The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment has announced that a pilot scheme will start on January 1, 2012, in which highly skilled migrants staying in the Netherlands for less than three months will also be able to make use of a simplified entry procedure. The Ministry has also published the new salary criteria that will apply to the highly skilled migrant regime as of January 1, 2012.
Salary criteria
Each year, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment revises the salary criterion for highly skilled migrants as at January 1. The new criterion is based on the most recent index figure for negotiated wages, as published by Statistics Netherlands (Centraal Bureau voor de Statistiek).
As of January 1, 2012, the salary criteria applicable to the three categories will be:
1) Highly skilled migrants older than 30 years of age, gross annual income at least: EUR 51,239 (was: EUR 50,619)
2) Highly skilled migrants younger than 30 years of age: EUR 37,575 (was: EUR 37,121)
3) Foreigners who graduated in the Netherlands and were employed as a highly skilled migrant within one year after graduation: EUR 26,931 (was: EUR 26,605)
The salary criterion is assessed solely on the salary received in cash, i.e. the contractual gross salary in cash. Non-cash salary payments, and uncertain salary components such as overtime, tips, and benefit payments are therefore excluded. Fixed allowances such as the vacation allowance and 13th month payment may be included in the gross salary. The required payroll tax and social security contributions must be remitted.
Pilot scheme for short stay highly skilled migrants
Plans to introduce a simplified procedure for admitting highly skilled migrants who only come to the Netherlands for a short stay have existed for some time. Currently, short stay migrants are unable to apply for the popular Highly Skilled Migrants regime because of the short-term nature of their stay in the Netherlands.
The Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment has announced that a pilot scheme will start on January 1, 2012, in which a simplified procedure for highly skilled migrants staying in the Netherlands for less than three months will be applied. The pilot scheme will end on December 31, 2013. During the course of the pilot scheme it will be assessed whether the simplified procedure can be made definite. All employers who have been approved for the highly skilled migrant procedure can take part in the pilot scheme.