After five years of continuously residing in the Netherlands expats can look into whether or not they have the requirements to receive a Dutch permanent residence:
Types of Dutch permanent Residences
Three types of Permanent residences are applicable in the Netherlands according to the person’s status and situation: one is the EU long term residence, secondly a permanent residence on the basis of national grounds and lastly permanent residence for those holding an EU country passport (alongside their family members).
Benefits of holding a Permanent Residence
Having a PR in the Netherlands has many benefits. Perhaps the most important is that you are no longer required a visa with a specific purpose in order to stay in the Netherlands. Further, the permanent residence can only be cancelled should you reside outside of the Netherlands for an extended period of time, or by committing a serious crime. Lastly, employers can view you as a Dutch citizen as you no longer require a work permit to work in the Netherlands.
Video: How can I become Dutch through naturalisation
A Video of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND)
How to acquire a permanent residence as a non-EU expat?
In order to acquire the permanent residence as non-EU expat you would need to have resided in the Netherlands for a period no less than 5 years. The IND will then decide which PR permit you qualify for. You also need to have enough income to sustain yourself. The average amount is attuned two times every year (once in January and another time in July). Income is considered sustainable if you continue to receive income for the next twelve-month period.
That being said, should your contract be temporary (i.e. an employment contract for less than twelve months), income can still be considered sustainable if the income itself equates to the required amount of every year in the three months prior to your application (which means you had an average monthly salary that is equal or more to the required amount).
The third requirement to receiving a permanent residence in the Netherlands is integration. Integration is tested through a civic official integration exam. The Dutch government has recently increased the Dutch language requirement for attaining a permanent residence from level A2 to B1.
That being said, the rule has not yet been put into motion as such for the year of 2022, the language requirement remains at A2 (it is also to be noted that an exemption of the integration requirement may be put into place at certain instances). When applying for a permanent residence it is not possible to be a holder of a temporary residency (that is a residence permit with temporary purpose of stay).
There are many examples of temporary purpose of stay these include but no limited to: au-pair, exchange students, corporate transfer employees, orientation year for the highly educated. Lastly, having no criminal record, or the likelihood to be a threat to the order, and a registration at the municipality (that is have a BSN number) and a health insurance is crucial.
