Working after your study
Feb 03, 2012
Graduates of a Dutch research university or an university of applied sciences have the option of extending their stay for a period of one year in order to search for a job. To make use of this ‘search period’, you must apply for a change in the initial purpose of your residence permit.The new permit, given for the purpose of seeking work after graduation is meant to look for a job as a ‘highly skilled migrant’, though it also allows you to look for a job as a regular ‘labour migrant’.
www.studyinholland.nl
www.ind.nl
You are not eligible to ask for any state benefits during the one year ‘search period’. Instead,you are allowed to work in other employment to pay your own way until you find a job that will allow you to stay on in the Netherlands. No work permit is required.
After the one year ‘search period’ has passed you must have found a job as a highly skilled migrant or labour migrant, or you will have to leave the country. Provided you find such a job,you will once again need to apply for a change in the purpose of your stay.
Highly skilled migrant
As a highly skilled migrant you need to earn at least 25,000 Euros gross a year. Your employer does not need to apply for a work permit for you, which makes this an attractive option.However, your employer is obligated to have signed a ‘highly skilled migrantagreement’ with the IND. The website of the IND shows a list of all companies accepted to the highly skilled migrant scheme. If you wish to work for a company, organisation or institution that is not listed here, your employer can simply apply to be accepted. Employer application forms can be found on the IND website as well.
Labour migrant
There is no wage prerequisite for labour migrants as there is for highly skilled migrants, but your employer is not allowed to pay you less than the required minimum wage as stated by Dutch law. Your employer will need to apply for a work permit if you are not an EU/EEA/Swiss citizen. Moreover, your employer will need to prove that there is no Dutch or other European citizen capable and available to take the job at issue, which is not always an easy task. It is for this reason that foreign graduates may have less difficultly finding work as highly skilled migrants than as labour migrants.
image source:nobilesmagazine08,7