The highly skilled migrant scheme in the Netherlands: the 2026 salary criterion, the recognised sponsor and what both sides must know

The highly skilled migrant scheme (kennismigrantenregeling) is the route by which most non-EU professionals come to work in the Netherlands. It is fast but conditional: the employer must already be a recognised sponsor, and the salary must reach a threshold re-set every January. This page states the 2026 figures, explains the mechanism behind them, and sets out the obligations on both sides.

What the scheme is

A highly skilled migrant is a foreign national admitted to work for a specific employer on the strength of salary, not of a diploma or a labour market test. The legal basis is article 3.30a of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000, read with article 14 of the Vreemdelingenwet 2000. No degree is required, the post need not be advertised, and no separate work permit (tewerkstellingsvergunning) is needed under article 2 of the Wet arbeid vreemdelingen; that exemption follows from article 2.1 of the Besluit uitvoering Wet arbeid vreemdelingen 2022.

The salary criterion replaces that test: if an employer will pay above a set threshold, the market is taken to have decided the worker is needed. It is the load-bearing element of the scheme, and where most applications fail.

The permit is a combined residence and work authorisation, endorsed to show that work is permitted for the named employer. A change of employer requires a new application by the new employer, not a notification. It runs for the duration of the contract, to a maximum of five years.

How it differs from the other work routes

The EU Blue Card

The Blue Card is the European variant. It requires a completed higher education programme of at least three years, or in certain ICT roles a qualifying period of professional experience; the highly skilled migrant scheme requires no qualification. It has a single salary threshold, a reduced figure for recent graduates, and a minimum contract duration of six months under the recast Blue Card Directive as implemented in Dutch law. An employer need not be a recognised sponsor to apply, making it the fallback for a company without recognition.

Its advantage is portability: after an initial period it allows movement to another member state without starting again, and residence accrued elsewhere in the EU counts towards long-term resident status. The national permit gives none of that. For a career that stays in Eindhoven the highly skilled migrant route is faster; for one that may move on, the Blue Card is worth the extra evidence.

The intra-corporate transferee permit

The ICT permit implements Directive 2014/66/EU and covers transfers within one group of companies from outside the EU to a Dutch entity; the conditions are set out in article 3.30d of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000. It applies to managers, specialists and trainee employees who have already worked for the group outside the EU, EEA and Switzerland for a minimum period before the transfer. Stay is capped at three years for managers and specialists, one year for trainees, across all member states. Salary must be market-conform and meet the same thresholds as for highly skilled migrants. Recognition is not required but speeds the procedure. The permit leads nowhere: time on it counts as temporary residence.

The orientation year

The orientation year (zoekjaar) is a one-year permit for graduates of Dutch institutions, graduates of qualifying foreign universities and researchers, applied for within three years of graduation or completion of the research. It gives free access to the labour market: any employer, any role, no work permit, no salary threshold. It is not a highly skilled migrant permit, but the standard bridge to one, and it unlocks the reduced criterion below.

The self-employed route

A foreign national working for their own account cannot use the scheme, which presupposes an employer and an employment contract. The self-employed permit is assessed on a points system covering personal experience, the business plan and added value to the Dutch economy, on advice from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. Separate regimes exist for innovative start-ups and, for US nationals, under the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty. A payroll construction that merely creates the appearance of employment is what the IND looks for.

The recognised sponsor requirement

An employer cannot hire a highly skilled migrant unless the IND has already recognised it as a sponsor (erkend referent). This cannot run in parallel with the first hire: recognition must exist before the application is filed, and the application is made by the employer, not the employee.

Recognition is granted under article 2c of the Vreemdelingenwet 2000. The IND assesses registration in the trade register, the continuity and solvency of the business, and the reliability of the company and its directors; companies with a short trading history are referred to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency. The statutory decision period is three months, though established companies are often decided in four to six weeks.

The fee for recognition for employment purposes is €5,080 in 2026, reduced to €2,539 for a company with 50 employees or fewer, counted across the group; it is not refunded if recognition is refused. Both figures took effect on 1 January 2026 and are indexed each 1 January, so budget from the table on ind.nl as it stands on the day the application is filed.

