Government announces tightening of the highly skilled migrant scheme

Government announces tightening of the highly skilled migrant scheme: focus on selective inflow and tackling abuse

The Dutch government is working on major changes to the highly skilled migrant scheme. The proposed tightening focuses, among other things, on the salary criteria for highly skilled migrants, the conditions for obtaining the ‘authorized sponsor’ status  and the application of the market conformity test. The government wants to use these changes to better align the scheme with its original objective: attracting scarce highly qualified international knowledge workers, while preventing improper use of the scheme.

The main changes

1. Tougher conditions for authorized sponsorship

The conditions for companies wanting to register with the IND as an authorized sponsor will be tightened and clarified. More emphasis will be placed on the financial health and reliability of the board. In practice, we are already seeing that companies without strong positive results, despite having been operating for more than one and a half years, are being rigorously investigated.

Additionally, it will be laid down in law that the authorized sponsorship may be withdrawn sooner. If, during a period of two consecutive years, an employer has not employed any highly skilled migrants or submitted applications to do so, the IND may end the sponsorship. That period is currently three years.

2. Higher salary criteria for specific target groups

To prevent abuse, the salary thresholds, especially for highly skilled migrants younger than 30 years of age and recent graduates, will be tightened:

• Younger than 30 years of age: The government has proposed increasing the minimum wage to 1.1 times the average gross annual salary – this is the same as the level for EU Blue Card holders who graduated in the Netherlands. For 2025 this would mean a monthly salary of EUR 4,551, excluding vacation allowance (currently: EUR 4,171).
• Recent graduates:  The salary criterion for this group may possibly be increased to the average gross salary of Dutch graduates entering the labor market. In comparison: the current minimum monthly salary is EUR 2,989, while graduates with a Bachelor’s degree at the HBO level earn on average EUR 3,373 and graduates with a Master’s degree at the HBO level EUR 4,231 (source: HBO Monitor).
• 30 years and older: The salary criterion for this group remains largely unchanged. The monthly salary will stay at the same level as that of ordinary EU Blue Card holders; currently EUR 5,688 per month, excluding vacation allowance.

Moreover, under consideration is reducing the duration that the lower salary thresholds apply.

• Extending a permit once someone reaches 30 years of age will be assessed against the higher salary criterion for those older than 30.
• For recent graduates, a maximum period of three years after graduation could apply, during which a lower salary criterion may be applied, even if a graduate changes employers. Currently, there are no limits on this period.

3. Applying the market conformity test more effectively

The market conformity test, intended to assess whether the salary offered meets the requirements of the position, will be given a more prominent role when granting permits. The caretaker government is working together with the IND and the Dutch Employee Insurance Agency (in Dutch: UWV) to look at how the test can be systematically tightened and applied more effectively. This is to prevent excessively high salaries from only being used solely to meet the entry criteria.

Next steps and implementation

The proposed measures are still being worked out. A more detailed assessment of the effectiveness and feasibility of the measures will follow and the Social and Economic Council of the Netherlands (Sociaal-Economische Raad; SER) will also be asked for their advice. The final decision, taken during the decision-making process on the Spring Memorandum, will depend on political choices and available budget. 

A law amendment will be needed to reintroduce ‘inactivity’ as a ground for rejecting an authorized sponsor. Other elements in the proposal can presumably be regulated via a General Administrative Order, which requires a lead time of at least one year. A concrete timetable will be established during the further legislative procedure.

What can you do now?

Our advice to employers who depend on the highly-skilled migrant scheme is to:

• evaluate the pay structures, especially for young employees and recent graduates;
• review current highly-skilled migrant contracts with a view to potentially renewing them under new conditions.