Registration Den Haag: The Hague Municipality BRP Guide

Last updated: 4 September 2026. Every fee, deadline and document requirement below was checked against denhaag.nl on that date, and the appointment waiting time was read from the municipality’s live booking system the same day. Fees and waiting times change without notice — where a number matters to your plans, the official page linked beside it is always the final word.

Your First Official Step in The Hague

If you have just arrived in The Hague, congratulations — you have chosen one of Europe’s most international cities. But before you can open a bank account, sign a permanent rental contract, start a job or see a doctor, you need one thing: a burgerservicenummer (BSN), the Dutch citizen service number.

Getting a BSN means registering in the Basisregistratie Personen (BRP) at Gemeente Den Haag. This guide walks through the whole process as it actually works in late 2026, including the two things that catch almost everyone out: the proof of occupancy your landlord may not want to sign, and an appointment queue that is currently running into next year.

Read this first: the appointment queue is months long, and that is survivable

This is the single most important thing on this page, and it is the thing every other English-language guide gets wrong.

On 4 September 2026 we opened the municipality’s own booking system for a first BRP registration and read the earliest slot it offered. It was:

Thursday 21 January 2027, at the Segbroek district office — roughly 19 weeks, or about four and a half months, from the date we checked. The system noted “in januari zijn er 7 dagen beschikbaar” (7 days available in January), and pre-selected that first slot automatically.

We checked two separate booking products — the EU/EEA/Swiss route and the residence-permit route — and both returned the same first available date. So this is not a quirk of one queue.

For comparison: this guide previously said 1–3 weeks, and the best independent competitor currently says 3–5 weeks. Both are badly out of date. If you plan around either figure you will be planning around a number that no longer exists.

Why the 5-day rule and a 19-week queue are not a contradiction

Newcomers panic at this point, because they have read that they must register within five days of arriving. Here is the reconciliation, and it comes straight from the municipality’s own registration page:

“Do you want to backdate your registration? This can be done on the date you made the appointment. Even if the appointment is later.”

In other words, the date that counts is the date you book, not the date you are seen. Book your appointment as soon as you arrive and your registration is backdated to that booking date, even if the counter appointment itself is in January.

The municipality attaches conditions to this, and they matter:

You must have made the appointment after you came to live in the Netherlands — not before you arrived.
You must bring a copy of the appointment confirmation to the appointment. You receive it by email; print it or show it on your phone, tablet or laptop.
It must be clearly visible when you made the appointment. Do not delete that email, and do not rely on the booking reference alone.

The practical instruction: book the appointment on your first or second day in the country, before you have unpacked, before you have a permanent contract, before anything else. The slot can be months away. The booking date is what protects you.

Is the waiting time the same as the processing time?

No, and conflating the two is where a lot of the confusion online comes from. There are three different clocks:

Time to an appointment — currently about 19 weeks for a first registration (checked 4 September 2026).
Time at the counter — the booking system states the appointment takes about 20 minutes.
Time to process a reported move (a different transaction, for people already in the BRP) — the municipality says an online move report is processed within 5 working days.

A guide quoting “a few weeks” is usually describing one of the last two, not the queue for a first registration appointment.

Two ways to skip the queue

Neither is available to everyone, but both are real:

The Hague International Centre. It runs its own appointments and explicitly offers municipal registration for employees and, through a separate form, students — and lets you combine municipal registration with IND formalities (biometrics, collecting residence documents) in one session. If you are arriving for a job or a university place, start here rather than with the general queue.
Book by telephone. The municipality lists 14070 (or +31 70 353 30 00 from abroad) for appointments, and specifically suggests calling if you need an appointment for yourself and your family. A phone booking can surface options the web form does not.

Step 1: Check if you need to register at all

The dividing line is four months, and it is about how long you will be living here, not what visa you hold.

Staying 4 months or longer: full BRP registration. This is required by law. You get a BSN and you are a registered resident.
Staying less than 4 months: the Registratie Niet-Ingezetenen (RNI) route instead — the non-residents register. You still get a BSN, but you are not a resident of the municipality.

Two more distinctions the municipality draws, which decide which page and which booking product apply to you:

Have you lived in the Netherlands before, or do you already have a BSN? Then you are not doing a first registration — you are re-registering (“resettling”), which is a different form.
Are you a Dutch citizen returning from abroad? Separate route again.

The conditions for a first registration as an EU/EEA or Swiss citizen are, verbatim from denhaag.nl: you hold that citizenship, you will live in The Hague for 4 months or longer, you have not previously been registered in the Netherlands, and you do not yet have a BSN.

Step 2: Book the appointment (do this today)

Registration itself costs nothing. The appointment is booked online through the municipality’s booking system, and the product you choose depends on your route — the EU/EEA/Swiss first registration and the residence-permit first registration are separate products in the system, both currently seen at the Segbroek district office.

