Guide
Au pair in the Netherlands: an agency-run file with an insurance line
By Covered Abroad Research Desk · Last verified July 2026
The IND's model: agency in front, always
The IND's own description of the route is unambiguous: only an au pair agency recognised by the IND can apply for this residence permit — the au pair and the host family cannot file it themselves. The au pair must be between 18 and 25, live with the host family and take part in family life; the family provides board and lodging plus an allowance; in return the au pair does at most 30 hours of light household duties a week and helps with the children. Where an entry visa (MVV) is needed, the agency files the combined entry-and-residence (TEV) application too.
It is a real and growing route — the IND's published counts run from 1,400 permits in 2018 to 1,980 in 2024 — and the recognised agency is the spine of all of it: vetting, filing, and the paperwork that follows arrival.
Source: IND, background article — au pairs, read 4 September 2026.
Where insurance sits in a Dutch au-pair year
The Netherlands is a compulsory-insurance country, and residence is what triggers the question — our Dutch basic-package guide covers what the zorgverzekering is, and the Netherlands hub carries the rules as published. For au pairs specifically, the practical answer runs through the recognised agency: insurance arrangements are part of the file the agency assembles, and the honest instruction is to ask the agency which policy covers you, from which date, and what happens if the placement ends early.
The routing question — required into the Dutch system, or covered under a private arrangement for the stay — depends on the placement's specifics rather than a single rule this page could state. That is exactly the verdict the checker exists to give:
60-second check
Not sure the policy you have meets your destination's written rule? Run it through the policy check now, before you build the rest of the file around it.
Check my policyArriving, and the paperwork after the permit
After the permit, Dutch life begins with the same two steps as everyone else's: registration at the municipality, and the BSN that follows it — the number banking, healthcare and any later status all hang from. An au pair who stays past the year (studies, work) starts a new permit file where insurance is re-asked under the new status; the IND's clock rules apply from then on.