Permit rules relaxed for big firms on bringing in outside experts

Friday 29 June 2012

Large companies working in knowledge intensive sectors will not have to ask for a work permit to bring in highly-skilled people from outside the EU on a temporary basis during a two-year experimental period.

'The relaxation of the rules will apply to workers who, for example, come to inspect goods they have ordered or to find out how to use machinery which they have ordered from Dutch firms,' the social affairs ministry said in a short statement.

'This is a wonderful first step in removing one of the biggest irritants for international companies,' Ineke Dezentje Hamming-Bluemink, chairman of the technical sector lobby group FME, told the Financieele Dagblad.

Turnover

The new rules only apply to companies with turnover of over €50m a year and in relation to orders of over €5m. In addition, 'there must be no question' of Dutch or EU nationals being sidelined, Kamp said.

Lucas van Grinsveld, spokesman for chip machinery maker ASML, welcomed the move. 'Our clients who come to us to find out about our machines will no longer have to have a permit,' he told the FD.

Nevertheless, Van Grinsveld said it is a pity the rules will not apply to ASML's own staff. 'ASML spends €600,000 a year on work permits and administration, for example on bringing our people from say the Korean ASML office to the Netherlands for training.'

Shipbuilder IHC Merwede says the move will remove an important source of irritation for clients. 'Our clients order a ship costing €80-€150m and then send a team of up to eight inspectors to supervise the building. That costs them hundreds of thousands of euros for permits, which creates incomprehension, irritation and distorts our relationships,' he told the FD.

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