Where: Stadsdeelkantoor Segbroek, Fahrenheitstraat 190, 2561 EH Den Haag.
Opening hours: Monday to Friday, 08:30–16:30.
Appointment length: about 20 minutes.
Cost: free.
By phone: 14070, or +31 70 353 30 00 from outside the Netherlands.

Note the address carefully. A lot of English-language material — including, until this update, this page — sends people to the Spui city hall or the Leyweg office for registration. The booking system currently puts first BRP registrations at Segbroek. Go where your confirmation email says, not where a guide says.

Everyone registering must attend. The municipality is explicit: all family members who want to be registered have to be at the appointment, including babies, young children and older relatives. You cannot register your spouse or child in their absence.

Proof of occupancy (bewijs van bewoning): the thing that actually blocks people

If your registration fails, this is overwhelmingly why. Not your passport, not your birth certificate — the piece of paper that proves you actually live at the address you are claiming.

The municipality calls it proof of occupancy, in Dutch bewijs van bewoning. Its purpose, in the municipality’s own words, is so that “the municipality will then know that you are registering at the correct address.” What counts depends entirely on your living situation.

If you own the property

Include one of the following:

A copy of the signed purchase deed, showing the page with your name, the address, the contract start date and the signature.
A preliminary sales contract, together with a keyholder agreement form stating that you may use the property earlier.
A copy of the deed of conveyance (akte van levering).
A copy of the mortgage deed (hypotheekakte).

If you rent the property yourself

Include one of:

A copy of the signed rental contract — specifically the page showing your name, the address, the contract start date and the signature.
An affordable housing permit (huisvestingsvergunning), if you have one.

The private-landlord catch: if you rent from a private owner rather than a housing corporation, you must also include a copy of the identity document of the main occupant or owner. And the municipality reserves the right to ask for more — it specifically mentions it may request proof of ownership from the landlord.

If you are moving in with someone else

This is the situation most newcomers are actually in — a room in a shared flat, a partner’s apartment, a spare room at a friend’s. Here the rule is:

The main occupant or owner must give you permission, using the municipality’s permission form (declaration of permission by the main occupant/owner). You can download the official form as a PDF.
You also need a copy of that person’s identity document.
If the property has more than one owner or main occupant, you only need permission from one of them. This is a genuinely useful detail: in a four-person shared house, one housemate’s signature is enough. You do not need to chase everybody.

What a verklaring van inwoning actually is

You will see the phrase verklaring van inwoning (declaration of residence/co-habitation) used on forums and in landlord emails. In The Hague’s process this is the same thing as the permission form above: a signed declaration by the person who holds the property, confirming that you live there with their agreement, accompanied by a copy of their ID. It is not a separate legal instrument you obtain elsewhere, and it is not something a notary has to draw up. It is the municipality’s own one-page form.

When the landlord refuses to sign

This is the hard case, and it is common enough that it deserves plain treatment. Landlords refuse for a few predictable reasons: the tenancy is informal or undeclared, the property is already over its permitted number of registrations, the landlord is sub-letting without permission, or they simply fear tax or housing-permit consequences.

What you can actually do, in rough order of preference:

Ask specifically for the municipality’s form, not a free-text letter. Some landlords refuse a vague “letter confirming I live here” but will sign a standard municipal form once they see it is one page and routine.
Point out who else can sign. If there are multiple owners or main occupants, only one signature is needed. In a shared house, the housemate whose name is on the contract can often sign without involving the landlord at all.
Check whether you even need permission. If your own name is on a signed rental contract, you do not need anyone’s permission form — the contract itself is your proof.
Understand that refusal may be a warning sign. A landlord who will not let you register is, in practice, offering you a tenancy you cannot legally live in. You cannot get a BSN, health insurance, a bank account or a salary paid normally. If a landlord refuses at the point of signing, that is information about the tenancy, not just an inconvenience.
Speak to the municipality directly on 14070 and describe the situation before your appointment. It is better to hear what they will accept than to lose your slot after a 19-week wait.

We have deliberately not listed a “workaround” here. Registering at an address where you do not live is address fraud, and it is the one mistake on this page with genuinely serious consequences — see below.

Sub-letting a room

If you sublet from a tenant rather than from the owner, you are in the “moving in with somebody” category: the person who is the registered main occupant signs the permission form and provides ID. The complication is that many rental contracts forbid sub-letting, which is exactly why some tenants will not sign. If the main tenant cannot sign because their own contract does not allow you to be there, the address is not one you can register at, and no form will fix that.

