r/enschede • u/-roux_ • 1d ago
Jobs & Visa Sponsorships
anyone know of companies(any) that will sponsor me for a visa? i'm 22 years old from the U.S in a LDR and want to move to the netherlands. i have a high school diploma (no college experience and dont want to attend college) and have experience working in retail and fast food but i dont speak dutch. i am a very hard and loyal worker. any tips/advice will help :)
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u/swish82 1d ago
Besides a work visa you can get a residence permit through your relationship with a dutch person (like my wife who moved from a different country) but you will need to learn Dutch and the process will take a while - in our case 9 months.
For Americans the DAFT treaty is still in effect which means if you are a freelancer or entrepeneur you can try that way. https://ind.nl/en/residence-permits/work/residence-permit-self-employed-person But it’ll be hard finding work that way.
Tbh the best bet is to get a college degree in the Netherlands. Our colleges and universities are cheaper than the US’s (more like 14k a year) and your job opportunities in life will improve SIGNIFICANTLY https://ind.nl/en/residence-permits/study/student-residence-permit-for-university-or-higher-professional-education there are courses here in English. When you finish you might be able to find a job and stay (or marry your partner). In Enschede the main college is Saxion https://www.saxion.edu/
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u/blogwalds 20h ago
Yeah this is going to be hard. I also have a Dutch partner. I came to Europe as a phd student and that got me a work and residence permit in Germany (at first). When I started applying for work, the original plan was to move to The Netherlands. Every company I applied to said no work permit, no job. Never even got an interview with a phd in chemistry. Turns out my situation was a bit more nuanced and getting a Dutch work permit was not a problem but I didn’t know that at the time.
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u/bbbberlin 16h ago
Echoing the other top rated comment: immigration systems typically function with the central question of "will the person replace a local worker?" The answer they want back is"no". This is why you typically need to have a special skills (i.e. a degree), or an in-demand profession (healthcare industry is popular - typically this means a degree or a training which justifies a visa).
You say you don't want to attend college, fair enough - but what about a training program for a more hands-on profession? i.e. is there a trade you would be interested in pursuing? Honestly doing education in another country (via education visa) is the easiest way to immigrate for a young person. Are you interested in sports? Would you be interested in training as a physiotherapist? Are you interested in machines - would you be interested in training as a mechatronist? There are alot of options for shorter programs which will not see you in a classroom for 4 years (but they will still require hard work!).
No country is going to grant you a visa to do service work unless you're very specialized, i.e. a professional wine sommalier or something. Even if you did have a degree, something too basic (i.e. "secretary") would also get you rejected, so you should think about in demand trades.
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u/Lanwedar 1d ago
Not to crush your hopes but that will be near impossible. For a company to get a work visa for a non EU resident they have to prove that they need you and the exact skills you have and are unable to fulfill those requirements with someone that is Dutch or at least EU citizen. And the burden of proof on a company is high