6.1    General information

When a diplomatic mission or consular post registers a staff member with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, the Ministry assesses whether the staff member was either a Dutch national, a permanent resident or in possession of a residence permit at the time of posting.

Under Articles 37 and 38 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations, staff members who are permanent residents (under the Aliens Act 2000) or have Dutch nationality, are not entitled to the same privileges and immunities as other diplomatic, technical or administrative staff members. Persons who were permanent residents when they were posted to a mission are given the annotation ‘/DV’ on their identity card, in addition to the regular code on the card (for example: ‘BD/DV’, ‘ED/DV’). 

Criteria for ‘permanent residency’ (see NV DPG-Min-BuZa.2022.13556-28 dated 29 December 2022):
A person is considered to be ‘permanent resident’ if one of the following circumstances is applicable: 
1. The staff member or dependent in question is in possession of a valid Dutch residence permit; 
OR 
2. The staff member or dependent has been living in the Netherlands for a period of 6 months or more immediately prior to the staff member assuming his or her position with the diplomatic mission or international organisation concerned.

This rule also applies to staff members or dependents who, after living in the Netherlands for a period of 6 months or more, departed from the Netherlands and returned within 6 months (this used to be 12 months) after their date of departure. 

Exceptions: The second option does not apply when one of the following circumstances was applicable to the staff member or dependent in question, while he or she was living in the Netherlands during the above-mentioned period of 6 months or more: 

a) He or she was employed by an international organisation or diplomatic mission as a staff member without the “/DV” status code addition, and registered as such with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs;
b) He or she was registered with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a dependent without the “/DV” status code addition, of a staff member of an international organisation or diplomatic mission; 
c) He or she followed a fulltime education programme at a university, HBO- institution or MBO-institution in the Netherlands.

6.2    Diplomatic staff who are not nationals of the sending state

Diplomatic agents must, in principle, have the nationality of the sending state (under Article 8 of the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations). A sending state that intends to post a diplomatic agent who is a national of the Netherlands or of a third State should make a written request for the Ministry’s consent. The Ministry’s express and prior written consent is a precondition for any such appointment. The Ministry’s consent may be withdrawn at any time.