About work permits

Definition of “work”

A work permit (in Dutch: tewerkstellingsvergunning, abbreviated with "TWV") allows an employer to hire a particular foreign national to work. ‘Work’ here is a broad concept: work placements, practical training, research assistantships, PhD studentships (!) and the like are all considered to be work under Dutch law. The same goes for the term “employee”. Whether you have an official employment contract, or whether you get paid are not the most important factors. The crucial point is whether you are working under the authority of another person. If the latter is the case, then you are considered an “employee”.

Protection of the Dutch labour market

The rules that apply to the issue of work permits are laid out in the Foreign Nationals (Employment) Act (in Dutch: Wet arbeid vreemdelingen). The purpose of this law is to protect the Dutch labour market and it is therefore essentially restrictive. This means that foreign nationals do not qualify for a work permit unless certain conditions are met.

An application for a work permit will normally be rejected if there is a supply of workers on the Dutch labour market in a category with a higher priority. This includes nationals of an EU/EEA member state or foreign nationals who are free to work in the Netherlands. A reason for this could be that their residence permit has been endorsed with the words ‘work permit not required’.

Special categories

Less stringent rules apply to foreign nationals who work in higher education (researchers, guest lecturers), or other sectors where shortages have been identified. They are not considered a threat to the Dutch labour market, in fact, the opposite is true. The Netherlands needs foreign nationals to fill certain positions in order to keep up or improve our competitive position in certain areas such as research.

In practical terms this means that for these categories it will not be checked if there is a supply of workers available in a category with a higher priority. This saves the future employer a lot of paperwork and time in the application procedure. More importantly, it greatly increases the chance that a work permit will be approved of.

Finally, an employer hiring a researcher or guest lecturer is often exempt from the work permit requirement.