Some 11,000 British nationals in the Netherlands need new residency permits because of technical errors with their photographs, the Telegraaf reported on Thursday.

The problems centre on the way biometric details were taken at temporary offices in Amsterdam and Utrecht, which have resulted in photographs that do not meet European standards. The offices were set up for British families and have since been closed.

‘As a result, the photo taken and appearing on your residence document does not meet EU quality standards, for example regarding resolution, sharpness and contrast,’ the IND said in letter to those affected.

Read up on the problems and what to do now

The error was identified at the beginning of this year, five months after the problem started, the Telegraaf said. DutchNews.nl has asked the IND for comment and to confirm the number of cases.

People whose photos are not up to scratch will have to send a new photo to the IND, but will not be required to pick up the new documents in person. Documents with fingerprint errors ‘can be corrected’, the IND said.

British nationals who need new documents will not have to pick them up in person. Instead they will be delivered by courier.

In the meantime, the IND said, people can continue to use the document to prove their residency rights and border officials have been alerted to the problem.

The IND said in February that some 4,000 British nationals officially registered as living in the Netherlands have not yet come forward to sort out their post -Brexit residency status.

British nationals have June 30 to apply for a residency permit, if they want to continue living legally in the Netherlands, the IND said. So far, 41,000 people have done so and 99% of all residency applications have been approved.