How Dutch sponsorship works — and how to apply

This section is built from the IND public register of recognised sponsors: the official list of organisations the Dutch immigration service has approved to sponsor residence permits. It tells you who can sponsor — but, unlike the US, the Netherlands does not publish what sponsors pay.

What a "recognised sponsor" is

The Netherlands puts the employer, not the worker, at the centre of the process. To hire someone as a highly skilled migrant (kennismigrant), a Dutch employer must first apply to the IND to become a recognised sponsor (erkend referent). Once recognised, the employer applies for your permit on your behalf and the IND handles those applications on an accelerated track.

If a company is not on this register, it cannot hire you as a highly skilled migrant — which is exactly why checking the register first saves wasted applications.

The main routes

• Highly skilled migrant (kennismigrant). The common route for skilled professionals. It requires a job offer from a recognised sponsor and a gross salary at or above a threshold the IND sets and indexes each year, with a lower threshold for people under 30 and for recent graduates of Dutch universities.
• EU Blue Card. An EU-wide permit for higher-educated workers, with its own salary threshold. The employer does not have to be a recognised sponsor, though the process is usually faster if they are.
• Orientation year (zoekjaar). If you recently graduated from a Dutch university — or a qualifying top-ranked university abroad — you can get a permit to look for work, and during it you can be hired without your employer meeting the highly skilled migrant salary threshold.
• Research. Universities and institutes on the research register host researchers under the EU directive on researchers and students.

Salary thresholds change every year, so we do not reproduce them here — check the IND's own page for the current figures.

How to use this register to apply smarter

• Confirm a company can sponsor. Search the A–Z directory before applying.
• Verify the company. Every entry carries its KVK number — the Dutch Chamber of Commerce ID — so you can confirm you are looking at the right legal entity, which matters when several firms share a trading name.
• Check which register. Most entries are on the work register; universities and institutes appear on the research register.

Before you hit apply

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This is general information, not immigration or legal advice. For authoritative rules and current salary thresholds, see ind.nl. Recognition as a sponsor is not a job offer or a guarantee of sponsorship. The IND updates the register monthly, and organisations join and leave it.