Hotels, Airbnbs, and temporary housing

A hotel or short-let is not a residential address for BRP purposes, and this is where the four-month rule bites: if you are genuinely staying under four months, the RNI route exists precisely for you and does not require a residential address in the same way. If you are staying longer but have not yet found permanent housing, your realistic options are:

Register at a temporary address you legitimately occupy, with the occupant’s permission form, and then report a move later when you find something permanent. Reporting a move is free, can be done online, and is processed within 5 working days.
Ask about a mailing address (briefadres). The municipality operates a separate mailing-address request for people who genuinely have no residential address. It is not a convenience option and it is assessed case by case, but it exists and it is the correct route rather than borrowing a friend’s address.

Do not simply register at a friend’s address “for now” while actually living elsewhere. That is the specific thing the municipality investigates.

Step 3: The document checklist

Bring originals. Bring more than you think you need. The municipality reviews what you bring even when it is not strictly required.

Required at the appointment:

A valid identity document. The municipality states explicitly that this may not be a driving licence — bring a passport or national ID card.
Your proof of occupancy for your situation (see the section above). This is the one people arrive without.
Every family member registering, in person, including babies.
Your appointment confirmation, printed or on your phone — needed if you want the registration backdated to your booking date.

Bring if they apply to you — the municipality is clear that these are not required for registration, but that it will review them and enter the details in the BRP if they are in order:

Your birth certificate
Birth certificates of your partner and/or children
Marriage certificate or certificate of civil partnership
Divorce papers
Adoption papers, or a death certificate for a partner or child

Legalisation and apostilles. Foreign certificates generally need to be legalised — made official with a signature and stamp, or an apostille. The requirements differ by issuing country, and the authoritative source is the Dutch government’s own legalisation guidance, where you select the country that issued your document. Start this early: in some countries it takes months, and it is the single most common reason a registration has to be completed in two visits.

Step 4: At the counter

The appointment is short — about 20 minutes. An official checks your identity document, checks your proof of occupancy, enters your details in the BRP, and your BSN follows.

Three practical points about the Segbroek office specifically, from the municipality’s own page for that location:

Payment is by bank card only. Cash is not accepted. If you need to pay for anything on the day — an extract, for instance — a bank card is the only option.
You cannot apply for travel documents or driving licences at this office. If you were planning to combine errands, you cannot do it here.
Arrive on time. The municipality warns that if you arrive too late, there may be no time to help you — and given the queue, a missed appointment is an expensive mistake.

Step 5: What happens after registration

Once you are in the BRP and hold a BSN:

Get a DigiD. Apply at digid.nl. This is your login for essentially every Dutch government service — tax, benefits, healthcare, parking permits. You cannot apply before you have a BSN, and the activation code arrives by post, so allow time.
Arrange Dutch health insurance. This is compulsory and time-limited, and the penalty for leaving it is a backdated premium, so treat it as urgent rather than administrative. Our guide to Dutch health insurance for expats covers the deadline, what basisverzekering actually includes, and how to choose an insurer.
Open a Dutch bank account. Most banks want your BSN, and several will now accept an application before your physical residence documents arrive. Requirements vary by bank, so check current conditions with the bank directly rather than trusting a guide’s list.
Register with a GP (huisarts). Do this before you are ill, not after. Practices in the more international neighbourhoods fill up, and registration can take weeks.
Budget for the city. Once the paperwork is done the question becomes what living here actually costs — our cost of living in The Hague guide covers rent, utilities and the monthly fixed costs that surprise newcomers.
Work through the rest of the move. Our Moving to The Hague checklist sets out the full sequence and what depends on what.

Fees: what registration actually costs you

Registering in the BRP is free. What costs money is the paperwork you need afterwards — and almost every newcomer needs at least one BRP extract, because employers, banks and housing agencies ask for one.

All amounts below were checked on denhaag.nl on 4 September 2026.

Document	At the counter	Online	Notes
BRP registration itself	Free	—	The appointment costs nothing
Extract from the BRP (uittreksel BRP)	€18.40	€19.80	Online price includes postage; sent within 3 working days. At the counter you receive it immediately
Proof of citizen service number (BSN)	€18.40	€19.80	Online paid by iDEAL, includes postage
Attestation de vita (proof of life)	€17.80	€17.80	Free of charge if you are retired or already receive a pension
Legalisation of a signature	€18.10	—	Charged per signature and per person

Two costs we deliberately have not put a number on. Apostilles on foreign documents are issued by the authorities of the issuing country, not by Gemeente Den Haag, so there is no single Dutch price — check the country-specific legalisation guidance. Sworn translations are supplied by private sworn translators at market rates, which vary by language and urgency; the municipality does not set or publish a tariff. Any guide quoting you a firm figure for either is guessing.

Deregistering when you leave The Hague

Almost no English-language guide covers this, and it is a legal obligation with real financial consequences. If you stay registered after you have gone, you may remain liable for Dutch local taxes and, in some circumstances, health-insurance premiums for a period you were not even in the country.

