Highly skilled migrant salary in the Netherlands: which threshold applies to you

The lower under-30 threshold can follow you past your 30th birthday, but not into a new job you take after turning 30: change employer then, and the higher threshold above applies.

For a young applicant, the salary on an offer hides a second question: what will the next employer have to pay? The IND's income-requirements page says the lower threshold still applies at an extension after you turn 30 if any change of employer happened before your 30th birthday; its brochure puts it more narrowly, as staying with the employer you had when the permit was first granted. Either way, change employer after turning 30 and the higher threshold applies, so a salary that was fine for the first job can be too low for the second, even when it is the same salary and the same work.

The reduced threshold, the lowest of the three, breaks the pattern: it does not depend on age, and the IND says it still applies if you change employer.

The figure above is the monthly salary threshold the Dutch immigration service, the IND, sets for a highly skilled migrant aged 30 or over. It is a salary your employer pays you every month, not a sum you hold. The IND sets the amounts each year.

Which threshold applies to you

The IND uses three thresholds, and only one applies to you:

• Aged 30 or over: the headline threshold.
• Under 30: the under-30 figure shown above. It can still apply at an extension after you turn 30, but not after a change of employer made once you are 30.
• The reduced threshold, whatever your age: if you apply during or straight after the orientation year for highly educated migrants, or within three years of graduating, of your doctorate, or of your researcher's permit ending, and you meet the IND's conditions for that route.

What counts as salary

The IND counts your gross monthly salary without holiday allowance, paid each month into a bank account in your name, plus expense and fixed allowances written into your employment contract and paid monthly. It does not count holiday allowance, wages in kind, or irregular pay such as overtime and tips.

Two more conditions sit beside the threshold. Your employer must be a sponsor recognised by the IND (unless you have Turkish nationality), and the salary must be the market rate for the job. The 30% tax ruling has its own salary test, set by the tax authority rather than the IND, so meeting one does not settle the other.

Reading the offer

Your employer carries the application; some smaller costs land on you.

Paid by the employer:

• Your salary, at or above the threshold that applies to you, every month.
• The application itself: the employer files it as a recognised sponsor. Ask who pays the IND fee.

Can fall to you:

• Legalising your documents, which the IND says you always pay for yourself, and having them translated.
• An adviser's fee, if you hire one, listed apart from any government fee.

Ask:

1. Is the employer on the IND's public register of recognised sponsors?
2. Which of the three thresholds does the employer think applies, and why: your age on the application date, or your graduation date?
3. Is the salary in the contract gross monthly pay without holiday allowance, and does it lean on anything the IND does not count?
4. If you are under 30 now, what will you need to earn if you change employer after turning 30?
5. Who pays the IND application fee, the employer or you, and is that written down?

Answer no to the first question in the box below, since it does not read a job offer or employment contract, then enter the gross monthly salary from the offer and choose Per month to set it against the thresholds on file. If a relocation agency has sent you a fee proposal, answer yes instead, and that proposal is read line by line. The check does not look at your application or advise on it; for advice on your own case, speak to a qualified immigration lawyer.

General information, not legal advice.