Visa and Health Care Information
Visa and Residence Permit
The third country nationals by definition is any person who is not a citizen of the European Union within the meaning of Art. 20(1) of TFEU and who is not a person enjoying the European Union right to free movement, as defined in Art. 2(5) of the Regulation (EU) 2016/399 (Schengen Borders Code). Depending on your nationality, the third country nationals need to apply for a residence permit to study in COASTHazar programme’s partner universities. The residence permit application process starts after you are financially admitted via the Fellowship and Admissions Office. Once you arrive in Spain, you need to complete certain steps to complete the procedure.
In principle, your residence permit will be processed via IND (Immigration and Naturalisation Service) Ministry of Justice and Security of the Netherlands. The reason for this, that the coordinator of COASTHazar Erasmus Mundus Master programme is the IHE Delft, situated in the Netherlands. However, since your first arrival is at the University of Cantabria, Spain, a special arrangement should be made. With the Dutch residence permit as a student, you are required to familiarise the rights and obligations of holding this permit. The IND has published a document describing your obligations, rights as well as the residence permit application process.
Most of the COASTHazar students with financial admission will need a residence permit for Spain. After a student has confirmed funding (either through Erasmus Mundus scholarship or from funding of other sources, which will be checked and confirmed by IHE Delft), IHE Delft sends the students with an Erasmus Mundus scholarship a complementary letter in English with Spanish translation, which is written by the University of Cantabria, and signed by the admission and fellowship officer at IHE Delft. IHE Delft informs University of Cantabria of the details of every newly financial admitted student. University of Cantabria then sends the student the University of Cantabria admission letter and informs and assists them with the visa procedure for Spain.
Students can apply for a short-term student visa (less than 180 days). In this case the Spanish Foreign Office will not issue the TIE (Tarjeta de Identidad de Extranjero, similar to a residence permit), which covers their complete stay in Spain. Students can also apply for a long term visa for Spain (more than 180 days). After their arrival in Spain, they need to apply for the TIE (residence permit upon arrival) which is connected with the visa application.
The main difference between short-term study visa and long-term study visas is that for long-term visa, students must submit a criminal report + medical report. As this is very time-consuming and not necessary as the short-term visa covers 180 days, students are advised to apply for the short-term visa for Spain.
After their arrival in Spain, IHE Delft will apply for entry visa (MVV) and residence permit (VVR) for the Netherlands with mobility (EU directive 2016/801: Directive - 2016/801 - EN - EUR-Lex (europa.eu)) for the complete duration of the COASTHazar programme. Once the students have this permit they can stay a maximum of 360 days in any other Schengen country, during the validity of the permit.
The procedure is as follows. In the middle of October, IHE Delft informs the students of the procedure. The students receive a number of forms that they need to sign and return to IHE Delft, together with a copy of their passport and valid Spanish visa. After IHE Delft has received and approved the documents, IHE sends them to the Netherlands Immigration Department (IND) and applies for the MVV/VVR for the students. The IND checks and if they approve they send an e-mail (through the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs) to the Netherlands Embassy in Madrid that they do not have objection to issuing the MVV. The IND informs IHE Delft for every student this has been done. Once IHE Delft has received the approval for all the students concerned, IHE Delft contacts the Netherlands Embassy in Madrid, informs them about the COASTHazar programme, and asks them to block a certain day when the students can go to the Embassy to apply for their entry visa and permit. IHE Delft informs the students about the time slot. At the given date the students have to travel to Madrid. At the embassy, the students have to do biometrics (photo and fingerprints). If all is approved by the embassy, the students will receive their MVV (= entry visa for the Netherlands). At the same time, a message is being sent to the IND in the Netherlands that the residence permit card with mobility can be prepared. After the arrival of the students in the Netherlands, the residence permit card is ready. Preferably IHE Delft makes an appointment with the IND officers who come to IHE Delft to hand out the residence permit cards with mobility to the students. This is not always possible. In that case, the students have to travel themselves to the IND office in the Hague to collect their residence permit card with mobility. The permit will be valid until the end of the programme plus three additional months (until December).
With the residence permit card with mobility, students can travel to Portugal and Spain (if they do research in Spain after the 3rd semester in Portugal) and stay there for max. 360 days. After their arrival Univ. Algarve or University Santander, on behalf of the students, need to report to the Foreigners Office and if approved the students will obtain a valid authorization to stay in Portugal/Spain based on intramobility among EU countries. Students won’t need to follow any further procedures.
Additionally, students who do their research in Portugal have to finish and leave Portugal before the max 360 days expire. As they start their 3rd semester in the 2nd week of September and finish their research in the 1st week of September, this should in principle not be a problem.