FAQs - visa application for students with a non-EU/EER nationality
Yes, you will need to request a student visa/residence permit even if you begin your studies online. Leiden University has decided to proceed with all visa and residence permit requests before the start of the semester to ensure students can enter the Netherlands as soon as this becomes possible or necessary.
Note that different procedures apply for certain LLM Advanced Studies programmes. If this applies to you, you will receive further information by email.
Students who need an entry visa and residence permit:
If you plan to come to the Netherlands by 1 September, you must submit your request in the online application portal (uSis) by 15 June. If you are having problems obtaining the necessary documents due to corona measures, for example language test results, the deadline can be extended until 1 August. However, be aware that that you will have to wait 6 to 8 weeks from the date you submit your request until you can collect your visa and enter the Netherlands, therefore you may have to begin your studies online.
If you expect that you will come later, due to travel restrictions, you can submit your request until 1 August. Note that you will have to wait 6 to 8 weeks from the date you submit your request until you can collect your visa and enter the Netherlands
Students who need a residence permit only:
The deadline for submitting your residence permit request has been extended until 1 August, regardless of whether you expect to arrive by 1 September or not.
If your arrival is delayed, you can arrange with your study programme to start your studies online from home. Make sure to inform the visa team if you are delayed, so they can check whether an extension of your entry visa is required and help you to arrange this.
Yes, you can cancel your visa/residence permit application at any time via the visa team contact form. However, be aware that we can only refund your visa/residence permit fee if your application has not yet been submitted to the Dutch immigration department (IND). Thereafter, the fee is non-refundable.
Yes, if you cannot come and cancel your studies, you can request that the funds be refunded to a bank account in your home country. Contact the visa team for assistance.
Leiden University will request all student visas/residence permits before the start of the academic year, to ensure that students can travel to the Netherlands as soon as this becomes possible or necessary. For this reason, you do still need to demonstrate that you have sufficient funds for a whole year. See the visa/residence permit application instructions for details of how to do so.
Be aware that if you transfer funds for living expenses to Leiden University, these funds can only be transferred to your Dutch bank account after you arrive in the Netherlands and open an account.
In order to prevent the spread of coronavirus in the Netherlands, the Dutch government has put additional rules in place for passengers flying to and from the country. These passengers must complete a Health Declaration Form. This health certificate form is provided by the airline prior to boarding. Passengers from certain countries are also urged to self-quarantine for 14 days after arriving in the Netherlands.
More information can be found at the website of the Dutch Governement
No additional documents are required if you have a valid entry visa (MVV) or an EU/EEA passport.
If you have been granted a student residence permit, but do not need an entry visa, an additional document is required. Namely a copy of the letter issued by the IND stating that your residence permit request has been approved. You can request a copy of this letter by sending a mail to: visa@sea.leidenuniv.nl.
If your country is still subject to Dutch travel restrictions, you may enter the Netherlands upon showing proof that you are about to start studying at a Dutch university. The following items can be accepted as proof:
- A student entry visa (MVV)
- If you do not need an entry visa but have been granted a student residence permit: a copy of the letter issued by the IND stating that your residence permit request has been approved. You can request a copy of this letter by sending a mail to: visa@sea.leidenuniv.nl.
In general a MVV does grant the right to transit to the Netherlands via any other Schengen country. However, due to COVID-19 measures transit might not be possible. This might differ per country. You are therefore advised to be well-informed before you start your journey, by consulting travel updates of the country you need to transit through.
FAQs - for prospective students who want to apply to Leiden University
We are ready and waiting to welcome you into our University community in the coming academic year. Leiden University is making preparations for the coming semester step by step. What we are able to do depends very much on the possibilities given to us by the Dutch government. The government is monitoring closely how the coronavirus is developing, and will relax the intelligent lockdown measures step by step as soon as circumstances permit. For the time being, we are preparing to provide our teaching from September 2020 up to and including January 2021 largely online, and where possible in our University buildings. We are taking all the likely scenarios into account, and hope that we will be able to meet one another on campus in the very near future.
Read more in the dossier first year students
Bachelor's deadlines:
- If you have a non-EU/EER nationality, the deadline for most bachelor’s programmes with an application deadline of 1 April has been extended to 1 May.
- If you have an EU/EER nationality, the deadline for most bachelor's programmes remains June 15.
- If you have a Dutch nationality, the deadline for bachelor’s programmes with an application deadline of 1 May has been extended to 1 June. Please note that the study choice check remains part of the admission procedure and can be taken online.
