Netherlands Start-up Visa

There is no capital threshold, and the Aliens Decree 2000 shows why: this route does not remove the test, it defers the test by a year.

The ordinary self-employment gate sits in Article 3.30(1) and asks three things — self-employed work which, in the Minister's judgement, serves an essential Dutch interest.

Means of subsistence drawn from that work which are sufficient, durable and independent; and compliance with the competence requirements for the occupation and the requirements for running the business in question.

Paragraph 2 states that the essential Dutch interest is assessed by a points system laid down by ministerial regulation agreed with the Minister of Economic Affairs, and that the regulation may designate business activities which serve no essential Dutch interest at all.

The start-up route is paragraph 6, and its opening words are the key:

By way of derogation from paragraphs 1 and 2, the permit may be granted to an alien who founds an innovative undertaking, who durably has sufficient means of subsistence, and who makes it plausible that within one year of the permit being granted he will meet the conditions of paragraphs 1 and 2.

What stands in place of a money threshold, in other words, is a datable and checkable undertaking: the essential Dutch interest and the points system are not waived, they are moved to the end of the first year.

The mentoring body must have at least two years of experience guiding innovative start-ups, sufficient financial capacity, and must not be a relative to the third degree.

Working with a facilitator is a condition of the startup residence permit, not an optional service. The two parties must set out their partnership in a signed agreement.

The facilitator provides a tailor-made support package, for example on operational management, marketing, research and raising investment. It may not be in receivership or bankrupt, may not have negative equity, and may not hold a majority interest in the startup company.

The Netherlands Enterprise Agency publishes the list of recognised facilitators, and that page was checked on 26 June 2026.

The facilitator must undertake to support the applicant for at least one year, and the step-by-step plan filed with the application must set out the steps to be taken in the first year to move from idea to business.

A third one-year mark lightens the file considerably: where, in the year before the application is submitted, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency has already given a positive recommendation on that same facilitator, the applicant need produce no evidence at all on the facilitator reliability and expertise.

After the permit is received, the tuberculosis test must be taken within three months, failing which the permit granted may be cancelled. Biometric data are reused where they were taken less than six months earlier

This form can be used only where the applicant is in the Netherlands; a person abroad must apply for a provisional residence visa at a Dutch mission.

On role, the plan must set out the applicant role and tasks in the start-up company, and the applicant must have an active role, meaning they are not merely a shareholder or a financier.

Both the applicant and the facilitator must be registered with the Chamber of Commerce and must enter that registration number in the form.

And there must be no family relationship up to the third degree between the applicant and the facilitator. Once granted, the residence permit must be collected in person at an ind desk or at an expat centre chosen in advance in the form

The provision creating this category says nothing about relatives, so the answer comes from the general reunion regime of the Aliens Decree 2000, article 3.14, which grants a permit as of right to three groups:

The spouse or registered partner aged twenty-one or over, under a marriage or registered partnership valid under Netherlands private international law.

The unmarried partner aged twenty-one or over in a duly attested durable and exclusive relationship, provided both are unmarried and under no impediment to marriage.

So the Netherlands does recognise a partner outside marriage; and the minor child, natural or legal, who already belonged in fact to the household of the principal in the country of origin and is under that person lawful guardianship.

There are no parents, grandparents or siblings in the mandatory list; article 3.13(2) permits a discretionary grant outside the list, but discretion is not entitlement.

Article 3.15(1) requires the principal to be twenty-one or over and to hold residence that is not of a temporary nature; article 3.16 deals with polygamy by admitting one spouse or one partner at a time; article 3.17 requires cohabitation and a shared household.

The financial threshold belongs to the sponsor and does not accrue per head: sustainable and independent income of at least the statutory Netherlands minimum wage including holiday allowance.

One trap that could not be resolved belongs in the record rather than being glossed over.

Article 3.15(3) provides that where the sponsor holds only a fixed-term permit, relatives may not be granted before the sponsor has resided lawfully in the Netherlands for at least one year, subject to exceptions cross-referring to another decree that has not been checked. Meanwhile this category permit runs for at most one year.

Whether relatives must wait out that first year is therefore not known.

