- 1Your travel document (passport) must NOT be more than 10 years old, have at least 2 blank visa pages, be valid for at least 3 months after your intended departure from the Schengen area, and carry your signature.
- 2Not all travel documents are recognised by the Netherlands — non-recognised documents will result in an INADMISSIBLE application. Check the European Union website if you are uncertain.
- 3Diplomatic and Official passport holders can use the walk-in facility at all Netherlands VFS centres between 09:00 and 10:00 on working days — no prior appointment needed.
- 4In most cases you must submit your application in person. This applies to babies and children too.
- 5Pilots and flight attendants do NOT need to hand over their passport during processing — all other applicants must submit it for the duration of processing.
- 6At the appointment you will sign a declaration acknowledging (a) you understand that all documents must be submitted for the application to be processed, and (b) an incomplete application may be rejected with no refund of visa fees.
- 7If you overstay a Schengen visa, you risk a two-year visa sanction across all Schengen countries.
- 8If you notice a mistake on your visa when collecting it at VFS, notify the agent immediately. If you notice it later or received the visa by courier, contact the Dutch embassy without delay.
Who Can Apply
- Non-Dutch residents with a valid (or recently valid) Dutch long-term residence permit that was lost, stolen, or expired during overseas travel
- Holders of an IND-issued V-number seeking to return to the Netherlands to renew their residence permit
Not eligible under this visa:
- First-time applicants with no prior Dutch residence permit — apply for an MVV instead
- Short-stay visitors (tourists, business travellers) — apply under the relevant Schengen short-stay category
- Applicants whose previous residence permit was revoked
What it costs
Government & VFS fees
Paid directly to The Netherlands / VFS — these are not our service fee, and we never mark them up.
| Item | Amount |
|---|---|
| Schengen visa — adult (normal fee) | ₹9,790 |
| Schengen visa — child 6 to 11 years | ₹4,890 |
| Schengen visa — child under 6 years | FREE |
| VFS service charge (per application, with biometrics) | ₹1,855 |
Fees effective 1 April 2026 as published by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Payment accepted in cash, debit/credit card, or UPI at VFS. All fees (visa + service charge) are non-refundable, regardless of visa outcome. Schengen "low fee" of €35 applies only to citizens of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Belarus under visa facilitation agreements — not applicable to Indian nationals.
Flights · Hotels · Insurance · Itinerary
What The Netherlands actually requires — and what it does not.
The Netherlands applies the Schengen rules, so travel insurance is not a nice-to-have — it is a legal condition of the visa.
2 of 4 are compulsory for The Netherlands
Flight reservation
The The Netherlands consulate wants a return itinerary with a real PNR covering your exact dates. It does not want a paid ticket, and buying one before a decision puts your money at risk for nothing.
Where people slip: Flying into one city and out of another with nothing showing how you travel between them. Officers read the whole route, and an unexplained gap reads as a plan that does not hold together.
How to hold a flight without payingHotel booking
Accommodation for EVERY night of the stay. Not most nights — every one. A gap is a documented refusal ground under the Schengen code.
Where people slip: Free-cancellation bookings are accepted, but if the entire file is free-cancellation the officer sees a trip nobody has committed to. Some of it should be real spend.
Refundable hotel booking, explainedTravel insurance
Minimum EUR 30,000 medical cover, valid in every Schengen state, including repatriation and emergency medical evacuation, for the full period of stay. Regulation (EC) 810/2009 — this is law, not preference.
Where people slip: Buying cover for the adults and forgetting the children. Every traveller needs their own EUR 30,000, infants included — a real refusal we have seen on a family of four.
What the cover must actually sayTravel itinerary
A day-by-day plan matching your flights, your hotels and the country you applied to. The Netherlands must be your main destination or your first point of entry, or you are at the wrong consulate.
Where people slip: Spending more nights in another Schengen country than in The Netherlands. That gets a file rejected before it is even assessed.
The letter your itinerary attaches toWe arrange all four for your The Netherlands file.
We are a B2B travel agency as well as a visa consultancy, working with partners including Riya Travel — so the flight, the hotel and the policy all come from us, issued the same day, and you deal with one team instead of four. Every booking is a real one under your own name.
What to gather
Documents required
Having a document isn't the same as presenting it right — that's the part we handle.
Personal documents
3 items- Completed and signed Schengen visa application form (with unique code)Required
Filled ONLINE only.
- Valid passport / travel document (original)Required
<10 years old, 2 blank visa pages, valid 3+ months after intended return to the Netherlands, signed.
- Biometric photograph (3.5cm × 4.5cm, ≤6 months old, white/light background)Required
Residence permit documents (core requirement)
3 items- If permit EXPIRED: proof of when you left the Netherlands or Schengen areaRequired
E.g. a travel ticket or exit stamp in your passport showing you left before the permit expired.
- If permit LOST or STOLEN: police report from the location of the incidentRequired
Obtain from the local police wherever the document was lost/stolen.
- If permit LOST or STOLEN: your V-number issued by the IND (Immigration and Naturalisation Service)Required
Your V-number is printed on IND letters and on the back of your residence permit.
Travel documents
1 item- Travel reservation back to the NetherlandsRequired
A reservation in your name is sufficient — paid ticket not required.
Documents relating to minors (if applicable)
3 items- Birth certificate extract + consent form signed by non-travelling parent/guardianRequired
- Signed valid travel document of non-travelling parent/guardianRequired
- Court permission / guardianship proof / death certificate (if applicable)
Required · optional / if applicable
The journey.
7 steps from intake to approval. Curved spine on the right shows the natural pace — never as linear as government sites pretend.
- 01
If lost/stolen: file a police report immediately
At the location of loss/theft. Required for the application.
- 02
Retrieve your V-number
Find it on previous IND letters or on the back of your old residence permit. The IND uses it to verify your identity and residence status.
- 03
Complete the online Schengen application form
Fill online, print, sign.
- 04
Prepare proof of exit
If permit expired, show a travel ticket or exit stamp proving you left the Schengen area before it expired.
- 05
Book a travel reservation back to the Netherlands
A reservation in your name is sufficient.
- 06
Book VFS appointment and submit + biometrics
Pay €90 + ₹1,855 VFS service charge.
- 07
Re-enter and apply at the IND for a replacement residence permit
Once back in the Netherlands, apply for a replacement residence card at the IND. Note: Indian nationals must take a tuberculosis (TB) test within 3 months of return.
What works
11 levers that flip a borderline case.
- Complete the Schengen visa application form ONLINE only — forms without a unique code can cause processing issues. Handwritten forms are rejected.
- Travel medical insurance covering minimum €30,000 is MANDATORY and must be valid across all Schengen states for the entire duration of your trip, including arrival and departure dates.
- Personal bank statements must be from the last 3 months, stamped and signed by your bank. Plain print-outs without a bank stamp are not accepted.
- Photo must be colour, no more than 6 months old, 3.5cm × 4.5cm, with a white or light-coloured background. If applying through VFS, a digital photo may be taken at your appointment instead.
What kills cases
Top 3 refusal triggers we see.
- 1No IND record of the applicant — in which case an MVV is the correct route, not an Entry Visa
- 2Police report missing (for lost/stolen cases)
- 3V-number cannot be provided or doesn't match IND records
Download official forms
Each link opens the official The Netherlands page on VFS Global (we never host third-party forms): pick your visa category there and use its "Download Form" section for the current version.
Online Schengen Visa Application Form
Must be completed ONLINE only — the form generates a unique code that the embassy uses to process your file. Print the completed form and sign it. Handwritten forms are NOT accepted.
Proof of Sponsorship and/or Private Accommodation (IND form)
Only if you are being hosted by a Dutch resident. Host completes the form, signs it, and has it legalised at the Dutch municipality (gemeente) where they are registered, then sends the original to you.
VFS application centres
Quiz not yet available for this visa type
We're actively building per-visa quizzes. For now, the best way to assess your eligibility for Netherlands Entry Visa (Return Visa for Residence Permit Holders) is a 1-on-1 consultation with our team.
Frequently asked
Questions, answered straight
Only those who already hold — or very recently held — a valid Dutch long-term residence permit that was lost, stolen, or expired during travel abroad. First-time applicants must use the MVV route instead.
Your V-number (alien registration number) is issued by the IND. It appears on IND letters and on the back of your residence permit. It's used to verify your identity and residence status during the Entry Visa application.
Yes. A police report from the location where your permit was lost or stolen is mandatory.
You must justify in writing why you couldn't return in time. Genuine reasons (illness, emergencies) supported by documentation are considered case-by-case.
Yes. An MVV is for people applying fresh to live in the Netherlands. An Entry Visa is for those who already had legal long-term residence and need to return to reinstate it.
Yes. Upon return to the Netherlands, you apply for a replacement residence permit at the IND.
Reviewed by Sherbir Singh Grewal, SureshotVisa — a government-licensed consultancy (Licence 849/DC/PTA/PLA/LC-3/2024). Verify us.
How we get it done
Your The Netherlands Netherlands Entry Visa, from your first message to your passport back.
5 questions about this visa specifically. The first two are open — tap any other to read it.
Refused? Our full service fee comes back.Government and visa-centre fees are the one part nobody can refund.
+How long can I actually stay on a The Netherlands Schengen visa?
Up to 90 days — sufficient to re-enter and apply for a replacement residence permit. The window rolls: on any given day the authorities count backwards 180 days and add up the days you were inside. It is not 90 days per country and it does not reset when you leave and come back. Entries are as granted by the embassy. Getting this arithmetic wrong is how people end up overstaying without realising, which follows you into every future application.
+Should I apply to The Netherlands or to another Schengen country?
