You can best support an international employee in their first months with a well-prepared preboarding package, a 30-60-90 day onboarding plan, and active guidance on practical Dutch matters such as BRP registration, the BSN, health insurance, and housing. This reduces stress, speeds up productivity, and helps you stay on top of compliance under the highly skilled migrant scheme.
This works particularly well for Highly Skilled Migrants from outside the EU, because alongside a new job they often also have to learn a new country, rules, and systems. The better you structure the first weeks, the faster someone will feel safe and effective.
Below you’ll find the most frequently asked questions and concrete actions per phase that you can apply right away.
What should you arrange before an international employee’s start date?
Before the start date, put the basics in place for work, residence, and a smooth landing: a clear contract, a realistic start plan, access to systems, and a checklist for immigration and relocation. For Highly Skilled Migrants, this helps reduce uncertainty and ensures the first workday is about onboarding rather than last-minute fixes.
Use a short preboarding checklist that you can tick off internally and share with the employee. Keep it practical and time-bound so everyone knows what’s needed and when.
- Contract and role clarity: position, start date, work location, probation period, remote-work agreements, on-call expectations.
- Immigration preparation: check whether the employee requires an MVV and schedule appointments for collecting the residence document and municipal registration.
- Work tools: laptop, accounts, MFA, access to repos, ticketing system, payroll portal.
- Relocation basics: temporary housing, first-week plan, route from the airport to accommodation.
- Buddy and points of contact: one HR contact and one team buddy for day-to-day questions.
Send everything in one clear email or portal page, including who does what and which documents are required. This helps prevent misunderstandings, especially if someone is not yet in the Netherlands.
What does an effective 30-60-90 day onboarding plan look like?
An effective 30-60-90 day onboarding plan gives an international employee clear goals, regular check-ins, and gradually increasing responsibility. For Highly Skilled Migrants, this works especially well because you structure both work onboarding and practical settling-in at the same time, without the team having to constantly make ad hoc adjustments.
Make the plan measurable and human: what does someone need to know, be able to do, and deliver—and what support comes with that. Use a cadence of weekly check-ins in the first month and then biweekly.
- First 30 days: get to know the environment, understand processes, deliver first small outputs, meet stakeholders.
- Days 31 to 60: take ownership of a defined domain, participate in team rituals, propose initial improvements.
- Days 61 to 90: deliver independently, prioritize, collaborate across teams, agree goals for Q2.
Also define which moments you’ll use for feedback. Think of a short evaluation after week 2, a 30-day conversation, and a 90-day review with concrete examples.
Which practical matters in the Netherlands require extra support in the first months?
In the first months, international employees often need extra support with registration and administration in the Netherlands, as well as everyday matters such as banking, healthcare, and housing. For Highly Skilled Migrants, this pace often determines how quickly someone can settle and focus on work, because many processes only start after identification and registration.
The order differs by municipality and situation, but these topics almost always come up. So plan them as part of onboarding, not as the employee’s private problem.
- BRP registration and BSN: arrange both as soon as possible after arrival; the order may differ by municipality.
- Collecting the residence document: after arrival, the employee collects the residence document from the IND if applicable.
- Health insurance: anyone living or working in the Netherlands generally must take out Dutch health insurance within four months.
- Bank account: often needed for salary and fixed expenses; sometimes the bank requires a BSN or proof of address.
- Housing: registration, contract terms, deposit, utilities, municipal rules.
- Taxes: explanation of the payslip, a provisional assessment if relevant, and what you can and cannot arrange via the employer.
Tip: create a shared schedule with deadlines and required documents. This helps limit waiting times and missed appointments.
How do you help an international employee integrate faster into the team and culture?
You help an international employee integrate faster by making expectations explicit, organizing social connection, and normalizing communication agreements. For Highly Skilled Migrants, this works well because much friction doesn’t come from skills, but from unspoken norms such as feedback style, decision-making, and meeting culture.
Make integration a team responsibility, not just an HR task. Small, repeatable routines work better than a single welcome lunch.
- Buddy system: schedule fixed moments in weeks 1 to 4 for practical and social questions.
- Make working agreements explicit: response times, meeting etiquette, escalation, documentation, Definition of Done.
- Language agreements: agree when you use English and when Dutch is okay, so no one is left out.
- Stakeholder map: who decides, who advises, who executes, and how to approach those people.
- Social anchors: team lunch, short 1:1 introductions, and a monthly wellbeing check.
Actively ask for signs of overload. Many internationals will quickly say yes, even if they don’t yet understand the process. This helps you correct miscommunication early.
How do you prevent compliance and immigration risks during onboarding?
You prevent compliance and immigration risks by documenting responsibilities, reporting changes immediately, and continuously checking salary and contract terms against the highly skilled migrant scheme. For Highly Skilled Migrants, things often go wrong due to an unclear employer role, late notifications, or a salary that no longer meets IND standards.
Work with one owner for immigration-related actions and one central place for the file. Pay extra attention to changes in role, hours, work location, salary components, and contract duration.
Which IND salary thresholds apply in 2026 for highly skilled migrants?
As of 1 January 2026, three separate IND thresholds apply, and you must apply the correct category to the employee’s situation. The thresholds are: highly skilled migrant aged 30 and over € 5,942, highly skilled migrant under 30 € 4,357, and orientation year scheme € 3,122. Also check whether fixed salary components are correctly included.
Document internally who checks the threshold at the start, upon salary changes, and upon contract renewal. This helps you prevent unintended non-compliance.
What obligations does a recognized sponsor have during employment?
As a recognized sponsor, you have four obligations toward the IND: the notification obligation, information obligation, record-keeping obligation, and duty of care. This ensures data is correct, changes are reported on time, and your file remains in order. Make this part of your HR processes, not a series of separate emails.
Also note the nuance around entry: whether someone can already enter the country during the procedure depends on nationality. Different situations apply for non-MVV-required countries than for MVV-required countries.
How All About Expats helps with onboarding international employees
We help you make onboarding for Highly Skilled Migrants predictable and compliant by organizing immigration, payroll, and practical settling-in in one approach. This means your team spends less time figuring things out, and the employee gets clarity faster on steps, timing, and documents. View our approach for employers via immigration for employers.
If you’d like to discuss your situation—for example, planning around arrival, building the file, or setting up a 30-60-90 day flow—please contact us via contact us.
