Have you recently hired a highly skilled migrant? Congratulations!
It is possible for the family members to also travel to the Netherlands to live here. The partner may even work anywhere in the Netherlands without special conditions. In other words, the partner is equal to a working highly skilled migrant partner: free choice of employer, number of hours and normal salary.
The advantage of having family members move in later is that the highly skilled migrant can focus on the first steps of house search and integration. For example, think about the things that are “normal” for Dutch people. How to get from A to B the quickest, how the public transport work, opening hours of stores and supermarkets, which stores to go to for certain products, when and where is the market, where the gyms are, clubs, cinemas, what the neighbourhood is like, which local/national apps are useful, where to buy or rent a bike, are there shared scooters/ cars or would you rather use a taxi/Uber, what are typical Dutch customs, etc. In a nutshell, what is considered completely normal for Dutch citizens, is a completely new experience for expats and which they will have to make it their own.
Most discoveries and new experiences are made in the first two months, both in the workplace and in leisure time. Because the knowledge migrant has been in the Netherlands before, he/she has time to become familiar with Dutch society. This makes it easier for the family members to switch to Dutch customs and embrace the new experience.
In most cases, the entire family moves to the Netherlands at once and the highly skilled migrant starts working almost immediately. This leaves the partner and children behind with the feeling of “I am being left out”, increasing loneliness and homesickness for country of origin. This can cause friction in the relationship, eventually leading the expat to find themselves conflicted between home and work, which can even lead to quitting the new job and leaving the Netherlands in a short period of time. This is obviously not a desirable scenario which can possibly be avoided.
Our advice is to let the highly skilled migrant move to the Netherlands on his/her own first, so that he/she can focus on the new society with associated customs and the job.
The application to the IND (Immigration and Naturalization Service) for family reunion can be submitted at any time. We recommend sending it around the first working day. It takes on average three months for the IND to decide on this application. After approval, the family members may travel to the Netherlands. Their residence permit will be linked to the residence permit for highly skilled migrants (your employee). This means that the family members can stay in the Netherlands as long as their partner/parent is employed by a recognized sponsor with a valid employment contract and residence permit. It is also an important condition that the family relationship is maintained.
You can leave it to us to take care of the application for the family members of your highly skilled migrant. We take care of the entire IND process for you. For more details, please contact us at info@globalRcompass.nl or 0031 6 823 80 801