You apply to the country you will spend the most nights in. If the nights are equal across several, you apply to the one you enter first. Applying to the "easier" consulate when your itinerary says otherwise is a well-known refusal ground and, if the mismatch looks deliberate, it reads as misrepresentation rather than a mistake. Send us your itinerary and we will tell you which mission is the correct one for your trip — sometimes that is not The Netherlands.
+How long does a The Netherlands Netherlands Entry Visa take, start to finish?
Three things sit between today and your trip: preparing the file properly, waiting for an appointment, and the mission's own processing. The Netherlands currently states Average 15 calendar days from submission; maximum 45 calendar days. Apply up to 6 months before travel. Processing cannot be expedited by contacting NetherlandsWorldwide or the embassy. for the decision itself. We control the first, which is usually days. The middle depends on slot releases. The third is entirely the mission's and no consultant can shorten it — anyone telling you otherwise is selling something they cannot deliver. Tell us your travel date and we will tell you honestly whether it is realistic.
+How much of what I pay for the The Netherlands visa is actually your fee?
Most of it is not ours. The The Netherlands government fee (currently ₹9,790) goes to the mission and the visa-centre fee goes to VFS — both charged to you at cost, never marked up, and shown as separate lines on one GST invoice in the registered company name. Our service fee is the only part we set, and it is published rather than quoted case by case.
+How does SureshotVisa handle my The Netherlands Netherlands Entry Visa, from first message to passport back?
You send what you have on WhatsApp and a licensed consultant says the same working day whether the case is ready. We build the file around your profile, check every document against the others, write the cover letter to match them, and hold the file complete so the first workable appointment can be taken the moment it appears. You attend biometrics; we track the file to the decision (The Netherlands currently states Average 15 calendar days from submission; maximum 45 calendar days. Apply up to 6 months before travel. Processing cannot be expedited by contacting NetherlandsWorldwide or the embassy.). Government and visa-centre fees (₹9,790 for this visa) are charged at cost; our own fee is published, and if the visa is refused that fee comes back in full.
Before you file
A The Netherlands Netherlands Entry Visa goes one of two ways.
Filed on a guessed checklist, the government fee is gone on a refusal and the refusal follows every future application. Filed after a licensed consultant has read the papers against each other, the file answers the officer's questions before they are asked. Same The Netherlands rules, different outcome. How we do that is written once, in full, on the method page rather than repeated here.
Other The Netherlands Visa Types
Netherlands Tourist Visa (Schengen Short-Stay, Type C)
Apply for a Netherlands Tourist Visa (Schengen Short-Stay Type C) from India. Official fees, complete document checklist, processing time, and VFS application guide — sourced from the Dutch embassy and VFS Global.
View guideNetherlands Business & Official Visit Visa (Schengen Type C)
Apply for a Netherlands Business or Official Visit Visa from India. Covers meetings, conferences, training, trade fairs, and official visits. Complete fees, documents, and VFS application guide sourced from the Dutch embassy.
View guideNetherlands Visit to Family & Friends Visa (Schengen Type C)
Apply for a Netherlands Visit to Family & Friends Visa from India. Covers visits to Dutch resident family, friends, and partners. Sponsorship form requirements, complete checklist, fees, and processing time.
View guideNetherlands Airport Transit Visa (Type A)
Information on the Netherlands Airport Transit Visa (ATV) for changing aircraft at a Schengen airport. Indian passport holders typically do NOT require an ATV — check before applying.
View guideNetherlands — Family Member of EU/EEA/Swiss Citizen (Facilitated Schengen Visa)
Facilitated Schengen visa for family members of EU, EEA, or Swiss citizens travelling to or joining them in the Netherlands. Visa fee is WAIVED under EU Directive 2004/38/EC. Includes Chavez-Vilchez route for parents of Dutch minor children.
View guideNetherlands Seafarer Visa — Blue Carpet Programme (Schengen Type C)
Facilitated Schengen visa for Indian seafarers joining a ship in a Dutch port under the Blue Carpet Programme. Priority processing, multi-entry visas, 9-month advance application window. Complete documents and invitation requirements.
View guideNetherlands Cultural, Sports, Religious & Film Crews Visa (Schengen Type C)
Apply for a Netherlands Schengen visa to attend cultural events, sports competitions, religious gatherings, or as a film crew member. Only for travellers not paid by a Dutch entity. Complete documents, fees, and process.
View guideNetherlands Orange Carpet Visa (Facilitated Business — Schengen Type C)
Fast-track business Schengen visa for employees of companies registered with the Netherlands Embassy in India as Orange Carpet eligible. Walk-in submission, priority processing, simplified documentation.
View guideSource & Disclaimer
Data on this page is sourced from the official VFS Global The Netherlands website and Embassy of The Netherlands. Last verified 2026-04-24. Always verify with the official embassy before applying — fees and requirements change without notice.
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