During and after the search year upon graduation
08 Apr 2010
With a residence permit for the purpose of ‘search year upon graduation’ you have free access to the Dutch labour market. This means that you can take up any paid or unpaid employment and your employer does not have to apply for a work permit.
You are not allowed to apply for any state benefits. If you do apply, your residence permit may be revoked.
Health insurance
As long as you do not take up paid employment during your search year period, you will not be required to take out basic public healthcare insurance (basisverzekering). A private health care insurance is sufficient. However, as soon as you take up any form of paid employment, you are obliged to arrange for basic public healthcare insurance. You can find more in our section Health insurance.
No extension possible
At the end of the search year period, your residence permit cannot be extended. This means that you must apply for a change of purpose, or leave the country.
If you succeed in finding a job as a highly skilled migrant, your employer will most likely assist you in applying for your change of purpose. You can also apply for a change to another purpose of stay, such as ‘labour migrant’ or ‘stay with partner’. However, meeting the criteria for those particular purposes of stay may not always be easy.
Since you have already enjoyed a ‘search year period’, you are not eligible to apply for a residence permit under the Admission scheme for highly educated persons.
More information is available on the IND website.
