Business Case

In the dynamic world of payroll, our extensive experience of over 20 years has provided us with a strong foundation. However, even with such a high level of experience, we continue to come across client cases that push the boundaries of our expertise. Each case is unique and serves us as a new opportunity to improve and excel at what we do. Today, we are sharing a business case study and explore a situation where we managed to resolve a critical employment challenge faced by a client of ours regarding the orientation year in the Netherlands. To maintain confidentially, the client’s name remains anonymous.

About our client

• Industry: Finance
• Country of establishment: The Netherlands
• Client since: November 2022
• Amount of employees on our payroll: 10

Our client’s problem

Our client, a thriving Dutch company in the finance industry, unknowingly hired a highly skilled professional in their orientation year. Beyond both our client and the employee’s knowledge, the orientation year was coming to its end. It was not until two days before the end of the orientation year, that the employee realized what was happening. After immediately contacting the IND, the only way for the employer to be able to employ the employee was to become a recognized IND Sponsor. Logically, this procedure takes a while and did not provide a short-term solution for retaining the candidate.

Our client, with the amount of work and customers continually growing, could not afford to lose the employee. But, the client faced the prospect of being unable to legally employ the employee, making a significant challenge within a tight time frame of only two days.

How we handled our client’s problem

The moment the client approached us, we swiftly assessed the situation and came to a comprehensive solution. We recognized the urgency and the need to act quickly to prevent any disturbances to our client’s operations, so after the first phone call we sent our client a quote and a list of required documents. This was to quickly set up an agreement between both parties and, since we are a recognized IND Sponsor, to be able to put the employee on our payroll as soon as possible. When she sent us all the right documents, both parties were able to sign the agreement.

When the agreement was signed, we were able to put the employee on our payroll. We then made a report to the IND to change the employee’s purpose of stay from ‘orientation year’ to ‘highly skilled migrant’. Suprisingly we were able to change their purpose of stay, even though the client did not meet the highly skilled migrant salary criteria. This allowed the employee to continue working legally for our client, while staying in the Netherlands.

The unique aspect of the case

An aspect that made the case of our client significant was the limited time frame we had, and the successful navigation of reducing salary criteria associated with the highly skilled migrant visa.

For an expat to be able to get the highly skilled migrant visa, they must meet the salary criteria of the IND and be employed by a recognized IND Sponsor. The orientation year salary criteria is, compared to the highly skilled migrant visa, notably lower. Since the employee’s salary only met the salary criteria of the orientation year visa, he normally would have to get a raise to be able to apply for the highly skilled migrant visa. But we managed due to a successful navigation, to eventually reduce the salary criteria associated with the highly skilled migrant visa. This outcome allowed the employee to remain employed at the client’s organization legally, while not meeting the actual criteria. By resolving the client’s problem within the two-day window before the orientation year ended, we demonstrated our commitment to client success and our ability to navigate complex immigration challenges swiftly and effectively.

Seamlessly hiring highly skilled professionals with TOSS

Hire highly skilled migrants on a global level with ease. Through our payroll services, we take care of all administrative and legal tasks that come with hiring highly skilled migrants in the Netherlands. This way, you will not have to worry about complying with local laws and regulations, converting currency and handling taxes. Our help does not stop there. As The One Stop Shop for global working and hiring in the Netherlands, we are also ready to save you and the expat the troubles of arranging everything else to finalize their stay – with expat services such as housing, the 30% ruling and more.