Dirk Schaap studied Dutch law at the University of Amsterdam and graduated in a constitutional subject. Subsequently, he has been working continuously as an attorney in Rotterdam, firstly at Wybenga Advocaten and from 1 March 2017 with Inigo Advocaten. From 1990, he has been working in the field of regular immigration law and social insurance law. There are also other areas of administrative law that he takes on occasionally, such as cases on disability transport, pardoning, or subsidies.

Dirk Schaap has dealt with many cases in the field of Association Law between EEC and Turkey. Five times, the Dutch judge has referred a case he was working on to the Court of Justice of the EU for a preliminary ruling. This has led to a judgement of the EU Court in four cases.

He specialises in the field of legal dues, to be paid for the processing of visa applications. The 2009 judgement in his Sahin case of the Court of Justice of the EU led to a reduction in the fee rates for Turkish citizens. In 2012, another case he handled led to the Council of State declaring the high fee for family reunification of EUR 1,250 to be contrary to the Family Reunification Directive 2003/86/EC.
Dirk Schaap has published several articles on European social security law, residence permits for seafarers and legal dues. He was the editor of the book Jurisdiction Immigration Law, which was published annually until 2014.

Memberships:
Meijers Committee, standing committee of experts on international immigration, refugee and criminal law, Working Group on Legal Aid in Immigration Affairs (WRV), The Netherlands Association of Specialised Immigration Lawyers (SVMA), Knowledge Network Social Security.

Jurisdictions:
Dirk Schaap has registered the following principal (and secondary) legal practice areas in the Netherlands Bar’s register of legal areas:

– Immigration law
– Detention of foreign nationals
– Social security law
Under this registration, he is obliged to achieve ten points of training in each registered principle area in accordance with the standards of the Netherlands Bar Association.