Recognition is a status, not a licence to be forgotten. It can be suspended under article 2f and withdrawn under article 2g of the Vreemdelingenwet 2000, and lapses where a company makes no use of it for a prolonged period.

The salary criterion in 2026

The criterion is indexed annually with effect from 1 January, following the collective labour agreement wage index published by Statistics Netherlands; the new amounts appear each December in the Staatscourant. For 2026 the indexation was 4.46 per cent. A figure quoted without a year is therefore worthless: a threshold from two indexation rounds ago is now several hundred euro too low.

All amounts below are gross monthly salary excluding the holiday allowance: not annual figures, not total package figures.

Age is assessed at the start of the employment. A migrant admitted under the under-30 band does not fall out of the scheme on their thirtieth birthday: the lower figure continues while that employment runs uninterrupted. A change of employer resets the position.

The criterion that applies is, in principle, the one in force on the date of application, and it holds for the duration of the permit rather than rising every January. That is a real comfort for employers, but it is not unconditional: a new application, a change of employer or an extension brings the migrant onto the criterion then in force.

The reduced criterion for graduates and researchers

The reduced criterion of €3,122 gross per month in 2026 applies where the migrant has held an orientation year permit, or graduated from a Dutch institution or a qualifying foreign programme, and takes up highly skilled employment within three years of graduation. It also covers those who have completed a PhD or scientific research in the Netherlands. The employer must be a recognised sponsor. It is a starting rate: on a later application outside the three-year window the ordinary band for the migrant’s age applies, and an employer that budgeted only for €3,122 faces a sharp step up.

What counts towards the criterion and what does not

The threshold must be met by fixed, guaranteed gross wage paid monthly. Two elements count: the fixed gross monthly salary in the employment contract, and fixed allowances that are contractually agreed, unconditional, paid monthly and transferred to the employee’s account. The following do not:

• the holiday allowance, even though it is a legal entitlement and part of the total package;
• bonuses, commission, profit share and any variable or performance-dependent element;
• overtime payments and irregularity supplements;
• payments in kind: company car, housing, insurance, school fees;
• expense reimbursements and one-off payments.

Hence the usual surprise. “€6,000 per month plus eight per cent holiday allowance” clears the threshold; “€6,000 all-in including holiday allowance” does not, because the fixed monthly wage is then roughly €5,556, below the 2026 figure for a migrant aged 30 or over. The 30 per cent facility is a tax measure; it does not reduce the gross figure the IND assesses.

The market conformity test

Meeting the number is necessary but not sufficient. Article 3.30a of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000 allows refusal where, in the judgement of the Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, the agreed wage deviates strongly from what is customary for comparable work in comparable positions. Where a salary looks constructed rather than earned, the IND seeks advice from the Employee Insurance Agency.

It bites in two directions. A junior administrative role paid €5,942 purely to clear the threshold invites the question why an administrator commands that salary; so does a sharp jump from an orientation year salary at the same employer with no change of duties. Employers should be able to place the salary against a pay scale, a collective agreement or comparable posts.

The application, decision periods and fees

The recognised sponsor files the application, normally through the IND business portal. Where the migrant’s nationality requires a provisional residence permit (machtiging tot voorlopig verblijf), the employer uses the combined entry and residence procedure, producing visa and permit in one decision. Others apply for the permit alone.

The statutory decision period for a regular residence application is 90 days (article 25 of the Vreemdelingenwet 2000). The same 90 days, without extension, applies to an intra-corporate transfer and to the EU Blue Card; for study, research, trainee work and exchange the period is 60 days, again without extension. For recognised sponsors the IND aims at two weeks and ordinarily meets it; the period is suspended if documents are missing, the usual cause of delay. The fee for a highly skilled migrant residence permit is €423 in 2026, as for the EU Blue Card. On the same 2026 table an accompanying spouse or partner costs €254 and a child under 18 €85, and the orientation year for graduates and researchers €254. The full table by residence purpose is published on ind.nl and is replaced each 1 January.

