Զուգընկերոջ թույլտվություն. ինչպես կարող է բարձր որակավորում ունեցող միգրանտի զուգընկերը աշխատել Նիդեռլանդներում

The partner of a highly skilled migrant (kennismigrant) in the Netherlands applies for a residence permit as a family member, and that permit gives free access to the Dutch labour market. The residence card carries the endorsement “arbeid vrij toegestaan, TWV niet vereist” (work freely permitted, no employment permit required): the partner may work for any employer, in any role, at any salary, or work on a self-employed basis. No separate work permit is needed and no salary criterion applies to the partner.

For employers recruiting internationally, that is often the point on which an offer is accepted or refused. Highly qualified professionals rarely move alone, and a partner who cannot work is the most common reason a relocation falls through. This guide sets out who qualifies, what the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) requires, how long the procedure takes, what the partner needs before they can start work, and what happens if the job or the relationship ends. Amounts that are revised annually, such as IND fees and salary criteria, are deliberately not quoted here; they should be taken from the IND at the time you apply.

What the partner permit is, and what it allows

The permit is a residence permit for stay with a family member, granted because the sponsor holds a Dutch residence permit as a highly skilled migrant. Legally it is family reunification; commercially it is the reason your candidate says yes. It is not a work permit, and that distinction matters: the right to work follows from the residence permit itself rather than from a separate authorisation held by an employer.

The practical consequences are worth being precise about, because they are more generous than most people expect.

• No employment permit. An employer hiring the partner does not apply to the UWV for a tewerkstellingsvergunning and does not have to demonstrate that no suitable candidate is available within the EU. The residence card is the authorisation.
• No restriction to recognised sponsors. The highly skilled migrant may only work for the recognised sponsor that applied for the permit. The partner is under no such restriction and may work for any employer, large or small, recognised or not.
• No salary criterion and no level requirement. The salary criteria that apply to highly skilled migrants, which are set annually by the government and published by the IND, do not apply to the partner. Nor does the requirement that the work be at higher professional or university level.
• Self-employment is included. Free access to the labour market covers working as a self-employed person, so the partner can register a business with the Chamber of Commerce and invoice clients without a separate permit for self-employment.
• Study is allowed. A partner who prefers to learn Dutch or take a course before looking for work may do so without affecting the residence permit.

The only real limitation is that the permit is derived. It exists because of the relationship and because of the sponsor's permit, and if either falls away the basis for it falls away too. That is dealt with below.

Ո՞վ է որակավորվում

Conditions relating to the sponsor

The sponsor must hold a valid Dutch residence permit as a highly skilled migrant, or a comparable permit such as one for scientific research or an EU Blue Card, and must live in the Netherlands. The sponsor must also have sufficient, independent and sustainable income. A highly skilled migrant's salary comfortably exceeds the level required, but the sustainability element deserves attention: income is normally regarded as sustainable where the employment contract still has at least a year to run at the time of the decision. Short fixed-term contracts and probationary periods are where this requirement bites, and it is worth checking before the application is filed rather than after.

Conditions relating to the partner

The partner needs a valid passport, must not present a danger to public order, and must have a durable and exclusive relationship with the sponsor. On age, the rule is more nuanced than it is often reported. Where the relationship was formed after the sponsor obtained lawful residence in the Netherlands, and for unmarried partners generally, both partners must be at least 21. Where the marriage or registered partnership already existed abroad before the sponsor acquired lawful residence here, the minimum age is 18 for both. Since most highly skilled migrants marry before relocating, the eighteen-year rule applies more often than the twenty-one-year rule is quoted.

What counts as a durable and exclusive relationship

For married couples and registered partners the question is answered by the certificate, provided it is legalised and translated. For unmarried couples the IND has to be satisfied that the relationship is genuine, exclusive and durable, and it assesses that on the papers and on a detailed relationship questionnaire that both partners complete separately.

The material that carries weight is documentary and dated: a tenancy agreement or mortgage in both names, registration at the same address, a joint bank account or shared financial commitments, evidence of continuous contact over time, travel together, and the birth certificate of any children the couple have. Photographs and statements from family and friends support the picture but rarely carry it on their own. Answer the questionnaire carefully and consistently; the two accounts are compared, and inconsistencies about how the couple met or how the relationship developed are a common reason for further investigation.

Applications the IND regards as sham relationships are refused, and a refusal on that ground has consequences for later applications and for the sponsor. This is not an area for optimistic drafting.

Նույնասեռ զուգընկերներ

The Netherlands recognises marriages and registered partnerships between people of the same sex, and the conditions for a partner permit are identical. For couples from jurisdictions where their relationship is not recognised, or is criminalised, the practical difficulty is usually evidential rather than legal: there is no marriage certificate, and documentation of cohabitation may not exist or may be unsafe to obtain. Those cases can be built on other evidence, but they need to be prepared properly and early.

Երեխաներ

Minor children can be included in the same family reunification application and receive a residence permit with the same free access to the labour market, which becomes relevant once they are old enough to take a part-time job. The IND will want to see that the parent has actual custody or authority over the child, and where one parent stays behind, consent from that parent or a court decision is usually required. Children who have reached the age of majority are not treated as part of the family unit and need their own basis for residence, which is only granted in limited circumstances.

What is not required, and why that speeds things up

Three requirements that apply to ordinary family reunification do not apply here, and together they explain why this procedure is comparatively fast.

There is no civic integration examination abroad. Family members joining a highly skilled migrant, a researcher or a holder of an EU Blue Card are exempt from the basisexamen inburgering that other family migrants must pass at a Dutch embassy before an MVV is issued. That alone removes months from the timetable.

There is no employment permit and no labour market test for the partner's eventual job, as set out above.

And there is no separate income requirement on the partner. The income condition is assessed against the sponsor, not against the person joining.

Ընթացակարգը, քայլ առ քայլ

Apply together, or later

The application can be filed at the same time as the highly skilled migrant's application, by the recognised sponsor through the IND business portal, or later once the sponsor is already in the Netherlands. Filing together is almost always faster, because the two applications are processed in parallel and the family arrives as a unit. The trade-off is that all documentation has to be ready at once, and that a refusal of the sponsor's application takes the family application with it.

Applying later gives the partner time to wind up work, housing and schooling in the home country, and gives the sponsor time to arrange accommodation before the family arrives. It costs time, and in practice it means a period of separation. Where the partner intends to come at all, most employers are better off preparing both applications together.

The MVV, and who needs one

Nationals of most countries outside the EU, the EEA and Switzerland need an authorisation for temporary stay (machtiging tot voorlopig verblijf, MVV) before travelling. Nationals of Australia, Canada, Japan, Monaco, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom, the United States and Vatican City are exempt, as are EU, EEA and Swiss nationals.

The application is filed in the Netherlands with the IND, not at the embassy. Once it is granted, the IND notifies the Dutch embassy or consulate where the partner lives, and the partner collects the MVV sticker there. The MVV is valid for ninety days, within which the partner must travel to the Netherlands; the residence card is then collected after arrival. Embassy appointment availability is a real bottleneck in some countries and should be checked at the start of the process rather than at the end.

Փաստաթղթեր

Collecting documents is the part of the process that actually takes time, and the part employers consistently underestimate. In outline, the file contains a copy of every page of both passports, evidence of the relationship, the sponsor's residence permit, employment contract and proof of income, proof of accommodation in the Netherlands, and for the partner an antecedents certificate confirming the absence of relevant criminal history, proof of nationality, and where applicable evidence that earlier marriages or partnerships have been dissolved. Unmarried couples add the relationship questionnaire and the supporting evidence described above.

Foreign official documents must generally be legalised, by apostille where the country is party to the Apostille Convention and through the consular route otherwise, and translated into Dutch, English, German or French by a sworn translator. Both steps are outside your control and both can take weeks; in some countries obtaining a certified birth or marriage certificate is itself a project. Start here on the day the offer is accepted, not once the employment contract is signed.

Filing and fees

Formally the sponsor files the application, but where the employer is a recognised sponsor it is normally submitted through the employer's portal together with the highly skilled migrant application. A fee is payable to the IND for each applicant, including each child, and the amounts are set by regulation and adjusted annually, so they should be taken from the IND website when you apply. Agree in advance, in writing, who bears the IND fees, the legalisation and translation costs and the MVV costs. There is no market standard and the resulting misunderstanding is entirely avoidable.

