The Dutch government is open to foreigners who can contribute to the economy of the Netherlands for citizens of the European Union. Under four countries of the E F T A, you can work freely and live in the Netherlands without a work visa, but for citizens from outside of the European Union and the four countries of the E F T A, you need a resident permit and a work visa to live and work in the Netherlands. In this video, we’ll be looking at different types of work visas that is available in the Netherlands. Be sure to read the blog and watch the video to the end so that you can discover the visa type that is more appropriate for your specific situation.
CATEGORIES OF WORK VISA IN NETHERLANDS
Generally, work visa in the Netherlands can be broken into three categories,
- Short-term visa,
- Temporary work visa, and
- The long-term work visa
Short-term Work Visa
The short-term work visa is a visa granted for a short period of time. This is similar or more or less, the same as the seen category C visitor visa. This is a visa granted for short purposes for a business event, a seminar, a conference, or intercompany business visit. Usually, you need a letter of offer from the company. You need to show that you have sufficient funds to take care of yourself for the duration of your visit. You need to have a return flight ticket as well as evidence of hotel reservation for the duration of your stay. This visa type is for a maximum of 90 days in the Netherlands, and the application fee is 80 euro. As of the time of writing this blog, the period for this type of visa is within 15 days.
Temporary Work Visa
This is the kind of work visa that is granted to applicants for more than three months, but maximum one year. Number one on this is a seasonal work visa. The seasonal work visa is given to workers in the Agric sector. This kind of work visa is for a maximum of six months and it cannot be extended application fee for this work visa is 210 euros as of the time of this blog, and you expect to get a response within 90 days.
The second type of visa within the temporary work visa is the au pair visa. This is the kind of visa that is given to applicants who want to live with a host family to help out with household children or to look after children. There are certain conditions for this type of visa. It is for a maximum of one year. It cannot be renewed. You must not be related to the host family. You must have a contract signed with the host family, spelling out the job you’ll be carrying out. There is also age restriction for this type of visa. You must be within the ages of 18 and 25 years. Until October, 2022, it was up to 30 years, but since October, 2022, the age limit is reduced to 25. You must be unmarried and have no children. It is important to know that only a recognized or pay agency in the Netherlands can apply for this visa on your behalf. The application fee for this type of visa is currently 350 euros, and the decision period is usually within 90 days.
The third kind of temporary work visa is the working holiday program visa. The working holiday visa scheme is a visa type that is geared towards intercultural exchange. This kind of visa is available to citizens of nine countries with which the Netherlands have bilateral relationship. Some of these countries are Argentina, Australia, Canada, Japan, and more. To be a beneficiary of this visa, you have to be between the ages of 18 and 30 years, and this visa is for a maximum of one year. The application fee for this visa type is 70 euro and you’ll also get a decision within 90 days of application. The fourth type of visa within the temporary work visa category is the orientation year work visa, also known as the year work visa. This is the kind of work visa that is granted to graduates of higher institutions from the Netherlands. If you graduated with a bachelor’s degree or master’s degree from a university or institution of higher learning in the Netherlands, you can apply for a one-year visa to enable you to search for work in the Netherlands. It is also available to people who graduated from a master’s degree program outside of the Netherlands. As long as your university is among the top 200 universities in the world, you can also apply for an orientation year work visa. For this type of visa, you do not need a sponsor or an employer. You simply need to be a graduate of one of the 200 universities in the world or a graduate of a Dutch university. This will help you to look for a job within the Netherlands and then convert your visa to a highly skilled migrant visa. The orientation year visa is for a maximum of one year and it cannot be renewed. The salary criterion for you to get a job in the Netherlands as a holder of the orientation year work visa the salary criterion for the orientation year work Visa is 2,631. The application fee is 210 euros, and the decision period for this visa is also 90 days.
The Long-term Work Visa
Now we proceed to look at the third category of work visa in the Netherlands, which is the long stay work visa. The long stay work visa is the most popular and preferred form of work visa for foreigners in the Netherlands. This type of visa is for job offers with a minimum of one year contract and can last up to 3, 4, 5 years as the case may be number one in this category of work visa is the highly skilled migrant visa on my channel, you find a lot of videos around this visa category. I have Visa on 15 companies that are currently hiring aggressively from outside of the European Union. As well as, top 10 employment agencies that can help you fast-track your job search.
