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Netherlands
NEWS6 May 2026Netherlands

EURAXESS report on immigration and mobility of researchers in Europe

A drawing of a person next to a screen full of statistics. In front of him, three people are sitting on chairs, looking at the screen and discussing the results among each other.

EU countries and countries outside the EU have participated in a survey on immigration and mobility of researchers. Based on the input, the Community of Practice (CoP) Supporting mobility and procedures has published a report with some interesting results. Topics covered include:

  • Type of residence permit for a PhD-candidate
  • Duration of visa and residence permit granting process
  • Complexity of visa and residence permit application documentation
  • Processing times for research residence permits
  • Hosting agreement process in REST-Directive countries
  • Researcher access to the labour market upon arrival in countries with the REST Directive
  • Facilitation of intra-EU mobility for researchers on the basis of the REST Directive
  • Duration of stay for job seeking and entrepreneurship
  • Post-research job seeking entrepreneurship possibilities, hurdles and good practices
  • Family members of researchers
  • Obtaining the necessary documents, translations and legalisations

Download the full report

Shared recommendations on Attracting talent for Innovation

Earlier this year, the European Commission adopted the first-ever EU Visa Strategy and recommendations on attracting talent for innovation. The CoP was thrilled to see a number of recommendations matching our report. A few recommendations that we recognised and you can also find in our report:

  • There should be a shorter decision period on applications for visas and residence permits.
  • There should be a shorter waiting time at ambassies for visa applications/collection appointments.
  • There should be no more double requests for documents during the visa procedure.

 

Here you can find the highlights of the report in a visual. It shows a graph on the variation in visa categories for PhD-candidates, shows the positive view on the complexity of visa and residence permit application documentations. It also shows that 92% of the survey participants experiences little to no trouble with the hosting agreement. Training and awareness of the contents of the regulation might help to facilitate more mobility and there are still areas that can be further analysed: post-research job seeking and entrepreneurship and the duration of stay for job seeking and entrepreneurship.