Both the United States and the Netherlands allow companies to send specialised employees to offices in the other's country. Patrick Rovers explains.

Migration, in this case, works both ways. Following Belgium, Germany and Great Britain, the United States is the most popular country as far as Dutch immigrants are concerned. It is expected that a total of 100,000 Dutch citizens will immigrate in 2003 alone, a couple thousand of which will move to the US.

In regards to legally working on both sides of the Atlantic, a whole range of work permit, visa and residence permit requirements should be reviewed before an international assignment is even considered.

From the US to the Netherlands

The Netherlands and the United States have special work permit arrangements for a certain category of temporary workers from abroad, the so-called intra-company transferees. In this article I will shortly describe the Dutch and the US rules and regulations and relate the similarities and differences of the two.

The Dutch intra-company transfer regulation for work permits is based on a number of starting-points; the size and locations of the organisation of the employer, the total yearly revenue of the organisation, the gross salary the transferee, and the nature of the temporary assignment.

First of all, the organisation or employer has to consist of a number of subsidiaries, located in several different countries. This group of companies has to be profit-oriented. The international group of companies has to meet the Dutch Central Employment Office´s ´concern status´ definition. The revenue of the group has to reach (at least) EUR 50 million a year.

The US transferee’s gross salary should be EUR 50,000 or more a year (actual gross salary including a certain percentage for a company car and housing allowances).

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