Որոշումը

The statutory decision period for this application is ninety days. In practice, where the employer is a recognised sponsor and the file is complete, decisions on applications filed alongside the highly skilled migrant's are frequently taken within a few weeks. Applications filed separately, or files that prompt further enquiry into the relationship, take longer. The IND can suspend the period while it asks for missing documents, which is the most common reason a case runs long.

Refusals are not common where the relationship is genuine and the file is complete. Where they occur, the usual grounds are doubts about the relationship, incorrect or incomplete information, relevant criminal antecedents, or the sponsor no longer satisfying the conditions of their own permit.

Arrival, the residence card and the BSN

After arrival the partner collects the residence card and registers with the municipality in the personal records database (Basisregistratie Personen). Registration produces the citizen service number (burgerservicenummer, BSN), which is required before any employer can put the partner on the payroll. In practice the BSN is the item that determines when the partner can actually start work, and in the larger cities appointment waiting times at the municipality can run to several weeks. Booking that appointment early is the single most useful piece of practical help an employer can offer.

The residence card is valid for the same period as the sponsor's permit, up to a maximum of five years, and is shorter where the employment contract is shorter. It is renewed together with the sponsor's permit.

Working in the Netherlands: what the partner needs to know

Հարկային և սոցիալական ապահովություն

A partner who works in the Netherlands is treated like any other employee: Dutch wage tax is withheld, national and employee insurance contributions are paid, and the ordinary employment protections apply from the first day. Working through an agency, on a fixed-term contract or on a self-employed basis makes no difference to the immigration position.

The expat facility

The partner does not inherit the sponsor's expat tax facility. The 30% որոշում, as it is generally known, has to be applied for by the partner's own employer and the partner has to satisfy its conditions in their own right, including having been recruited from abroad, which in practice is rarely satisfied by someone who has already moved to the Netherlands on a partner permit. Because the percentages, the salary thresholds and the duration of the facility have been amended repeatedly in recent years, and because this is a tax question rather than an immigration one, the current position should be confirmed with a tax adviser before it is relied on in a salary negotiation.

Առողջության ապահովագրություն

Anyone who lives or works in the Netherlands is required to take out Dutch basic health insurance, and the obligation arises within a defined period after arrival. Cover taken out in the home country is not a substitute, and failing to insure leads to a formal reminder followed by a penalty and compulsory enrolment. Premiums, the compulsory excess and any entitlement to a healthcare allowance are set annually, so the figures should be checked at the time. This is the single most common practical oversight among newly arrived families, and one sentence in an onboarding email prevents it.

If the partner loses their job

A partner who has worked and paid contributions builds up entitlement to unemployment benefit on the same basis as any other employee, subject to the ordinary conditions on employment history. Receiving benefit does not by itself end the residence permit, which rests on the relationship with the sponsor rather than on the partner's own work, although the sponsor's income remains relevant to any renewal.

When circumstances change

The highly skilled migrant loses their job

Because the partner's permit is derived from the sponsor's, this is the scenario that causes most anxiety, and the answer is more workable than people fear. A highly skilled migrant whose employment ends has a search period of three months in which to find a new position with a recognised sponsor. If a new position is found within that period and the new employer applies in time, the permit continues and the partner's permit continues with it.

If no new position is found, the basis for both permits falls away. That is not necessarily the end of the family's stay in the Netherlands. Where the partner has found work of their own, the partner's employer may be able to apply for a highly skilled migrant permit for the partner, reversing the roles, and the former sponsor can then apply for a permit as that person's family member. Other routes exist depending on the family's circumstances, including residence based on family and private life under article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights where there are children with a settled position in the Netherlands. These are fact-specific applications with short deadlines, and the moment to take advice is when the employment is at risk, not when the search period has expired.

Հարաբերություններն ավարտվում են

A residence permit granted for stay with a partner can be withdrawn when the relationship ends, and the obligation to notify the IND of a change in circumstances rests on the permit holder. Whether continued residence is possible depends mainly on how long the permit has been held.

