What is being assessed

The question is whether your business serves an essential interest of the Dutch economy. In practice that means the product or service you offer is new for this country. The Enterprise Agency advises on behalf of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, and the immigration service decides.

The three areas

  1. Personal experience. Your background, education and track record as an entrepreneur.
  2. Business plan. The plan itself, with the financial substantiation behind it.
  3. Added value for the Netherlands. What the country gains: innovation, jobs, investment.

The two ways to pass

Each area receives a score. You pass with at least 30 points in every area. There is a second way through: 45 points for personal experience together with 45 points for the business plan also suffices. That alternative matters for founders whose track record is strong while the wider economic case is harder to argue.

Who skips the test

Three groups are assessed differently:

  • Holders of Turkish citizenship, described in the shorter route for Turkish business owners.
  • People holding long-term resident status in another European Union country.
  • People practising an independent profession, such as medical specialists and artists, whose cases are assessed with advice from other ministries.

American and Japanese citizens follow their own treaty route: three friendship treaties compared.

The rest of the requirements

  • Registration in the trade register of the Chamber of Commerce.
  • Any professional permits your line of work requires.
  • Income that the business plan makes credible.
  • Working as a freelancer means holding one or more commissions here.

The permit

Valid for a maximum of two years and renewable. Self-employed work is allowed; paid employment alongside it needs a work permit from that employer. Family members may work freely. After five years of work, free access to the labour market follows, and permanent residence becomes available.

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.