- All deadlines for Leiden University College The Hague or bachelor's programmes with a limited capacity (numerus fixus) remain unchanged. It is no longer possible to apply for these programmes for the September 2020 intake.
- The deadline to submit your visa application in our online application system has been extended to 15 June. (Be aware that you have to apply to Leiden University as a student with a non-EU/EER nationality before 1 May.)
Master's deadlines
- Non-EU/EER nationality
- If you have a non-EU/EER nationality, the deadline for master’s programmes with an application deadline of 1 April has been extended to 1 May.
- If you have a non-EU/EER nationality, the deadline for master's programmes with a capacity limitation (selection) has been extended from 1 April to 1 May. With the exception of the MSc Pharmacy and MSc Biomedical Science; the deadline for these programmes remained 1 April.
- EU/EER nationality
- If you have an EU/EER nationality, the deadline for most master's programmes remains June 15.
- If you have an EU/EER nationality, the deadline for masters's programmes with a capacity limitation (selection) has been extended to 15 June. With the exception of the MSc Pharmacy and MSc Biomedical Science; the deadline for these programmes remained 1 April.
- The deadline to sumbit your visa application in our online application system has been extended to 15 June. (Be aware that you have to apply to Leiden University as a student with a non-EU/EER nationality before 1 May.)
We are currently doing our best to keep to our regular processing times of 2-4 weeks for bachelor’s applications and 6-8 weeks for master’s applications. Please keep in mind that given the current situation this may take longer, particularly around deadlines.
The Ministry of Education, Culture and Science (OCW) has granted universities permission this year to admit students who have not yet completed their bachelor’s programme to a master’s programme under conditions that the universities themselves can set. In consultation with the consultation bodies, the Executive Board has chosen two variants in order to meet the needs of the different degree programmes.
Variant 1: With these degree programmes, you will be able to carry out assignments or sit exams from you bachelor’s programme in September 2020.
Variant 2: With these degree programmes, you will be able to start your master’s programme and will be able to complete your bachelor’s programme in the course of the 2020/2021 academic year, as long as you meet the conditions set by the degree programme.
This option applies to bachelor’s students who are enrolled at a research university in the Netherlands, the EU or Liechtenstein, Norway and Iceland (EEA). In some cases, this also applies to students progressing from a conversion or pre-master’s programme to a master’s programme at a research university. Alongside these two variants, a large number of degree programmes offer a second intake juncture during the academic year.
Would you like to take advantage of the option above? See the dossier of the master’s programme that you wish to follow to see which variant applies to you.
If you would like to begin a bachelor’s programme at Leiden University but will be unable to complete your university of applied sciences propaedeuse (first year) at a Dutch institute before the end of the academic year, we as a university would like to help you avoid any delay to your studies.
What do you need to do?
Register for the bachelor’s programme in Studielink by 1 June 2020, fill in this form and request a statement from your university of applied sciences on whether you can reasonably be expected to be able to complete your propaedeuse by 31 December 2020 (afrondingsadvies). Add this statement to your application for admission to the bachelor’s programme in our uSis online application portal as soon as possible, but by 1 August at the latest. The bachelor’s programme will decide whether to admit you to the programme. If it does, this will be on the condition that you complete your propaedeuse by 31 December 2020. If you do not manage to do so, your registration for the bachelor’s programme will be cancelled. Any credits you have earned may, if your university of applied sciences agrees, be added as an extracurricular course to the degree certificate that you receive from that university.
Please note: Does the Bachelor’s programme that you would like to follow set additional requirements for admission in addition to your your university of applied sciences propaedeuse (first year)? Then you must have completed this before 1 September.
Questions?
If you have any questions about admission and enrolment, the Student Affairs Front Office can help. Please fill in the online contact form and use ‘Admission request’ as the subject.
If you have any questions about the bachelor’s programme itself, please contact the study adviser for that particular programme. You will find their details under contact on the programme page.
In principle, Leiden University will be accepting all diploma credentials that appear on our diploma equivalencies list regardless of any exam postponements or cancellations. This includes the International Baccalaureate, A-levels and College Board Advanced Placement exams. If minimum grades for final exams and/or specific exam results are required for your diploma in the diploma equivalencies list and if these exams have been cancelled in your country, your application will be assessed on a case by case basis and admission might still be possible based on your final year subjects/stream/grades so far etc.
