A PLEA FOR AN EXTENSION OF TEMPORARY RESIDENCE PERMIT BEYOND MARCH 3

A PLEA FOR AN EXTENSION OF TEMPORARY RESIDENCE PERMIT BEYOND MARCH 3, 2023 We, members of the Third country nationals, currently on a temporary residence permit in your country are writing to humbly request for an extension of stay in the Netherlands. It is no news that the Netherlands government has for the past months been so much instrumental in the welfare, safety and refuge of innocent Ukrainians, foreign students and professionals who had literally lost every piece of livelihood since the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian government. The humanitarian doors opened by all European countries, most specifically the Netherlands has not just eased the war tensions in our minds as victims but has given us the chance to reflect on our past —the huge investment to acquire quality education and the careers we pursued— which all went down the drains, hence, leaving us with nothing to start with. It is with our deepest sense of gratitude that we acknowledge your government for giving us the opportunity to gradually pick up our dreams and still build on them, through the government's monthly financial assistance and the permit to work for self-sustenance within this period of our stay.

The 3rd country nationals who fled Ukraine and chose to seek refuge in your beautiful and peaceful country are people of great minds and civility, tested of good character and excellent personality, and zeal to become agents of change in their respective worlds. Fortunately, the incident of Russia/Ukraine war has not changed our conduit attributes of being law-abiding, and maintaining peace and cordiality amongst our members and the Dutch people by extension. Every dayto-day engagements in skilled and part-time jobs by our students and professionals (practicing engineers, healthcare practitioners, seasoned administrators and linguists) who arrived your country are testimonies to the fact that we intend to contribute our quota to the development of your country's economy while sustaining the already existing peace we have enjoyed so far. Amidst the heatwave of inflation hitting the First World nations in contrast with the Third World nations which we belong, has caused a major paradigm shift in our thoughts to consider the cost of starting a new life, building new careers as professionals and embarking on new academic journeys as students on returning to home countries. It is pertinent to state that the incessant invasion of Ukraine by Russian government had forced thousands of us to abandon our academics at different stages without achieving our goals.

Many, who were in their penultimate and final years in Ukrainian universities are still hopeful of returning to Ukraine at the end of the war, which is seemingly possible at no distant time to complete their studies and further utilize their gained knowledge in solving our world's problems.

It is on this note that we unanimously write to request for an extension of our stay for another one (1) year at the expiration of our current temporary residence permit on March 4, 2023. This request is not born out of our desire to continue basking in the euphoria of our new environment (the Netherlands), rather, to aid our preparations and plannings in taking up new challenges in our different areas of profession and further our studies away from our respective countries which we hail from. The extension of stay would further take into consideration the following; Students' easy access back to Ukraine in order to continue and complete their abandoned academic programmes and research at the end of the war. It is worthy to note that some students who fled Ukraine for the Netherlands and other EU countries are currently gaining access their institutions to inquire about their academic records and also go through some administrative processes to retrieve same. Financial implications of transportation cost to our respective countries, subsequent processes of legal travel documents and transportation cost back to Ukraine for studies at the end of the war. Grant recipients of international scholarship awards the leverage and time to process their necessary documents from the Netherlands instead of their countries, in order to cut on expenditure.

In the event where an extension of stay is granted, we will continue to reside at our current place of residence at [insert addresses]. Furthermore, financial assistance by the government could be withdrawn. Please take into further consideration that we have strong verifiable ties with your citizens and employers of labour which, if called upon, could attest to our civility and good behaviour. In light of these ties, we have no intentions to stay permanently in the Netherlands except granted on any further individual request. As such, we guarantee you of our prompt return to our countries or Ukraine, on or before the expiration of an authorized extension of stay. We kindly request you to approve an extension of stay for us, the Third Country Nationals in your country. Should any questions or concerns arise regarding this application, please feel free to contact us at [insert address]. Also, we would appreciate an opportunity to present our plea to the parliament of the Netherlands government in order to hear more reasons which are likely not captured in this letter of request. Our best regards with thanks!