Regulations for highly skilled migrants

Foreign workers with specific knowledge are important for the Dutch economy. But there is also a widely shared desire in society to reduce migration to the Netherlands. That is why outgoing State Secretary van Hijum is exploring in a room letter opportunities to tighten the regulations around knowledge migrants. The aim is to only admit to the Netherlands those knowledge migrants who actually contribute to our knowledge economy

Knowledge migrant scheme

Under the knowledge migrant scheme, employers can hire knowledge workers from outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland. Conditions for this are:

• the worker is an IND-approved referent;
• the knowledge migrant receives a salary higher than the salary standard and in line with the market;
• There must be a relationship of authority (employment relationship) between employer and knowledge migrant.

On 1 January 2025, there were about 107,160 knowledge migrants in the Netherlands, mainly working in the information and communication sector, as well as in business services.

The alternatives to the knowledge migrant scheme include the European Blue Card, the regular permit for employment and the combined residence and work permit (gvva). These alternatives have stricter requirements and more complicated procedures.

Approved referent

The Cabinet is considering tightening the recognised referentship on three points:

• Reintroduce and tighten the withdrawal ground of inactivity (this will now be regulated by law and the permitted duration for inactivity will be reduced from 3 to 2 years);
• Testing more strictly on the reliability of the referent (non-compliance with the Waai, Working Hours Act, Working Conditions Act and Economic Offences Act will also be included in the reliability test, and the look-back period for tax offence fines and administrative fines will be extended by 1 year, to 5 years);
• Clarify and strengthen the test for continuity and solvency (this concerns the test of whether the salary of the knowledge migrant is in line with the gross profit of the company, the obligation to submit a plan of action to the IND in case of a solvency of less than 20%/negative operating results/negative working capital and the obligation that the annual accounts have been compiled or verified by an independent third party).

Pay criterion

The salary criterion means that the knowledge migrant must receive at least the following gross monthly salary (excluding holiday allowance) (amounts apply for 2025):

The Cabinet intends to increase the salary criterion, by making it equal to the salary criterion for the Blue Card: €6,245.00. There is also the intention to limit the possibility of the extended use of the reduced wage criterion: for the first application after the knowledge migrant turns 30, the wage criterion for knowledge migrants older than 30 must then be applied.

Finally, the intention is to clarify the salary concept relevant to the knowledge migrant scheme. Does this include, for instance, an Individual Choice Budget, which unpaid leaves of absence are allowed and how should payments be made (the latter especially aimed at limiting foreign payments as much as possible).