Published 4 October 2026

The photograph is from 1998: a passport being issued at a Royal Netherlands embassy. An application came in over the counter and was decided there, by someone who had been trained to decide it.

That is not how it works now. Passport applications are handled and issued centrally in The Hague, and embassies only take them in. A good deal of other consular work has gone the same way, through centralisation and funding cuts.

The result is that a lot of front-line knowledge has been lost. And we can only imagine the workload and the pressure on those who do have the knowledge, in The Hague.

We think this is worth questioning. Not because the people are worse — they are not — but because the knowledge that used to sit where the public meets the state now sits somewhere else, while the public still meets the state.

Kris was a consular officer for the Dutch government before founding this firm. Who is Kris?

This post reflects the position on 4 October 2026. The law and the practice may have moved on since.