Am I employing a knowledge migrant?

We have all heard of the knowledge migrant and we all know that the new salary thresholds as of January 1^st 2021 are as follows:

But does meeting the salary threshold automatically mean that the employer may employ a foreign national that fulfils the above salary thresholds?  The answer is “no”!

Besides fulfilment of the above salary thresholds, a knowledge migrant must receive a local employment contract with the recognized employer. An employer will be recognized by the Dutch Immigration Authority (IND) once the IND considers the employer to be trustworthy and reliable as well as that they are convinced that the solvability and continuity of the Dutch company is guaranteed.

It is important to understand that the recognition is related to a business entity, ultimately meaning that branches of a company must each be recognized by the IND in order to be able to employ knowledge migrants.

Last but certainly not least, knowledge migrants may often benefit from the 30%-ruling (tax status). Apart from several other (different) conditions, both regimes have a set of similar but confusingly different minimum wage conditions.

You will find the correct criterion for a highly skilled migrant in this table.

We thus encourage you to contact our firm in order to avoid disappointments (refusals) if one of the two (immigration/tax) conditions are not met with.