Given the current exceptional circumstances, Leiden University is actively monitoring developments around the world, and will be reviewing the implications for our admissions policy of final exams being cancelled as and when this happens. Leiden University will do its utmost to take your circumstances into consideration and offer flexibility where possible.
We recognise that these are highly unusual circumstances, and we are committed to supporting students and ensuring that the admissions process continues as smoothly as possible.
When applying, please provide as many of the required documents as you have available. The Admissions Office will contact you if further information is needed.
Please note that Leiden University will be as flexible as possible with document submission. This means that, depending on your situation, it may be possible for your school to send us your final documents by email. Where diploma or credential authorities already have an online delivery system for results, such as the International Baccalaureate, please arrange for these results to be submitted in the standard way.
If you cannot submit the documents according to the instructions in your admission statement, please first verify with your school/university which documents they can still submit and how, and then contact the Admissions Office for approval, by filling out the relevant contact form: bachelor’s admissions contact form / master's admissions contact form.
Leiden University will do its utmost to take your circumstances into consideration and offer flexibility in terms of deadlines. However, please be aware that in some situations the only option may be for you to delay your studies until a later date.
For your online application, you do not need the results of your English proficiency test. You can indicate that you have not yet taken the test in the Leiden University Online Application System (uSis). Once your results are available, submit these results according to the instructions in your conditional admission statement.
If you are an EU-EEA student, you must upload your sufficient English test result before the start date of your study programme.
If you are non-EU/EEA student, you must submit your sufficient English test results before the extended visa/residence permit application deadline. For full details see the FAQ What is the latest date on which I can submit my visa/residence permit application?
Leiden University currently accepts the iBT TOEFL Special Home Edition. You can check if this online English proficiency test is accessible for you on the ETS website. If you reside in China, the iBT Toefl Home Edition is unfortunately not available. However, we are temporarily able to accept the Toefl ITP Plus for China test.
Note that we can for the time being only accept these test for admission for academic year 2020-2021, i.e. for programmes starting in September 2020 or February 2021. Following national guidelines we can currently not yet accept the Toefl Home Edition or the Toefl ITP plus for China tests for admission for academic year 2021-2022. If the situation changes, we will update this website right away.
Leiden University does not accept the IELTS indicator test, as we are following national guidelines.
You can apply for the Nuffic certificate even if you have not taken your English proficiency test at the time of application. Nuffic will process your application without the test. As soon as you receive your English test scores, arrange for them to be submitted directly to Leiden University.
In any case, continue preparing for the exams. CCVX and Boswell have both restarted testing, and we assume that everyone can take the test this summer. The CCVX tests are not offered online. The Boswell tests are offered online, but only for students who really cannot travel to the Netherlands. Registration for the online Boswell tests is done through Leiden University. We have emailed all students that we think are eligible for these tests. If you have not received an email and are still staying abroad, please contact us using the appropriate form: bachelor’s admissions contact form.
If you are an international student and you are not yet allowed to travel to the Netherlands in August/September, you can start your study programme 100% online. This means you will be following the teaching offered by your study programme from your own home situation. When possible, you can come to Leiden or The Hague for the rest of your academic year. As soon as the situation allows you to travel to the Netherlands, you can discuss with your programme department starting to follow on-campus lectures at a later date. We take into account that it takes some time to arrange your travel.
You may also consider deferring your application to to the next available start date of your programme. Please note that the application fee is non-refundable. However, if you defer your current application or submit a new one for the next academic year, you will not have to pay this fee again.
Visa fees are only refundable if you cancel your application before the University submits your visa application to the Dutch immigration authorities (IND). If the University has already applied for your visa when you cancel your application, the visa fee is non-refundable.
You can cancel your application at any time, even if you have previously accepted the offer of admission in uSis. If you cancel before 1 September 2020, you will also be reimbursed for any tuition fees you have already paid.
If there aren’t any limitations for you to travel to the Netherlands like travel restrictions, Leiden University advises you to come to Leiden or The Hague and start your study programme here. Because it is much easier for you to switch from following lectures online to joining the lectures on campus in our university buildings. And being already in Leiden or The Hague you can get to meet your fellow students in person, get to know the city and make advantage of the possible city and university facilities.
So by saying that we advise you to start searching for housing as soon as possible! Students are expected to arrange their own housing. To help you along the way we have several tips for you on our website!
