Work permit in the Netherlands: does your non-EU employee need a TWV or a GVVA?

The fee is the small part. A TWV, the tewerkstellingsvergunning, is requested by you as the employer through the UWV employer portal, and UWV states that this costs nothing. The single permit is a residence permit and a work permit in one document. The IND fee table for 2026 puts the first application at 423 euros, and an extension at the same amount. Fees are reset every year on 1 January, so check the table again for anyone starting in 2027.

The real cost is time. Before you can apply at all, UWV expects you to have tried for at least three months to find a suitable candidate in the EU, the EEA or Switzerland, through more than one channel: job sites, agencies, your own adverts. You also report the vacancy to UWV at least five weeks before the application, for example by posting it on werk.nl, which also shows it on the European EURES job network. Add the decision period on top, and a hire from outside Europe is a matter of months, not weeks.

The costliest route is skipping all of this. According to the Netherlands Labour Authority, letting someone work without the required TWV or single permit costs an employer a fine of 6,000 euros per worker, which can go up to 11,250 euros, and by 50, 100 or 200 per cent for a repeat offence within five years.

That depends on how long the person will work here and whether they will live here. UWV and the government business portal Ondernemersplein draw the line like this. You apply for a TWV at UWV when the employee already lives in the Netherlands on a residence permit that does not allow work, such as an international student or an asylum seeker, when they come to work for no more than 90 days, or when they work here longer but do not move here. When they come for more than 90 days and will live here, you need the single permit from the IND. The IND then asks UWV for advice, so you do not file anything at UWV yourself.

The conditions are largely the same for both. Your search in Europe must have produced no suitable candidate, and you have to prove it: copies of adverts and the invoices for them, and an explanation of the selection, including how many people responded and which requirements they did or did not meet. The salary must match the collective agreement or the market rate and be paid into the employee's bank account every month. You must not have been fined for breaking labour law in the five years before the application. And you arrange safe, clean housing, which UWV can ask the municipality to confirm.

How long the permit lasts differs too. UWV issues a TWV for a regular job for at most two years. A single permit is valid for the length of the contract, up to three years, according to IND publication 3080.

No. A Dutch work permit is tied to a specific employer and a specific job. UWV is explicit that the foreign employee cannot apply for a TWV themselves, and the single permit requires an employment contract, even though the employee may file that application at the IND. Without an employer, there is no work permit to apply for.

There are routes in which no work permit is needed at all, and they are often quicker. A highly skilled migrant works on a residence permit from the IND, without a TWV and without the three-month search. Recent graduates of a Dutch university or a top-200 university abroad can get a one-year orientation year permit for 254 euros, and the IND marks it "work freely permitted, TWV not required". And anyone with a passport from the EU, the EEA or Switzerland needs no permit whatsoever. How these groups compare is set out in our article on hiring staff from abroad.

How long does it take to get a work permit?

UWV decides on a TWV within five weeks of receiving a complete application, and calls or writes when something is missing, which stops the clock. For a single permit, the IND aims at about seven weeks when your organisation is a recognised sponsor and a work permit is part of the case. Without that recognition, the IND says it often decides within 90 days. An entry visa, the mvv, comes on top for many nationalities.

Does a highly skilled migrant need a work permit?

No. UWV lists the highly skilled migrant among the employees for whom you do not need a TWV or a single permit. You do need recognition by the IND as a sponsor and a salary above the threshold, which is a different test from the search in Europe. What that route asks of you is explained in How do you hire a highly skilled migrant in the Netherlands?

Can an agency apply for the work permit for me?

For a TWV, yes, as long as you give the agency a chain authorisation in eHerkenning, so it can act for you in the UWV employer portal. The conditions stay with you: your search, your salary, your housing and your record with the Labour Authority. If you first want to know whether the role can be filled closer to home, see how we approach hard-to-fill vacancies.

What happens if a permit runs out?

Then the employee may no longer work for you until a new one is granted. UWV asks for a new application when the permit is about to expire or when the work changes, and it checks the conditions again. Apply in good time: for a single permit the IND decision period alone can run to 90 days.

SocialFind wrote this article from the pages and publications of UWV, the IND, Ondernemersplein and the Netherlands Labour Authority, checked on 3 November 2026. This is not legal advice. How we help employers find staff is on that page, and to get articles like this by email, sign up for our newsletter.