The Dutch government strives to make the Netherlands as attractive as possible as a destination country for highly skilled workers. To try to improve its government policies and work in practise by the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) a research report (Dutch) is conducted to the gain insight in how to make the Netherlands an even more attractive destination country for highly skilled migrants.

The results show that highly skilled workers already admitted in the Netherlands are very positive on the Dutch immigration procedure in general: it is fast, around two weeks, and smooth. According the report, compared with Germany and Switserland the procedure in The Netherlands is indeed fast and smooth. This group of highly skilled workers also find the Netherlands an attractive career and settlement country. Based upon the research conclusions the Dutch Secretary of State is going to investigate some adjustments to the Highly Skilled Migrant Program to make the Netherlands even more attractive as destination country. The following adjustments are under discussion for highly skilled migrants:

Under the current regulation there is a search period of 3 months, after unemployment of the highly skilled migrant. This search period to find a new job as highly skilled migrant will be longer.

A permanent residence permit can be obtained in the Netherlands after 5 year. The Secretary of State will investigate if highly skilled migrants could be eligible sooner for a permanent permit.

In the second half of 2019 the Secretary of State will update the Dutch Parliament on these proposed adjustments.