Family members are applied for at the same time: spouse or registered partner, unmarried partner in a durable relationship, and minor children. The partner’s residence document permits work without restriction and without a work permit — worth stating plainly to candidates who assume a partner cannot work.

The sponsor’s continuing duties

Recognition brings three standing obligations, imposed under article 2a of the Vreemdelingenwet 2000. The detail sits in the subordinate instruments: the duty to inform in articles 4.17 to 4.26 of the Voorschrift Vreemdelingen, the duty to keep and retain records in articles 4.27 to 4.42 of that regulation, and the duty of care in article 1.16 of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000 and article 1.4 of the Voorschrift Vreemdelingen.

• The duty to inform. The sponsor must notify the IND within four weeks of every change relevant to the right of residence: the end of employment, a reduction in salary, a change of function or of legal entity within the group, a merger, a relocation. A reduction described internally as temporary is still reportable. Silence is the most common breach, and the easiest for the IND to establish afterwards from payroll data.
• The duty to keep records. The sponsor must keep a file on each migrant for five years after the employment ends: passport and residence document, signed contract, payslips and payroll records, evidence of the qualification where the reduced criterion is used, and the signed declaration on the conditions of residence. The IND expects these produced during an inspection, not reconstructed afterwards.
• The duty of care. The sponsor must inform the migrant properly of the conditions of entry and residence, recruit and select carefully, and bear the costs of departure where residence ends, for a period after the employment terminates.

Breach is enforced by administrative fine under article 55a of the Vreemdelingenwet 2000, and in serious or repeated cases by suspension or withdrawal of recognition. Withdrawal is the real sanction: it does not merely stop future hiring, it destabilises every migrant already employed on that recognition.

Dismissal, resignation and the search period

The permit depends on the employment. When it ends, the sponsor must report it and the ground for the permit falls away. The migrant then has a period in which to find a new position with a recognised sponsor.

That period has been three months. Following the recast Single Permit Directive (EU) 2024/1233, the IND has applied a six-month period from 22 May 2026 to workers — highly skilled migrants, Blue Card holders and researchers — who have held their permit for two years or longer when the employment ends; those below two years remain on three months. It runs only within the validity of the existing permit, so a permit expiring soon after the job ends may need extending. Two qualifications matter here. The six months applies only where the job was lost on or after 22 May 2026; a job lost before that date carries three months whatever the length of the permit. And the six months rests for the moment on published IND practice rather than on amended Dutch legislation: the bill implementing the recast directive, the Implementatiewet GVVA-richtlijn, was introduced in the Tweede Kamer on 3 June 2026 and has not been enacted. Guidance and circulars written before 22 May 2026 accordingly still give three months across the board. Where the search period is decisive, confirm it with the IND in writing rather than relying on secondary material.

Two points are frequently misunderstood. The clock generally starts when the employment actually ends, not when dismissal is announced. And while the reason for the ending does not affect the search period, it matters elsewhere: a migrant who resigns without another position risks their unemployment benefit as well as their residence, and a settlement agreement negotiated without regard to residence creates both problems at once.

The family follows the main permit holder. Family members hold derived permits, so if the main permit is withdrawn the partner’s and children’s rights end with it, including the right to work. For a family in Eindhoven with a mortgage and children in school this is the most consequential fact of all, and it is rarely explained at hiring.

Permanent residence and naturalisation

Residence as a highly skilled migrant counts towards permanent residence. After five years of continuous lawful residence on a non-temporary purpose, the migrant may apply for a Dutch permanent residence permit, the EU long-term resident permit, or both on one application. The conditions are stable and sufficient independent income, continuous main residence, an unbroken chain of permits, and the civic integration examination at level A2 or an exemption. Time on an ICT permit does not count; residence on an orientation year permit, granted under article 3.4 of the Vreemdelingenbesluit 2000, counts in full towards both permanent residence and naturalisation.

Naturalisation under the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap currently requires five years of uninterrupted lawful main residence, the civic integration examination, and in principle renunciation of the previous nationality, subject to exceptions. Proposals to extend that period to ten years have been discussed, but none has entered into force. Five years is the position that applies.

