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Comment by yoavm | Hacker News Reader

I've also done it both in Sweden and the Netherlands. Sweden is a breeze if you have BankID, sure (and as you said, if the bank likes you). The Netherlands wasn't exactly a breeze — I had to book a face-to-face appointment with KVK and all the slots in Amsterdam were taken, so I took the train about an hour away.

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I don't dislike that they at least want to see you in real life once tbh. I love ease of registration like anyone else, but with tax avoidance and all that, idk. Feels right to me to have at least seen yourself once.

But is it really you?

that's an interesting question

how much would it cost to pay someone "1 hour away by train" to go into that office for you?

With a fake ID? That becomes pretty expensive

Sometimes criminals do put pressure on people to register companies in their name and show up to these meetings. Whether that's addicts, people with mental disabilities, or young people looking for a quick buck, the fraud mechanism is the same.

However, that does put the company in their name. On paper, they have full control over it. That's a risk to the criminals trying to use the company as a financial asset for laundering money.

Well, they ask for proof such as a valid passport or id card.

Unsure how long ago this was, but I recently registered with KvK and didn't have to show up at all, just pay 80-ish euros.

The face to face meeting is not a thing any more. There are some exceptions but they can often be done online if at all.

It is very much still a thing. Why do you think it's not?

I found the face to face a nice part of it, it made it less impersonal. My suspicion however, is that they want to run through the form to correct mistakes they see all the time, and this is the fastest way of going about it.

As for waiting times, don't live in Amsterdam ;)

I've done it in 2018 and just needed to go to a notary to wet sign something (not KvK)

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