Ben
 |
There is indeed a difference. For all you questions regarding immigration and working in The Netherlands you should consult http://www.ind.nl/EN/. Having said that I will give you a short summary of four possible ways of coming to The Netherlands to work, depending on your situation: as an employee, on a self-employed basis, as an highly skilled migrant or using the orientation year for highly educated people.
Employee:
It is rather difficult to enter The Netherlands as a regular employee. This is because your employer would need to apply for a work permit for you at the Centre of Work and Income (CWI). The employer will only get the permit when nobody in the Netherlands or in the EU is available to fill the position. He has to prove this. Other conditions are: valid passport, health insurance, no risk to public order, tuberculosis screening, sufficient funds.
Self-employed:
This is much easier for the obvious reason you will bring work the country and not only fill a position. Whether your business is eligible or not will be assessed on the basis of a scoring system on which you can score a maximum of 300 points and you need a minimum of 90 points. The system consists of three parts: personal experience (education, working experience etc), business plan (market analysis, product/service, price, organisation, financing), material economic purpose for The Netherlands (innovative, job creation, investment). Same additional conditions apply as mentioned above.
Highly skilled migrant:
If your employer pays you roughly 1,5 times the median income in the Netherlands which is €47,565 ($64,139), or €34,881 ($47,035) if you are under 30 you are considered a highly skilled migrant and do not have to obtain a work permit first. There is a shortage of highly skilled workers in the Netherlands (at least before the crisis), so this is very much encouraged. You will notice this because your application will be processed within two weeks (instead of the usual maximum of 6 months) and there will be less administrative costs. Go for this one if you can.
Orientation year highly educated people:
As of january this year there is another arrangement for higher educated people. You can come to The Netherlands, whithout even being employed, for one year if you meet the following requirements: you have a masters degree from one of the top 150 institutions of the Times list or the Jiao Tong Shanghai list, obtained no longer than three years ago. You score at least 35 of 40 points on the scoring system: you get 25 points for having a masters degree, 30 points for having a PhD, 5 points if you are between 21 and 40 years old, and another five points if you have been to The Netherlands before, speak English (IELTS 6) or Dutch (NT2) well or have obtained your degree at an institute that awards degrees on the basis of the Bologna Accord.
Within this year you can seek employment on the basis of the highly skilled migrant rules, only with a less rigid salary requirement. You could also start a company within this year, where the same rules for your business apply as for immigrating on a self-employed basis.
If you plan on staying longer than three months you will need to apply for a residency permit. You can download the form on the IND website. As an American citizen you do not need a ‘provisional residence permit’ ('Machtiging tot Voorlopig Verblijf or MVV') before entering The Netherlands.
Hope this helps and that your application will not be such a pain in the *** as it has been for me coming to the US for studies. Let me know if you need any further information. |
No Spam
Adult 
Gambling
Unfinished
Deception
Plagiarism
Not English
