Moving to Netherlands on Search Year Visa with my Spouse

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

I've never heard of a "Stable Income" visa, so I'm guessing that you mean one of the working visas?

There are basically 2 routes into Holland with a work visa:

1st is the Highly Skilled migrant visa where you find a job with an employer who is registered with the Dutch Government department responsible for this (IND) and your employer sponsors your visa and makes the application on behalf of you and your family.  The important feature about this is that the role has to be for a job that nobody else currently resident in Holland can do, or is available for.

2nd is the standard work visa, this comes in 2 sorts, one where your employer sponsors you, the other where you sponsor yourself.  Key points of these are again, it has to be a job for which nobody in Holland can or is willing to do, but much more importantly, there is scrutiny from the Netherlands Employees Insurance Agency (UWV) about the labour market aspect; basically, if they don't think you qualify or will get paid work, you can be denied at this point.

The salary part you mention is that your wage has to be at least equal to the minimum wage set down in Dutch law.

So what do you need to do:

1st - learn Dutch (both you and your wife), unless you go the highly skilled migrant route, you will have to take an exam to prove this as part of the process.
2nd - find a job; I will warn you that long-range job searching is always problematic, the moment they realise that you don't speak Dutch and can't start work tomorrow, they lose interest in you in favour of somebody who can.  Many people leave their families at home and travel to Holland to try and do it alone, then bring their families later; of this group, not all are successful.

A few warnings:

Watch out for scammers; if you are offered something (job, house, visa) that seems almost too good to be true, then it almost certainly is a scammer - there are thousands out there, don't be misled by impressive websites and testimonials and certainly never pay for anything upfront.

You should be aware that if you apply for a job where your degree is a requirement, they will check on its authenticity; many people have bought degrees from dubious, non-existent colleges in the UK.  Whatever qualification you need will be checked.

If you have any further specific questions, please come back to us.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Thanks Cynic for the response.

I was referring to the search year Visa/Orientation visa conditions for coming along with the spouse and the kid. It outlines two conditions where you have to satisfy either. Which are:

f your family members do not have a Dutch residence permit yet, you will have to show that you
have sufficient means of existence to be able to support your family members in the Netherlands
during the orientation year. You have sufficient means of existence, if:
 Your income is independent, sufficient and long-term. You can find information about independent,
sufficient and long-term income here; or
 The balance of your bank account equals at least 12 times (or less, depending on how long your
residence permit for the orientation year is still valid) the monthly amount of welfare benefits for
families in the Netherlands, including holiday allowance. You can find information about welfare
benefits here

Kindly advise on these two options


Ronald

Hi again.

Where have you got this information?  A link would be useful.  I'd search for it myself but the search function on the IND website is not working at the moment.

In the meantime, the Dutch Government website (IND) has an FAQ on the subject that may answer your questions; it's a PDF document and this link will take you straight to it.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Hello,

I would also actually like to know about this?

This is the link the previous person was talking about. I would like to know how much the funds are they talking about? Also, does the spouse need to do any dutch language tests?

https://ind.nl/en/documents/faq_orienta … ersons.pdf

I've just checked; the answer to your question is in the link I provided.