please call: +31 (0)50 367 71 97 or mail your question:
The International Welcome Center North (IWCN) is a cooperation between the Immigration and Naturalization Service (Immigratie-en Naturalisatiedienst, IND), the University of Groningen (Rijksuniversiteit Groningen), the Municipality of Groningen (Gemeente Groningen), and Connect International (Stichting Connect International). The IWCN offers three kinds of services to its international clients, namely:
In order to provide these services, certain personal information is requested from clients. The collection and processing of all personal data is done in strict compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation. Any doubts or concerns regarding how the IWCN collects and processes your information can be directed by regular mail to Gedempte Zuiderdiep 98, 9711 HL, Groningen, The Netherlands; or you can send your inquiry to info@iwcn.nl.
The IWCN requests digital copies of documents and information from clients in advance of appointments for the accelerated formalities services performed by the relevant government authorities (IND and the Citizen Services department of municipalities). The documents required are determined by the aforementioned authorities, and the documents will only be used by the authorities in the performance of their individual tasks. For further information on how these authorities handle and protect your personal data, please refer to their privacy policies.
By using the formalities services of the IWCN, the client gives consent for his/her documents and information to be collected from him/her for the purposes established by the government authority(ies) involved. All information collected will be kept strictly confidential and secure as thoroughly as possible. This consent can be withdrawn at any time, resulting in termination of the service(s) and interruption of any pending processes with the aforementioned authorities occurring through the IWCN. Any further consequences are to be determined by the authority under whose control the information falls.
All digital documents will be deleted by the IWCN three months after conclusion of the formality; only the relevant government authorities retain possession of said documents as necessary for their individual purposes. The IWCN will retain certain information for statistical or financial purposes.
The IWCN has a number of reliable service partners who are specialists in their own fields. Any of your personal information or information of any kind on your part will not be shared with the service partners. If you require expert advice in any of these fields, you can be referred to these providers in order for you to contact them on your own account. Subsequently, the relationship between you and any service partner will be independent from the IWCN, and therefore, none of its founders can be held liable in the event of a defective performance by a service partner or any damages resulting from the latter.
The International Welcome Center North hosts different events throughout the year, which include – but are not limited to – professional networking and events for cultural and educational purposes, and welcoming new service partners.
Events are organized for the international community in general. These events are organized by the IWCN but can also be hosted along with or by a third party. Events and the organizing parties are announced on the IWCN website. Each event has a description on the manner in which interested people can take part; some have free access, but on occasion, filling out a form from a third party that is organizing the event is necessary.
The personal information you share will only be handled by personnel involved in the event, including any third parties who co-host them; this is in regard to logistics, contact, and matters reasonably connected to the event. Permission to process your personal data will be requested at the time of registration. The information you share with the IWCN will be used for the specific event you register for and for no other purpose. This information will not be shared with any external parties to the events and will be kept confidential.
The International Welcome Center North reserves the right to change its privacy policy but will inform the public in due time of such changes. These changes will also be timely published on the IWCN website.
Many websites store small text files on your digital device (tablet, smartphone, or computer) . This is to recognize your device during your visit and at any follow-up visits. Such files are called ‘cookies’.
1) Session Cookies – Session cookies help websites to recognize you and remember the information provided by you as you move from one page to another within the same website. For example, e-commerce sites use session cookies to remember the items you place in your shopping cart as you go from one page to another on the site. Session cookies only retain information about your activities during your visit to the site. Once you close the browser, the session cookies are lost and the site will not recognize you the next time you return to the site.
2) Persistent cookies – Persistent cookies can exist for an extended period of time until expired or until they are deleted. They enable the site to recognize you on a continuous basis. This is done by the web server planting a small text file with a unique ID tag on your device, while keeping a matching file on the server. On subsequent visits to the site, your browser delivers this cookie over to the site, allowing the site to retrieve the matching file.
Persistent cookies enable websites to remember your preferences and settings (i.e. login information, language selection, font size preference, etc.) so that they can offer you a more personalized and convenient access the next time you visit. For security purposes, your login information is generally encrypted by the web server before it gets stored in a cookie.
3) Third-party cookies – Third-party cookies come from those with an interest in the website such as advertisers and ad servers. They are difficult for the average user to identify because they can be connected to any banner ad on a site. These third-party cookies allow advertisers and ad servers to alternate the ads sent to a specific device and to track how often an ad has been viewed and by whom.
Cookies such as the ones used on iwcn.nl do not contain personal data. IWCN also has no advertisements on the website, so no advertisers track your usage of our website. However, on our website, general visitor information is collected. In this context, the IP address of your computer, time of extraction and data that the browser of a visitor sends, are recorded and used for statistical analysis of visits and clicks on the website. With this general information, we can optimize the operation of this website. Data such as your login details are not part of the cookies iwcn.nl uses, so nothing can be traced back to you. Without additional information only accessible to you, cookies are not a threat to your privacy. We make this information as anonymous as possible. This information will NOT be provided to third parties under any circumstance except those where the applicable law(s) require us to do so.
With use of cookies, websites offer online services. You can refuse the use of these cookies, although the functionality and ease of use of some websites may then be limited. If you want to exclude using cookies in various forms or even altogether, this can be done through the settings of your browser (internet program). More information about cookies and how to disable cookies can be found on the website of the Dutch National Cyber Security Centrum (https://www.ncsc.nl/english).
You can also revoke your consent by clicking the button below.
We use Google Analytics to track how visitors use our website. The resulting information, including the address of your computer (IP address), is transmitted to and stored by Google on datacenter servers in the Americas, Europe or Asia.
Google will use this information to track how our website is used and to create reports on the website usage. Google may transfer this information to third parties where Google is legally required or where such third parties process the information on Google’s behalf. We have no influence over these sort of operations.
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