Route 1: the European permit for highly qualified staff

Approval as an employer is optional on this route, so a young company may apply directly. The employee needs a higher education qualification, or three years of relevant experience for roles in information technology. Details sit in two routes for skilled staff.

Route 2: transfer within your own group

If the person already works for the parent company outside Europe, the transfer route applies and approval is optional there as well: moving your own staff to a Dutch branch.

Route 3: candidates whose nationality changes the rules

Staff holding Turkish citizenship may join an employer that stays outside the approval system, described in the employer approval that falls away. Candidates already holding a valid permit from another Schengen country also simplify matters, since the entry visa step falls away when an approved employer files for them.

Route 4: someone else employs, you direct

Two variants exist. Another organisation that already holds approval may sponsor on your behalf. Or a payroll company becomes the legal employer while the person works in your team. Both work, both cost a monthly margin, and both leave the employment relationship with a third party. The comparison sits in an outside employer or your own company.

What each route costs you

  • The European permit: firmer conditions on the employee, and speed for the company.
  • The transfer route: available for existing staff alone, with a maximum period attached.
  • Nationality-based routes: open to a narrow group, and generous within it.
  • An outside employer: fastest to arrange, with a recurring cost and less direct control.

The order most companies settle on

  1. Incorporate, register with the Chamber of Commerce, open the payroll.
  2. Start the approval application, since the three-month clock runs while you work.
  3. Bring the first hire in through one of the four routes above.
  4. Move everyone onto the standard route once approval arrives.

What that standard route then requires sits in becoming an approved employer.

Where this advice stops

Holdwise builds the company structure: the entity, the salary, the tax position. The residence application itself belongs with an immigration lawyer, who follows the case law and the forms week by week. Arrange both in the same conversation and the two sides fit together; arrange them separately and one usually has to be redone.