BSN: registering at the gemeente
The BSN, burgerservicenummer, is your citizen service number. Banks, employers, insurers, DUO, the tax office and your phone provider will all ask for it. Until you have one you are administratively invisible.
So this is the first appointment you make in the Netherlands.
Who registers, and where
Staying longer than four months, which means every degree student? Then you register in the Basisregistratie Personen, the BRP, at the municipality where you live. In Rotterdam that is gemeente Rotterdam. You book online and turn up in person.
The municipality runs this under first registration in the Netherlands, which is where you book the appointment. Book early: September slots go fast.
EUR often organises group registration sessions for new international students at the start of the year, which saves you the appointment hunt entirely. Watch your university email before you book anything yourself.
What to bring
Valid passport, plus your MVV or residence sticker if you have one.
Your rental contract, or a signed permission form from the main occupant if you live in someone else’s flat. The address has to be one where you genuinely live. See the note in finding a room about landlords who “do not allow registration”. This is exactly where that becomes your problem.
Birth certificate with apostille and a certified translation into Dutch or English. Get the apostille in Azerbaijan before you leave.
What happens
The appointment is short. They check your documents, your details go into the BRP, and the gemeente is where you get your BSN. Sometimes it is handed over at the counter, sometimes it arrives by letter a week or two later.
After
The BSN never changes and works anywhere in the country. The same appointment usually doubles as your address registration, which matters later for things like the municipal taxes you may be partly exempt from as a student.
With the BSN in hand, go straight to opening a bank account, then DigiD.
One more thing. Every time you move within the Netherlands you have to update your address with the gemeente. It is a quick online form with DigiD. Forgetting it causes genuinely annoying problems, from lost IND letters to fines.