The status this programme grants, whether a visa or a residence permit, does not replace the holder's passport. The holder still travels on the passport of their own country, so the figure below belongs to the Netherlands passport and becomes the holder's only once they are issued a Netherlands passport.

According to the Passport Index of Prosperous Intelligence, on data dated 30 September 2026, the Netherlands passport reaches 203 destinations without applying for a consular visa in advance. The figure combines three forms of entry and does not count an e-Visa that must be obtained beforehand:

It is therefore a measure of how easily the holder travels, not a count of visa-free countries in the narrow sense.

For comparison, on the same source and the same method of counting, the Vietnamese passport reaches 44 destinations. The two lists of destinations do not nest inside one another, so the difference is an indication rather than a list of places newly opened.

Prosperous Intelligence dates its data and advises checking with the destination’s official authorities before travelling.

The two immigration instruments attach no tax provision to this category: Article 3.30 of the Aliens Decree 2000 contains no word for tax within that article, and the application form of the Immigration Service makes no mention of tax.

The programme has no tax regime of its own.

The legal basis sits in Article 3.30(6), and how it names the beneficiary is the decisive point.

By derogation from paragraphs 1 and 2, the permit may be granted to a foreign national who establishes an innovative enterprise through which they perform or will perform work as a self-employed person, and who durably has sufficient means of subsistence.

That person must also make it plausible that within one year of the grant they will satisfy the conditions of paragraphs 1 and 2.

The Immigration Service form carries exactly that name: application for the purpose of residence Start-up working on a self-employed basis.

The Netherlands does have a concession for people arriving from abroad, the expat scheme, and its first condition is where the two sides exclude each other:

The tax authority writes that you are in paid employment, and that you can only apply for the scheme if you are in paid employment by your employer; the base of the scheme is likewise defined as wage from a current employment relationship.

This must be stated as a joining: the two designations — self-employed and in paid employment — exclude each other textually.

But no source states directly that a start-up permit holder is barred from the scheme; and if the founder incorporates a private limited company and then takes paid employment with their own company, the situation changes, and none of the sources opened addresses that.

The content of the scheme, so the subject is clear: up to 30% of salary including the allowance may be paid tax-free, or up to 30/70 of salary excluding it.

The expertise condition requires taxable annual salary, excluding the tax-free allowance, above the threshold for the year concerned, while a person under 30 holding a master degree faces a threshold of its own. Thresholds are in EUR:

The recruitment condition is that you are recruited outside the Netherlands, having lived more than 150 KM from the Dutch border for more than 16 of the 24 months before the first working day, excluding residents of Belgium, Luxembourg and parts of Germany, France and the United Kingdom.

The decision runs for a maximum of five years, reduced by prior periods of work or residence in the Netherlands; and the 2026 exempt ceiling is EUR 78,600, reached at a salary of EUR 262,000.

One figure must be marked as not measurable: the 27% rate often cited in the market could not be confirmed in this round — both live tax authority pages state 30% and the EUR 78,600 ceiling for 2026, and neither mentions 27%.

The permit conditions themselves: the product or service must be shown to be innovative, including non-technological innovation. A reliable and expert facilitator is required; the national enterprise agency must give the Immigration Service a positive recommendation on both the innovation and the facilitator.

Both applicant and facilitator must be registered with the Chamber of Commerce. Durable and sufficient means of subsistence are required; the facilitator must provide support for at least one year; and there must be no family relationship to the third degree between applicant and facilitator.

Read this cell within its scope: the immigration sources cover the conditions of grant and say nothing about tax; the tax sources cover the expat scheme in wage tax and never mention the start-up permit; and the Immigration Service form does not print the required income level but refers to the agency website

All foreign means of evidence must be in one of four languages, Dutch, English, French or German; if not, they must be translated by a translator sworn in before a District Court, and where the translation is made abroad it must be legalised or bear an apostille stamp.

Official documents must be legalised by the competent authorities of the issuing country, and in some countries also by the Dutch embassy or consulate.

The ind itself advises starting the legalisation or apostille process several months before submitting the application.

A postal application must consist of clearly readable and complete A4 copies, without staples or paperclips, and originals must never be sent.

The signed declaration concerning the European sanctions against Russia and Belarus must also be enclosed