In May 2025, the Minister announced several proposals to tighten the requirements of the European Blue Card. The House of Representatives has responded to these proposals.

So far, only the following proposal to amend the European Blue Card has been adopted. It must still be implemented into legislation.

• The salary threshold will be 1.3 times the average gross annual salary. This would translate into a gross monthly salary of € 5,777 in 2025, instead of € 5,688.
• This threshold will be 1.1 times for Blue Card applicants who graduated less than three years ago.

No concrete follow-up steps have yet been taken regarding the other proposals.

Tightening Highly Skilled Migrant permit

In July 2025, the government also announced concrete proposals to significantly tighten the application and conditions of the knowledge migrant scheme.

For example, the government intends to significantly amend the application of the salary thresholds for highly skilled migrants under the age of 30 and the search year permit requirement.

The duration to have the below 30 years of age salary threshold and the search year permit salary threshold applied will be limited in time.

The highly skilled migrant salary threshold for employees over 30 years of age will also increase to 1.3 times the average gross annual salary, just like the EU Blue Card. The salary threshold for highly skilled migrants under 30 years of age, will increase to 1.1 times the average gross annual salary. This is the same salary threshold as for recent graduates of the EU Blue Card.

The highly skilled migrant salary threshold for recent graduates in the Netherlands (the “search year” salary) will be equal to the average salary earned by other recent graduates working in the Netherlands.