moving to amsterdam. please help?
by admin on Nov.20, 2009, under Netherlands
Jacob S asked:
im a junior in high school and i will be moving to amsterdam with a few close friends after i graduate. i need to know if there is any paperwork to do before i leave or if i can fly there and then work things out. were doing fairly well on money. one friend has about $60,000 and i have $200 but im getting really serious about raising money now. im unemployed currently but working on that. where could we live close to the red light district? how much is a house, apartments wont work as we need to grow. will $13,000 be enough to keep me afloat untill i get a job their? who would hire me? thanks for the help.
from your condesending tone i gather that you make assumtions of american children. i speak basic dutch, am in a graphic imaging program at a local college for half the day, and i am completely aware of the housing shortage in that area as well as the hugely inflated prices. i consider myself intellegent and compared to many of my peers i am not an ignorant product of the american school system, the us may seem nice to you but if you could see the stupidity that will be our future goverment you would reconsider. it was not my intent to just meander in to the netherlands and blow all my money untill i found that i could not support myself and return tail between the legs to the states to hold an office job for the rest of my life. it is not a “dream” like you say it is a reality, we have put many hours of work into planning a move out of this terrible country and its between ampsterdam and british columbia. we have put 5 times the work into planning bc. thank you for your input but–
yahoo answers was not my main hope for information, i just hoped that someone might give me a little advice from personal experience. thanks for the websites. just to clarify the decision was made 3 years ago and we are very serious and informed on this topic. so please pardon my additude.
Melissa
im a junior in high school and i will be moving to amsterdam with a few close friends after i graduate. i need to know if there is any paperwork to do before i leave or if i can fly there and then work things out. were doing fairly well on money. one friend has about $60,000 and i have $200 but im getting really serious about raising money now. im unemployed currently but working on that. where could we live close to the red light district? how much is a house, apartments wont work as we need to grow. will $13,000 be enough to keep me afloat untill i get a job their? who would hire me? thanks for the help.
from your condesending tone i gather that you make assumtions of american children. i speak basic dutch, am in a graphic imaging program at a local college for half the day, and i am completely aware of the housing shortage in that area as well as the hugely inflated prices. i consider myself intellegent and compared to many of my peers i am not an ignorant product of the american school system, the us may seem nice to you but if you could see the stupidity that will be our future goverment you would reconsider. it was not my intent to just meander in to the netherlands and blow all my money untill i found that i could not support myself and return tail between the legs to the states to hold an office job for the rest of my life. it is not a “dream” like you say it is a reality, we have put many hours of work into planning a move out of this terrible country and its between ampsterdam and british columbia. we have put 5 times the work into planning bc. thank you for your input but–
yahoo answers was not my main hope for information, i just hoped that someone might give me a little advice from personal experience. thanks for the websites. just to clarify the decision was made 3 years ago and we are very serious and informed on this topic. so please pardon my additude.
Melissa
November 21st, 2009 on 11:44 am
Rosemary
It’s a shame you didn’t look in the section first as this is a common question and already answered twice yesterday.
It’s not a matter of “money” – as a US passport holder (which is what I assume from the $ sign use), then you cannot just pack a case, get on a plane and c’est voila, you have moved to Europe. (Same as I cannot do the same for the US).
You can visit the Netherlands up to 3 months visa-free under the Visa Waiver Program. However you are not able to work under this arrangement and nor are you able to seek work and then apply for a change in immigration status.
It is best if you read the answer to the same question posted yesterday concerning how to go about this..;_ylv=3?qid=20081016071456AAHUbM1
Concerning jobs (assuming you don’t speak Dutch) then you can see links to sites here – but as I mentioned in the other answer, companies rarely ’sponsor’ a candidate unless it is a highly specialised job for which they cannot find the right skills within the EU pool of labour
Finally the accomodation issue – you want a house in the Red Light district – well you may assume from the fact that it is the red light district that it would be cheap to live there – wrong – it is quite the opposite in fact. Anywhere in the centre – Apartments are the norm, and houses rare (Amsterdam and the Netherlands have a space issue) and when they come on the market they sell for a small fortune.
You can search via some links here
To give you an idea – using the Funda.nl link, (using the postcode of a friend who lives in the red light district area) then in the same area (although wider than just the red light district), there are currently only 2 unsold houses on the market. One is a houseboat for €210,00 with 45m3 so you can barely swing a cat! The other is € 1,269,000 – large house – but I am guessing this is not exactly in your price range
For rental in the same postcode – there are no houses, only apartments
Therefore if I were to offer one piece of advice, then I would say, do your homework. The dream is often a lot easier than the actual reality, so get the information for your situation and then based on this, decide how viable this dream is in your case. – and this is from experience as well, having lived in three different countries and a non-EU husband, we both know the reality of moving, getting jobs, and arranging visa’s pretty well!
