The outgoing cabinet wants to limit the arrival of knowledge migrants and is therefore introducing stricter rules for companies that want to hire these expats. For example, they must pay a higher salary and there will be more reasons to refuse a permit.
This was reported on Friday by outgoing Minister Eddy van Hijum of Social Affairs. In addition to reducing the number of migrants, the cabinet also wants to use the measures to combat abuse of the scheme. This concerns highly educated employees from outside the European Union who, for example, will work at chip machine manufacturer ASML.
One of the changes is that knowledge migrants under the age of thirty will soon have to earn at least 1.1 times the average gross annual salary (4,171 euros per month). The income limit will therefore increase by several hundred euros per month.
The rules for companies applying for a permit will also change. Currently, an application may be refused if a company has received three or more fines for, among other things, underpayment or employing staff illegally. In the future, fines for other offenses must be added to this. If a company has not employed an expat in the past two years, a permit may also be refused.
Van Hijum wants to use the coming time to further develop the measure. The House of Representatives must then approve the plans. It is not yet clear when the measure will be implemented. If it is not possible to complete the entire process before there is a new cabinet, it is also important how they view the expat rules.
Recent figures from statistics agency CBS show that the number of expats who have started working in the Netherlands has fallen sharply in recent years. In 2024, sixteen thousand came to the Netherlands. That was 26 percent less than a year earlier. Compared to two years ago, it is a decrease of 39 percent.