However, for international students, Leiden University Housing Office reserves a limited number of rooms each year for early applicants. Housing is allocated on first-come first-served basis, therefore you are advised to apply as early as you can. Although the housing deadline has passed, you are still welcome to submit a housing request. We anticipate that we will have a small number of rooms available for late applicants. We will let you know if we can offer you a room once we have allocated accommodation to all students who applied before the 1 June deadline. The Housing Office will begin allocating rooms from 1 June. Accommodation will be allocated in chronological order, i.e. according to the date on which you paid your housing fee. You will receive an offer of accommodation up to 8 weeks after the housing deadline. Please let us know within 5 days after receiving this offer whether you wish to accept the offer.
If you decide to start your courses completely online and don’t want to use the allocated room, after accepting the offer for housing the payment of the housing fee and first month rent are non-refundable.
Be aware that if you travel to the Netherlands after the beginning of the academic year, Leiden University Housing Office will start continuing allocating rooms for the spring semester, starting at 1 February 2021. You can always contact the Housing Office to check up on availability but most likely you will have to find a room yourself.
Unfortunately, not all questions you may have will have answers just yet. The University is working hard in these uncertain times to provide as many answers as possible.
If you have a specific question about your application or admission to Leiden University, please contact our Student Affairs Office using this form or call during office hours
FAQs - for students who have already applied or been made a conditional offer
We are ready and waiting to welcome you into our University community in the coming academic year. Exactly what form our teaching will take is something we can’t yet say for certain: what we are able to do depends very much on the possibilities given to us by the Dutch government. The government is monitoring closely how the coronavirus is developing, and will relax the intelligent lockdown measures step by step as soon as circumstances permit. For the time being, we are preparing to provide our teaching from September 2020 up to and including January 2021 largely online, and where possible in our University buildings. We are taking all the likely scenarios into account, and hope that we will be able to meet one another on campus in the very near future.
Read more in the dossier first year students
Leiden University is actively monitoring developments around the world, and will be reviewing the implications for our admissions policy of final exams being cancelled as and when this happens. Leiden University will do its utmost to take your circumstances into consideration and offer flexibility in terms of deadlines. However, please be aware that in some situations the only option may be for you to delay your studies until a later date.
In principle, Leiden University will be accepting all diploma credentials that appear on our diploma equivalencies list, regardless of any exam postponements or cancellations.
If minimum grades for final exams and/or specific exam results are required for your diploma in the diploma equivalencies list or your conditional admission statement and if these exams have been cancelled in your country, your application will be assessed on a case by case basis and admission might still be possible based on your final years subjects/stream/grades so far etc. If you have already received your conditional admission statement and this applies to you, please contact the Admissions Office using this form: bachelor’s admissions contact form.
If you already applied and been made a conditional offer based on an IB diploma or British A-levels that you will obtain in 2020: the cancellation of the exam sessions in summer 2020 will not affect your eligibility. As long as you obtain your diploma and meet the conditions specified in your letter of admission, you will be made an unconditional offer and will be able to enrol on your chosen programme in September. Please arrange for the IB or A level authority to send us your results as soon as they are available.
Leiden University currently accepts the iBT TOEFL Special Home Edition. You can check if this online English proficiency test is accessible for you on the ETS website. If you reside in China, the iBT Toefl Home Edition is unfortunately not available. However, we are temporarily able to accept the Toefl ITP Plus for China test.
If iBT TOEFL Special Home Edition is not an option for you, Leiden University will do its utmost to take your circumstances into consideration and offer flexibility in terms of deadlines. However, please be aware that in some situations the only option may be for you to delay your studies until a later date.
If you have been made a conditional offer, we need to have received your results before 15 June (non-EU/EEA students) or 1 September (EU/EEA students) to be able to make an unconditional offer.
If your test results are not available before our deadline, please contact the Admissions Office by filling out the relevant contact form: bachelor’s admissions contact form / master's admissions contact form.
Leiden University currently accepts the iBT TOEFL Special Home Edition. You can check if this online English proficiency test is accessible for you on the ETS website. If you reside in China, the iBT Toefl Home Edition is unfortunately not available. However, we are temporarily able to accept the Toefl ITP Plus for China test.
Note that we can for the time being only accept these test for admission for academic year 2020-2021, i.e. for programmes starting in September 2020 or February 2021. Following national guidelines we can currently not yet accept the Toefl Home Edition or the Toefl ITP plus for China tests for admission for academic year 2021-2022. If the situation changes, we will update this website right away.
Leiden University does not accept the IELTS indicator test, as we are following national guidelines.