EDIT – well excuse me if I sound condescending. That was not the intention at all. However if you have spent 3 years in the planning and have not yet discovered that you may need a visa/work permit to live and work here, then I do question your research yes.
I make no assumptions of individuals, however I do question the motivations of people with pie in the sky dreams. That you speak basic Dutch is a big plus – that you are developing a skill, another big plus and honestly this is a real positive
Not having lived in the US, I am not in the position to question the education system or the products that come out of that system. However politics – well I have seen the results of American political decisions and yes, here I can honestly say that I am reasonably well versed and definitively against the vast majority of decisions made which affect the International community.
Like I said – my intention is not to put off people – but if you read some of the questions (there is one in the section still open from another fellow American whose sole intention to move to Amsterdam is to smoke weed all day) then yes I try to give both accurate info and a reality check.
So I wish you all the best and hope to see you achieve this goal successfully
EDIT2 as a result of a question raised to me by a regular on Email about the whole “visa/no visa required for an American to stay longer than 3 months in the US), I have done some homework and have an update which might help you
As an American passport holder, you do not have to obtain an MVV (Machtiging Voorlopig Verblijf) to stay in the Netherlands longer than 3 months.
An MVV is required by citizens from certain countries as a ‘provisional residence permit’ which has to be applied for and approved prior to entry to the Netherlands. American passport holders are able to bypass this approval and come to the Netherlands. Then they have 3 months to apply for a residence permit ‘verblijfsvergunning’ (permit to remain in the
Netherlands) with the IND (Immigration dept) *
If you want to stay longer than 3 months and work then there are only a couple of options available (apart from via a family
member/partner already in the Netherlands which is a different process):
(a) Highly Skilled Migrant – someone who already has a gross annual income of at least €47,565, or €34,881 if he/she is under thirty- but there are specific clauses as well
(b) Study visa – but this is a temporary visa for the duration of the course only
(c) Self employed – your business activities will be scored and must serve a “material Dutch purpose”
(d) As an employee*
You can read all of this on the official website of the IND (Immigration dept) and specifically via the residence wizard or the brochure ‘Living and working in the Netherlands ‘http://www.ind.nl/en/Images/VIN_ENG_0806_tcm6-595.pdf
* Note – this is an issue which is very contradictory in the various sources of literature which I have read, so I actually did contact the IND by phone myself to ensure I understood it accurately, and as I thought, it is not simple!
A citizen who does not need to apply for an MVV (e.g. Americans, Australians etc) but who wants to work as an employee can come to the Netherlands and look for a job and apply for a residence permit (after having a contract with an employer agreed, as a proof of income). However, the IND will not process the application until they have approval from the CWI
(Centre for Work and Income). The employer must apply for your work permit (twv) at the CWI and will only get this when it is deemed that nobody in the Netherlands and the European Union (excluding Romania and Bulgaria) is available to fill the position. This means that it would have to be a very specialised job (based on qualifications/work experience) or based on specific work experience (e.g. international transfer within a company)
So this is the catch 22 which does not make sense as there is little sense coming over, searching and finding a job and then still not being sure if you can stay and work with it or not. I asked about this and the advice given by the IND info dept was that if you could follow the process for the MVV application in advance of coming over (via the Dutch embassy) and that way you could be sure to know if you could get a residence permit or not.
It is a very complex subject and definitely deserves a lot of homework to avoid a costly move which could ultimately result in you having to return home. Therefore if you have specific questions or if what I say doesn’t make sense, then please feel free to contact me
November 24th, 2009 on 7:43 am
Rose
check a website that I believe is called “expatica” or something along these lines. it is full of info and all contributors are expats so there may be more … sympathy
and help available.
the regulations change relatively quickly so contact the dutch embassy / consulate to see what exactly you need to do before arriving, and upon arrival.
Brush up on your language skills: even in Amsterdam, the more you can communicate in Dutch, the more “help” you will be able to find.
Be prepared for a bureaucratic environment (work permit, driving license…)
and get your fundraising started! $200 will not cut it! you can’t get a bike for that and believe me, that will probably be one of your first acquisition!
I would live away from the red light district: it is expensive and can be dangerous or …distracting. there are other areas to chose from that will be cheaper!
good luck