Moving within The Hague

Report the move to the municipality. You can do this from 4 weeks before your move until 5 days after it. Online reports are processed within 5 working days and you are registered on the moving date you gave. If you report more than 5 days late, the day the municipality receives your change of address becomes your official move date — which can matter for benefits, tax and housing.

Moving to another Dutch municipality

Do nothing in The Hague. Register with your new municipality and you are deregistered from The Hague automatically.

Moving abroad

This one you must do yourself, and the rules are specific:

You are required to notify the municipality if you will live outside the Netherlands for longer than 8 months within one year. Those 8 months do not have to be continuous — several shorter absences that add up will trigger the obligation.
You may report your departure from 5 days before you leave.
You must report it yourself. Nobody can do it on your behalf, with narrow exceptions for spouses, registered partners and parents of minors travelling together.
You must give a new address abroad. If you do not have a fixed one yet, use your first known address — a hotel, a family member, a friend.
You will usually receive no confirmation. Do not wait for one. If you need proof that you deregistered, request it.
If you have already left, you cannot specify a moving date retrospectively.

You can report a move abroad by email to dpz.kcctl@denhaag.nl, attaching a copy of your identity document and a signed letter stating your old address, your new address or at least the destination country, your departure date, and a clear signature — the municipality specifies a signature, not initials. Use the Dutch government’s KopieID app to make a safe copy of your ID rather than sending a plain scan.

Den Haag registration: the mistakes that actually get people turned away

Arriving without proof of occupancy. The most common failure by a wide margin. A rental contract in your own name, or the signed permission form plus a copy of the signer’s ID. Nothing else substitutes.
Bringing a driving licence as identification. The municipality rules it out explicitly. Passport or national ID card.
Leaving a family member at home. Everyone being registered must be present, babies included.
Losing the appointment confirmation email. Without it you may lose the backdating that protects your registration date — which after a 19-week wait is a costly thing to lose.
Going to the wrong building. First registrations are currently at Segbroek, not the Spui city hall. Follow your confirmation email.
Assuming you can pay cash. The Segbroek office takes bank cards only.
Starting the apostille process late. Legalisation in the issuing country is the slowest part of the whole process and the one you cannot rush from here.

Address fraud: why the municipality checks

Registering at an address where you do not actually live is a criminal offence in the Netherlands, not an administrative shortcut. The municipality actively investigates: it operates a formal address investigation procedure, and anyone — including a landlord or a housemate — can request one when they believe somebody is registered at an address where they do not reside.

We are not quoting a penalty figure here. The consequences depend on the specific offence and are set by national law rather than published as a municipal tariff, and an invented number would be worse than none. What is verifiable and worth knowing is simpler: the municipality has a standing mechanism for investigating exactly this, and being deregistered by an investigation is considerably worse for you than a delayed registration.

Frequently asked questions

Can I register before I arrive in the Netherlands?

No — and if you want your registration backdated, the appointment must have been booked after you came to live here. Booking from abroad in advance can cost you the backdating.

Can I get a BSN without a Dutch address?

Yes, through the RNI (non-residents) route, if you will be in the Netherlands for less than four months. It gives you a BSN but does not make you a registered resident of the municipality.

Do I need a Dutch bank account before registering?

No. The order runs the other way: registration gives you the BSN that most banks require.

What if my appointment is months away and my employer needs a BSN now?

Speak to The Hague International Centre, which handles municipal registration for employees and can combine it with IND formalities. Employers relocating staff routinely go through that route rather than the public queue.

How long does the appointment itself take?

About 20 minutes, according to the municipality’s booking system.

Is registration free?

Yes. The extracts and certificates you may need afterwards are not — see the fee table above.

Sources and verification

Every figure, deadline and document requirement on this page was checked against a primary source on 4 September 2026. Where we could not verify something, we have said so on the page rather than filling the gap with a plausible number.

Gemeente Den Haag — 1st BRP registration, EU/EEA and Swiss citizens (conditions, documents, backdating rule, appointment booking)
Gemeente Den Haag — Proof of occupancy (accepted documents per living situation, permission form)
Gemeente Den Haag — Deregister from the municipality and Report your move abroad (8-month rule, procedure)
Gemeente Den Haag — BRP extract, Proof of BSN, Attestation de vita, Legalise signature (fees)
Gemeente Den Haag — district offices (Segbroek address, opening hours, card-only payment)
Gemeente Den Haag online appointment system (denhaag.mijnafspraakmaken.nl), first available slot read directly on 4 September 2026
The Hague International Centre (appointments for employees and students)
Netherlands Worldwide — legalisation (apostilles by country)

Waiting times in particular move fast. If you are reading this well after September 2026, re-check the booking system yourself before planning around the 21 January 2027 figure — it is a snapshot, not a constant.

The Hague, for internationals

One email a week: what changed for internationals in The Hague, the week's news from the Netherlands, and one guide worth reading. No spam, unsubscribe any time.