Documents for work in the Netherlands

Welkom in Nederland!

Most of us at LCM have experienced the process of starting new ones in a country we don’t yet know how it works, its language or its customs. That’s why we want to help newcomers or those who are planning to come to the Netherlands. Here is some advice on how to get started.

Requirements for working in the Netherlands

Register with the Dutch government
Passport or ID
Visa and work permit ( if not a European citizen)
IBAN + BIC (A Dutch bank account is recommended, although in some positions an account from another EU country may be accepted)
Burgerservicenummer (It is provided upon registration in the Netherlands. )
Dutch health insurance

Register with the Dutch government

Officially this procedure must be done within 5 days of your arrival. There are two ways to register in the Dutch government database:

Registration without a Dutch address (called Registratie Niet Ingezetenen, RNI, which stands for Registration for Non-Residents)
Registration with a Dutch address (called Verhuizing Vanuit Buitenland, which stands for Moving Abroad, i.e. becoming a resident)

1- Registration without a Dutch address

If you do not have an address to register in the Netherlands, you must register with your home address. This is called “Registration of Non-Residents”, or RNI for short. To do this you will have to make an appointment at one of the 19 municipalities where this registration takes place. The place where you do your RNI does not need to be in the municipality where you plan to live or stay, you can do it anywhere. Because the RNI is a registration for people who are going to stay in the Netherlands for less than 4 months, when you make your appointment, you will be asked how long you are going to stay. You can simply answer that you don’t know yet (because you don’t have a job, a house or anything else and you don’t know what is going to happen!) The benefit of this registration is that they will give you your BSN on the spot. Once you have your BSN and a work permit (Residence Permit or EU Passport) you can start working. To do this, you will only need your passport (or your ID/DNI if you are European and your document is valid in the Netherlands). If you stay longer than 4 months then you only need to register your Dutch address as explained in the next point, because with the RNI procedure you already have your BSN, and you officially live abroad, you only need to state that you are living in the Netherlands.

2- Registration with a Dutch address

If you have an address for registration in the Netherlands, you can make an appointment for “verhuizing vanuit het buitenland” at the municipality that corresponds to that address.

Once you make the appointment you will receive a confirmation email with all the documents you will need to bring with you, generally these documents are at least
A valid ID (if you are not European, passport).
Your rental contract (or a form from your landlord).
A birth certificate that is valid in the Netherlands.
It is important to know that with this type of registration, in general, the BSN is obtained in a letter sent to the address where you register and this can take up to two weeks.

Passport or ID

It sounds obvious, we know, but sometimes we forget that it is necessary to deliver our ID or Passport to your employee. It should also be noted that at least in the case of Spain the embassies only renew the passport and not your identity card, so if your ID is about to expire it is best to carry out the procedures with your passport.

Visa

This is only necessary for non-EU citizens. There are many different types of visas and it depends on the agreements that each country has with The Netherlands, so our only tip would be for you to make sure that you are well aware of what kind of work your visa allows (how long, conditions, etc.). And most importantly, you should know where exactly is written in your visa conditions, so that you can always hand it in when you start a new job. It is normal that the company that hires you does not know exactly the conditions of all the visas and that they need to check whether or not you can enter to work with the conditions offered, so providing all the information regarding this will speed up the process.

Bank account with IBAN + BIC

It is best to open an account directly in The Netherlands, because although some jobs accept any European account, it can cause you problems such as late payments, fees or even problems with the Taxes control. However, many Netherlands banks will first ask you to have an Registration in order to be able to open an account, or some even a payroll (if sometimes the bureaucracy gets tangled up). If you want to have a quicker procedure, the best thing to do is to use online banking … Most of them require a process of digital identification, which is used for other procedures, such as activating SIM cards or even signing your rental contract. These identification entities usually offer the option of being served in English .

BurgerServiceNummer

The BSN is a personal and unique number for every person living in the Netherlands, it is the citizen number that identifies you. This number is necessary to start working, to declare taxes, to apply for Dutch health insurance and many other things. To obtain your BSN, you need to register with the Dutch government, and they will send your BSN. Officially, this procedure must be done within 5 days of your arrival.

It is therefore one of the most important things to do when you arrive in the Netherlands.

Basic health insurance

Everyone who resides or works in the Netherlands is obliged, under the Dutch Health Insurance Act (Zorgverzekeringswet), to have a health insurance policy to cover medical expenses within four months of arrival and/or from the first day of employment. This document will not be required by the employer, as it is a personal obligation.

Applying for basic Dutch health insurance:

Go to a search programme on the internet and type in ‘basis zorgverzekering’.

Have you found the health insurance which suits your needs best? Fill out the application form and send it to the health insurer. You must have a:

Social security number (in Dutch: ‘burgerservicenummer’ or BSN).
Bank account number.
Registration with a municipality in the Netherlands.

Are you looking for a job?
Check our job offers

At LCM we are always ready to listen to interested candidates who would like to join us on the journey towards a professional future. If you are interested, please send us your application and we will contact you.