After a sustained period of lawful residence a person may qualify for a residence permit for continued stay in their own right, or for a permanent residence permit, subject to conditions including the civic integration requirement. Not every residence purpose counts towards permanent residence in the same way, so this should be checked in advance rather than assumed. Separate and more favourable rules apply where the relationship ended because of domestic violence, honour-related violence or abandonment, and a person in that position should take advice quickly and confidentially rather than leaving the country while the permit is still valid.

Եթե ​​դիմումը մերժվում է

A refusal is challenged first by lodging an objection (bezwaar) with the IND. In immigration cases the period is four weeks from the date of the decision, not the six weeks that applies in ordinary administrative law, and the shorter period catches people out. If the objection is dismissed, an appeal lies to the district court, again within four weeks, with a further appeal to the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State.

Most refusals in this category are repairable, because most of them turn on evidence rather than on principle: a document that was missing, a translation that was not sworn, a questionnaire answered too briefly, income that did not appear sustainable on the papers filed. An objection is the moment to put that right, with the additional evidence attached, and it is worth doing properly because a second refusal is considerably harder to overturn. Our team can advise on whether an objection or a fresh application is the better route, and the answer is not always the obvious one.

The mistakes that cause delay

Almost every partner permit that runs late does so for one of a small number of reasons, and each of them is avoidable.

Documents are collected too late. Legalisation and sworn translation are the longest lead times in the whole process and they sit with foreign authorities and third parties. Begin them when the candidate accepts, not when the contract is signed.

The wrong evidence is filed for an unmarried relationship. Photographs and letters of support are not the point. What the IND weighs is documentary proof of a shared life over time, and a relationship questionnaire that the two partners have completed carefully and consistently.

The income condition is assessed on the wrong basis. It is not enough that the salary is high; it must also be sustainable, which normally means an employment contract with at least a year still to run when the decision is taken. A twelve-month contract signed three months before the family application is filed is a predictable problem.

The MVV step is left until the end. The application is decided in the Netherlands, but the sticker is collected at an embassy or consulate abroad, and appointment availability varies enormously by country. Check it at the start.

The BSN is treated as an afterthought. The residence permit gives the right to work; the BSN makes it possible to be paid. Where municipal appointments run to several weeks, the partner sits idle with a valid permit in their pocket.

And, more often than any of these, nobody asks the candidate early enough whether there is a partner at all. A partner application prepared alongside the main one adds days; a partner application started after the sponsor has already arrived adds months.

What employers should do

Employers who handle this well treat the partner as part of the hire rather than as an administrative afterthought, and it costs very little to do so.

Raise it in the recruitment conversation. Ask whether the candidate has a partner or children who will be relocating, and say clearly that a partner can come and can work without restriction. Candidates comparing the Netherlands with countries where a spouse needs a separate and uncertain work authorisation will notice.

Prepare both applications together and start the document collection immediately. Legalisation and sworn translation are the critical path, and they sit outside the company's control.

Settle the money in writing before the offer is accepted: IND fees for each family member, legalisation, translation, MVV costs and, if you offer it, relocation support. Reimbursing these costs is common and is not required.

Help with the arrival practicalities that determine when the partner can actually earn. The municipality appointment and the BSN come first; health insurance and a Dutch bank account follow; introductions to local networks and recruiters cost nothing and are remembered.

Finally, be realistic about timing and about expectations. Some partners want to start work immediately, others want to learn the language first, and both are entirely normal. What damages a relocation is not a delay but a promise that turns out to have been wrong.

Հաճախակի տրվող հարցեր

The answers below reflect the position at the time of writing. Fees, salary criteria and premiums are revised annually and should be checked with the IND or the relevant authority before you rely on them.

Ինչպես Law & More կարող է օգնել

Law & More advises employers and international professionals on ներգաղթի մասին օրենքը and on the residence position of the whole family, not only of the person being hired. We assess in advance whether the partner and children qualify, put the evidence of the relationship together in a form the IND accepts, prepare and file the applications alongside the highly skilled migrant application, and act in objection and appeal where an application has been refused. We also advise on what happens when employment ends or a relationship breaks down, which is when the derived nature of these permits matters most.

մեր փաստաբաններ work in Dutch, English, German, Turkish and Russian and can be reached at our office in Eindhoven at Marconilaan 13, 5612 HM Eindhoven, or by telephone on +31 40 369 06 80. If you are preparing an offer to an international candidate, or you have received a refusal, please contact us.