Business-friendly visa procedures

There are two excellent facilities for businesses to get visas for their employees to visit and work in the Netherlands.

The Orange Carpet Visa Facility
The Orange Carpet Visa Facility (OCVF) is geared to assist those companies that have business relations with a Dutch business and whose employees need to travel frequently to the Netherlands. Once a company is registered under the OCVF, the employees do not need to apply for a visa in person, does not need to carry a confirmed reservation, insurance or hotel reservation and is granted a visa with a maximum validity of three years.

Indian subsidiaries of Dutch companies, Indian companies with a subsidiary in the Netherlands and Indian companies with long-term business relations with a Dutch company are all eligible for this facility. For more information, contact the Netherlands Embassy in India.

Highly-skilled Migrant Scheme
Companies can avail of this scheme to send their Indian and non-EU employees to work in offices and subsidiaries based in the Netherlands. A highly-skilled migrant of knowledge migrant is defined as an foreign employee who is coming to work in the Netherlands as an employee and earns at least 49,087 Euro a year or 35,997 Euro a year if younger than thirty years old. These salary limits apply for 2009 and change every year, according to an index-linked system.

Companies that want to employ highly-skilled migrants now need to submit an application for an MVV and/or residence permit for the employee and his/her family to the Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND). The process is completed in two to six weeks and the residence permit is usually given for the period of employment upto a maximum of five years. Companies do not need to get work permits any more.

These schemes have made it much easier for Indian companies with a presence in the Netherlands to send business visitors or positions employees in the Netherlands.