Do you want to hire Indian employees? Or bring Indian employees to the Netherlands temporarily to let them work on your projects here? If so, you must have yourself recognised by the IND as a sponsor. This is how it works.
A sponsor is a person or organisation that has an interest in the residence of a foreign national in the Netherlands. When you employ a foreign employee, you are the referent for this employee. You can be a sponsor for several employees at the same time.
Acknowledgement
As an employer you can have yourself recognised as a sponsor by the IND. Recognition as a sponsor has a number of advantages:
The IND will process your applications faster: a decision on a fully submitted application will usually be made within 2 weeks.
Fewer supporting documents: You need to send fewer supporting documents with your application. An own statement that the employee meets the conditions is usually sufficient.
You can use a special e-mail address for questions.
You can use the Business Portal to submit digital applications.
Knowledge migrants and researchers from India
To employ knowledge migrants and researchers, your organisation must be recognised by the IND. In order to be recognised as a sponsor, your organisation must be a reliable partner for the IND. After recognition, your organisation is listed in the public register of recognised sponsors. Recognition is linked to a legal entity with an associated Chamber of Commerce number.
Exceptions
Recognition is not mandatory for the employment of foreign employees for intra-corporate transfers (Directive on Intra-Corporate Transfers 2014/66/EU), paid employment, the European Blue Card, apprenticeships and seasonal work. An unrecognised sponsor is, however, obliged to report changes to the IND on the basis of his duty of information.
Conditions
To become an authorised sponsor, you must meet a number of conditions. There are a number of conditions that apply to all approved sponsors. If you wish to apply for recognition for the employment of researchers in accordance with Directive (EU) 2016/801, one of the following additional conditions will apply:
Your institution is a public research institution as referred to in Article 1d, paragraph 1, subsection b, Aliens Employment Act Implementation Decree, and applies job profiles under the job family 'research and education' for salaried researchers.
Your institution is a public research institute and is included in the Annex to the Higher Education and Scientific Research Act.
Your institution is a private research institution included in the National Academic Research and Collaboration System (Narcis).
Your institution is a private research institution to which an R&D statement (Speur- en Ontwikkelingswerk) has been issued on the basis of the Salaries Tax and National Insurance Contributions (Reduced Remittances) Act.
There are no additional conditions for the recognition for work.
Costs
The application for recognition as sponsor costs €4125. If your company is a start-up or a small company with up to 50 persons, the costs for recognition as a sponsor are € 2062.
Restrictions caused by the coronavirus
If your Indian employee(s) has/have been fully vaccinated, no entry restrictions will apply. However, if your employees already have a residence permit or have received an approval, you must contact the IND in the following cases:
The employee for whom a residence permit has been applied for no longer comes to the Netherlands.
The employee for whom a residence permit has been applied for comes to the Netherlands later than stated in the application.
The employee with a residence permit cannot return to the Netherlands and can therefore no longer meet the conditions attached to the residence permit.
An employee with a residence permit may only be abroad for a certain period of time. Highly skilled migrants and scientific researchers are not allowed to work outside the Netherlands for more than 8 months in a 12-month period (on aggregate). Even when staying outside the Netherlands, they have to meet the conditions for the residence permit, such as the salary criterion.
If you have chosen not to pay the full salary due to their stay abroad, this may have consequences for the residence permit. The employee must meet a certain monthly salary criterion, which also remains valid for the duration of the visa/residence permit.
Is a remote worker something for you?
India, with its large talent pool of highly educated techies, offers a good solution to the Dutch shortage of IT professionals, developers, data engineers and engineers.
But it is not always possible to actually bring these employees to the Netherlands. You can then choose to work with these new colleagues remotely without affecting the quality of the work and the results of your team.
After all, your Indian remote workers can become full-fledged team members if you handle their arrival at your company properly.
Read more about the opportunities Indian remote workers can bring to your business and how to integrate them properly into your team: