Visa information

The Netherlands guide names three routes: the Highly Skilled Migrant permit via a recognised sponsor, the DAFT treaty visa for US entrepreneurs, and the Orientation Year visa for recent graduates. It scores the Netherlands 52/100 for visa and bureaucracy — the lowest of its seven dimensions — so expect paperwork to be the hard part of this move, alongside housing.

The three routes the guide names

Highly Skilled Migrant permit — the guide specifies it runs via a recognised sponsor, so the employer side is built into the route.

DAFT treaty visa — the route for US entrepreneurs. The guide's schemes list adds the figure: DAFT visa for Americans on €4,500 investment.

Orientation Year visa — the route for recent graduates, listed in the schemes list as “Orientation Year for graduates.”

There is no dedicated nomad visa: the guide's remote-work line is “DAFT treaty visa for US entrepreneurs; no nomad visa,” and the site data carries the identical wording.

The DAFT figure — and the thresholds the sources do not give

The only route-specific figure either source prints is the DAFT one: €4,500 investment for Americans. At the guide's exchange rate of $1 ≈ €0.86, that is a euro-denominated requirement to plan around in euros, not a dollar estimate.

For the Highly Skilled Migrant permit, neither source prints a salary threshold, and neither prints an Orientation Year eligibility window or a DAFT business-plan test. This page does not invent them — confirm the current figures with the sponsor, the consulate or an immigration lawyer before filing. The guide also states plainly in its retirement line that there is no retirement visa (see the Retirement page).

What the paperwork costs — plan budgets, not a fee schedule

The guide does not list individual government visa fees. What it gives is a bundled “Visa, permits & translations” budget line in each move plan, described in the plans as government fees, apostilles and translations, with the note that the luxury tier adds an immigration lawyer:

• $1,050 — Affordable plan (you file yourself)
• $1,500 — Mid-range and Retirement plans
• $3,600 — Luxury plan (lawyer-led)

The Retirement plan carries one further, separate line: $2,800 for “Retirement visa, lawyer & pension certification” — even though the guide says there is no retirement visa, the plan template still budgets lawyer and pension-certification help; see the Retirement page.

Application steps and timelines, by tier

The guide builds the application into each plan's timeline rather than printing a single step list. The common sequence across the plans and checklists is:

• Choose the route first and print its requirements; the Affordable checklist starts with “Visa route chosen and requirements printed.”
• Gather and legalise documents — apostilles and translations are named in every tier.
• Check your passport — the Affordable checklist requires a passport valid 18+ months.
• Arrange health insurance before you file (see the Hospitals page for the guide's first-year insurance budgets).
• File — yourself on the Affordable tier, or with a lawyer or agent on the Mid-range, Luxury and Retirement tiers.

Paperwork-stage durations in the guide: ~10 weeks filing yourself (Affordable), ~8 weeks with a lawyer or agent filing (Mid-range), ~6 weeks with a lawyer filing everything (Luxury), and ~14 weeks for the Retirement paperwork stage. After the move, the settle stage includes registering your address and opening a bank account.

Renewals and the path to residency — the honest limit of the guide

Neither the guide nor the site data gives renewal intervals, permit durations, years to permanent residency or citizenship, or absence limits for any of the three routes. This page therefore does not state them. What is sourced is the route list, the DAFT €4,500 figure, and the plan timelines above — treat questions of duration and pathway as ones to confirm with an immigration lawyer or the consulate before you rely on them, which is why the higher plan tiers budget for exactly that help.

Frequently asked questions