So the highly skewed migrant visa is for qualified professionals with some level of experience in their field of endeavor, usually two years of experience. There is a salary criteria for this type of work visa, and usually, your work visa is tied to the validity of your contract. To know more about the highly skilled migrant visa, the salary criterion and other requirements, you can watch my previous videos. It’s linked on the screen right now. There you’ll find more about the highly skilled migrant visa type. The second type of visa on this category is the EU blue card visa. This is pretty much like the highly skilled migrant visa. The only difference is that the EU blue card visa enables the holders to work in any country within the European Union. You’ll not be restricted to only Netherlands or Germany or Belgium. If you are a holder of the EU blue card visa, you are free to walk in any country within the European Union and the EU blue card visa can be valid for up to four years if you are granted this type of visa.
Next, we have Intracompany transfer work visa. The Intracompany transfer visa type is mostly used by multinationals for rotating their employees from one branch to another branch, usually managerial staff, I C T employees and sometimes traineeship rules. So if you work with a multinational organization, you can explore internally for job opportunities in the Netherlands and seek the support of your organization to transfer you via intercompany transfer visa time. Then we have the opportunities in academics for research professionals. The researcher visa is granted to post-doctoral candidates or PhD students to carry out research in Dutch research institutes. Usually you are paid salaries or given grants for the purpose of your research and a researcher visa can actually be valued up to five years. And then we have essential startup personnel visa. This is a new type of visa that was introduced by the Dutch government in 2021, and it’s supposed to run until 2025.
This type of visa is to enable startup organizations in innovative industries to hire skewed migrants to help them support their work and to grow their business. The salary criterion for this visa type is 2,631, and as already mentioned, this visa type is running until June, 2025. So if you want to explore opportunities in this area, you can already look up for startup companies in the Netherlands. A lot of them are hiring aggressively from outside of the European Union, especially in ic. Next we have startup visa for entrepreneurs, and this is for the startup entrepreneurs who have innovative ideas and want to open a business in the Netherlands. It has to be an innovative business idea. It has to be a business, an idea that is new to the Netherlands. It has to be steamed essential to the Dutch economy. Another condition is that this business of yours has to be using some form of new technology in its distribution, production and marketing, and something unique which the Dutch economy can benefit from.
And for the startup visa, you need to work with a mentor who is based in the Netherlands, he’s registered and experienced in your field, and his job is to guide you and mentor you through your business. You need to have a signed contract and agreement with this mentor. These are the conditions that you must meet before you can be granted Visa as a startup entrepreneur in the Netherlands.
The seventh Visa type under the long stay work visa category is the self-employed work visa. You can work in the Netherland as a self-employed individual for this type of visa. You do not need a job sponsor, neither do you need a job offer. However, your business needs to be considered essential to the Dutch economy in order to determine whether your business is essential or not. You are assessed based on three conditions.
- Number one is that your business is new to the Netherlands.
- You are experienced in that line of service or business.
- And number three is that it must be value adding to the economy and you are able to show these three points based on your business plan and you’ll be assessed on these areas, depending on your score, you’ll be given a Visa.
- Your business plan need to also show that your business can generate a minimum gross profit of 1,462 on a monthly basis to apply for this type of visa.
The application fee is 350 euros and you’ll usually get decision within 90 days of application. There is also opportunity for you to work in the Dutch Health Center, however, there is the need for Dutch language proficiency. Also, your certificate needs to be verified and acknowledged by the relevant Dutch Institute. If everything is okay and you have the required Dutch language level, you might be able to also get a Visa to work as a self-employed health practitioner in the Netherlands, I would leave the link to this in the description so you can read up a bit more about it.
So here you have it, the three different categories of work visa possible in the Netherlands. I encourage you to visit the website of the Dutch Immigration Service, familiarize yourself with these different work visas and explore opportunities that might be suitable for you and hopefully you found this content useful. If you do, please consider subscribing if you have not already done so, and click the notification bell. Don’t forget to share with a friend or family member who might also find this useful.
Dutch Immigration Service
https://ind.nl/en/residence-permits/work
Working in the health care profession