Minister Faber 's memorandum on the tightening of the highly skilled migrant scheme was made with the idea that companies that want to employ knowledge migrants should arrange it themselves. This means becoming a recognized sponsor and putting them on the payroll. However, it now appears that 1 exception has been made for startups and scale-ups. In this article you will find the reasons why there are certain exceptions, how they can be applied in practice and the long-term risks that startups and scale-ups may face.
The Importance of Startups and Scale-ups to the Innovative Power of the Netherlands
Startups and scale-ups are important to the innovative strength of the Netherlands. Often these are companies that are young, with young founders working on proof of concepts, seeking funding and often struggling to find the right staff. Finding experienced people, for example in IT or engineering, is difficult because there is no budget to offer competitive salaries. In addition, specific expertise is often needed and also not so frequently available in the Netherlands.
A possible solution then is to look at expats. But, and this is often the problem, finding expats, arranging visas and bringing them to the Netherlands is an expertise in itself. And there is often no time within the still young or fast growing company to deal with this. The requirements to become a recognized referent (a kind of approval from the IND that allows you to put expats on your payroll) is intensive and requires a lot of time and attention.
Now startups and scale-ups often turn to payrollers or staffing agencies that put the expats on the payroll and send an invoice to the startup or scale-up. This is a bit more expensive but removes all the administrative difficulties from the entrepreneurs. However: if Minister Faber's memo is turned into policy, payroll companies and staffing agencies will no longer be allowed to hire expats.
The Exception for Startups and Scale-ups: Opportunities and Challenges
Probably partly due to the great influence of parties such as TechLeap, which have greatly improved the climate for startups and scale-ups in the Netherlands, they managed to create an exception for these groups. They are allowed to hire expats from payroll companies and broadcasters for a period of 2 years, as long as after that they make sure they can take expats on the payroll themselves.
This is a great result, however the elaboration of these ideas will be crucial. Because losing well employed expats would be a major setback for these companies. Therefore, during the 2-year period, it will be crucial for these companies to focus on learning and developing strategies to obtain approved sponsor status with the IND, as well as meeting all associated obligations and legal requirements. It is very important for this group of companies to focus on getting their payroll processing right (remember the 27% rule), visas, salary standards and the other requirements of the IND.
