The University of Twente is home to people of various nationalities. The Office for Foreign Employees (OFE) helps secure the necessary procedures for the entry of foreign staff and guests.
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| Photo caption: Office for Foreign Employees (left to right): Cecile Shouten, Ellen van Erven-Boerigter and Bauke Visser. Photo: Gijs van Ouwerkerk |
According to Dr. Bauke Visser, the Visa Office coordinator, no official procedure is required for staff coming from the EU/EEA countries, although, she says, for a stay of more than three months, staff members have to report to one of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) offices. Prior to arrival in The Netherlands, staff members who have a non EU nationality need to go through the temporary residence permit procedure (MVV). In the past this procedure took months to complete, and the applicant had to arrange everything on their own. This dissuaded people with a non EU nationality from working in the Netherlands. Since October 2004, The Netherlands introduced a fast track procedure for admission and residency of `knowledge migrants.' All academic staff including PhD students, who are working at the University, falls under the category of `knowledge migrants.'
Visser says `knowledge migrants' need to apply for a temporary entry permit through the University. The University has entered into an agreement for an accelerated MVV procedure with the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service. As a part of this agreement, once the application is approved, a visa is issued by the Dutch representative office in the staff member's home country and after their arrival in The Netherlands, the person involved in applying must submit an application for a residence permit, which is prepared by the OFE and sent to the IND. The residence permit is issued for the full contract period for up to a maximum of five years. The OFE also offers help to prepare the documents for family members, who are traveling simultaneously with a staff member, and also for those traveling at a later date.
`Charges have to be paid for procedures with the IND,' says Visser. `Depending on the personal situation, the costs for these may run up quite a bit.' Early this year, the Executive Board (CvB) granted a budget to the OFE from which the charges could be financed so that these expenses will not be charged to new staff members.
Other procedures of a similar nature are in place for PhD students who wish to enter using their own financial resources, guest staff, scholarship students and students who are on work placement. The ultimate aim of the new procedures is to encourage specialized personnel to be able to conduct research in The Netherlands for a specified period of time.
In spite of all the new rulings which simplify the process to a certain extent, getting the documents ready for the family members, who wish to accompany a staff member, can prove to be an unpleasant obstacle. The documents often need to be authenticated by officials in the applicant's home country and this can be a time consuming process. Another important rule for foreign employees to know is that any document that has already been authenticated in another EU country is not valid in The Netherlands. The person involved in the application process must initiate a new authentication procedure in his or her home country. Besides this factor, says Visser, the document to be authenticated should not be older than six months.
The OFE tries to organize things as smoothly as possible for all people involved in the procedure. The OFE consists of three staff members: Ellen van Erven-Boerigter, who acts as a contact person for the faculties CTW, GW and MB; Cecile Schouten, acting as contact for the faculties EWI and TNW, and Bauke Visser, the Visa Office coordinator. Currently, Bauke Visser is working on a proposal to improve and widen the counseling and support of foreign staff after having made a first inventory by visiting the decentralized personnel departments.
If you have any suggestions or questions, the Visa Office staff invites you to send an email: [email protected]
Information can also be found on their website: http://www.utwente.nl/pao/en/info_voor/medewerkers/office_foreign_employees/
Walk-in consultations: Thursdays from 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm.