Intensified supervision of recognised sponsors

The scheme has come under sustained political scrutiny, principally over constructions in which a migrant is nominally employed at the threshold salary while the real work, and the real pay, lie elsewhere. The response has been more supervision, not different thresholds.

Inspection is increasingly data-driven: with the Netherlands Labour Authority, the IND compares reported salaries against payroll and tax data and pursues discrepancies rather than waiting for a complaint. The duty to inform is enforced strictly, and late reporting of a salary reduction or a change of function is a breach in itself. Lending and secondment constructions, in which the migrant is placed with a third party while the recognised sponsor remains the formal employer, draw particular attention.

A recognised sponsor therefore needs a process, not good intentions: a named owner for compliance, a calendar for permit expiries and four-week notification deadlines, and files that open on demand. That costs little against losing recognition.

What the application file contains

The IND decides on paper. An application that is short one legalised document waits, and the two-week decision period a recognised sponsor enjoys only starts once the file is complete. Legalisation and sworn translation take weeks rather than days, so the collecting starts before the contract is signed, not after.

From the employee

• A passport valid well beyond the intended start date.
• A birth certificate, legalised or apostilled, and translated by a sworn translator where it is not in Dutch, English, French or German.
• Diplomas and transcripts, with a Nuffic credential evaluation where the qualification needs one.
• The antecedents declaration that forms part of the application, and a tuberculosis test declaration for nationals of countries on the IND’s list.

From the employer

• The signed employment contract, stating the role, the gross monthly salary, the hours, the start date and the payment frequency.
• The IND appendix on employment conditions, signed by both parties.
• An extract from the Chamber of Commerce and the sponsor’s IND recognition number.
• On request, the articles of association and the most recent financial statements.

The contract is where most avoidable problems sit. A salary stated as an annual figure, hours below the threshold for a full-time appointment, or a start date that has already passed all cost weeks.

Bringing your partner and children

Family members apply at the same time as the highly skilled migrant, which is faster and cheaper than a separate application later. The file needs a legalised marriage certificate or proof of registered partnership, birth certificates for each child, evidence of parental authority where that is in issue, and proof that the salary covers the family’s living costs.

The advantage of this route over ordinary family reunification is what the partner may do once here: a partner of a highly skilled migrant may work for any employer without a separate work permit, and is not tied to the migrant’s sponsor. Children attend school on the same footing as Dutch pupils; once they turn eighteen they need a residence permit of their own, which is the point at which families are most often caught out.

After approval: the first weeks

Approval starts a short sequence of appointments, and the deadlines run from arrival rather than from the decision.

1. Travel on the MVV. Where an MVV is issued, it permits entry within ninety days. Book the flight around that window, not around the decision date.
2. Collect the residence card. Make an appointment with the IND and check the card on the spot: the spelling of your name, the validity period and, above all, the labour market note. An error there decides what you are allowed to do, and it is far easier corrected at the desk than afterwards.
3. Register with the municipality. Registration in the municipal records is due within five days of moving in. Bring the passport, the rental contract and the legalised civil status documents. The citizen service number (BSN) follows from that registration, and almost everything else depends on it.
4. Take out Dutch health insurance. Basic insurance is compulsory and must be arranged within four months. Late enrolment is fined, and the fine is not discretionary.
5. Arrange a DigiD and, where your nationality requires it, the tuberculosis test within three months.

If the IND refuses the application

Refusals cluster around four causes: a salary that falls short of the criterion for the applicant’s age or category, an employer that turns out not to be a recognised sponsor, an incomplete file, and a previous period of unlawful stay. Three of those four are avoidable before filing, which is the argument for having the file checked rather than testing it on the IND.

A refusal is a decision that can be challenged: first by filing an objection with the IND, and if that fails, by appeal to the court. The objection must be lodged within four weeks of the decision — the shorter term that applies in immigration matters, not the six weeks of general administrative law — see our guide to the objection procedure for how that works. In practice a well-founded objection often succeeds on documentation grounds, where the substance was never really in dispute.