If you have already applied, please note that Leiden University will be as flexible as possible with document submission. This means that, depending on your situation, it may be possible for your school to send us your final documents by email. Where diploma or credential authorities already have an online delivery system for results, such as the International Baccalaureate, please arrange for these results to be submitted in the standard way.
If you cannot submit the documents according to the instructions in your admission statement, please first verify with your school/university which documents they can still submit and how, and then contact the Admissions Office for approval, by filling out the relevant contact form: bachelor’s admissions contact form / master's admissions contact form.
Leiden University will do its utmost to take your circumstances into consideration and offer flexibility in terms of deadlines. However, please be aware that in some situations the only option may be for you to delay your studies until a later date.
In accordance with the guidelines of the Dutch government, most of our staff will be working remotely. Unfortunately, this may cause some delay in processing applications or physical documents that have been sent to the Admissions Office.
Regardless of this delay, we advise you to send us the required documents as instructed in your letter of conditional admission. We will confirm their arrival as soon as possible.
You can apply for the Nuffic certificate even if you have not taken your English proficiency test at the time of application. Nuffic will process your request without the test. As soon as you receive your English test scores, arrange for them to be submitted directly to Leiden University by the relevant testing authority.
Yes, there are no changes in the procedure despite the corona situation.
You can cancel your place via Studielink till 31 August. Note that once you cancel your place, you cannot change your mind. You will no longer be able to join the bachelor's programme in September 2020. Also be aware that if you cancel your place, it will still be counted as a used selection attempt. For more information see programmes with limited places.
The Dutch college exam will continue for the time being and depending on the result of the college exams you can obtain the VWO partial certificates. This means that you can also meet the conditions in your admission decision this year.
If you are an international student and you are not yet allowed to travel to the Netherlands in August/September, you can start your study programme 100% online. This means you will be following the teaching offered by your study programme from your own home situation. When possible, you can come to Leiden or The Hague for the rest of your academic year. As soon as the situation allows you to travel to the Netherlands, you can discuss with your programme department starting to follow on-campus lectures at a later date. We take into account that it takes some time to arrange your travel.
You may also consider deferring your application to to the next available start date of your programme. Please note that the application fee is non-refundable. However, if you defer your current application or submit a new one for the next academic year, you will not have to pay this fee again.
Visa fees are only refundable if you cancel your application before the University submits your visa application to the Dutch immigration authorities (IND). If the University has already applied for your visa when you cancel your application, the visa fee is non-refundable.
You can cancel your application at any time, even if you have previously accepted the offer of admission in uSis. If you cancel before 1 September 2020, you will also be reimbursed for any tuition fees you have already paid.
If there aren’t any limitations for you to travel to the Netherlands like travel restrictions, Leiden University advises you to come to Leiden or The Hague and start your study programme here. Because it is much easier for you to switch from following lectures online to joining the lectures on campus in our university buildings. And being already in Leiden or The Hague you can get to meet your fellow students in person, get to know the city and make advantage of the possible city and university facilities.
So by saying that we advise you to start searching for housing as soon as possible! Students are expected to arrange their own housing. To help you along the way we have several tips for you on our website!
However, for international students, Leiden University Housing Office reserves a limited number of rooms each year for early applicants. Housing is allocated on first-come first-served basis, therefore you are advised to apply as early as you can. Although the housing deadline has passed, you are still welcome to submit a housing request. We anticipate that we will have a small number of rooms available for late applicants. We will let you know if we can offer you a room once we have allocated accommodation to all students who applied before the 1 June deadline. The Housing Office will begin allocating rooms from 1 June. Accommodation will be allocated in chronological order, i.e. according to the date on which you paid your housing fee. You will receive an offer of accommodation up to 8 weeks after the housing deadline. Please let us know within 5 days after receiving this offer whether you wish to accept the offer.
If you decide to start your courses completely online and don’t want to use the allocated room, after accepting the offer for housing the payment of the housing fee and first month rent are non-refundable.
Be aware that if you travel to the Netherlands after the beginning of the academic year, Leiden University Housing Office will start continuing allocating rooms for the spring semester, starting at 1 February 2021. You can always contact the Housing Office to check up on availability but most likely you will have to find a room yourself.
After accepting the offer for housing the payment of the housing fee is non-refundable. Please also check costs and payment for other financial consequences.
Unfortunately, not all questions you may have will have answers just yet. The University is working hard in these uncertain times to provide as many answers as possible.
If you have a specific question about your application or admission to Leiden University, please contact our Student Affairs Office using the relevant form: bachelor’s admissions contact form / master'a admissions contact form.
