The Kingdom of the Netherlands launched in 2013 a Golden Visa program to attract more foreign capital to the startup ecosystem. The regulation around this investment scheme was rather complex, and in 2018 the Dutch government has revised the rules.
The only requirement is that an investment of €1,250,000 Euros needs to be made in two ways
- Dutch startup (you choose the startup must create 10 jobs in 5 years)
- Dutch Venture Capital Fund, which will invest the fund’s money in multiple Dutch startups.
You only transfer the full €1.25m, IF the Immigration Services grants you the Dutch residence permit, so it is a risk free investment.
Passive investments such as real estate do not qualify.
The investor residence permit issued for 3 years and then can be extended for another 2 years. The processing time for investor applications is less than 1 month
The boost is seen by, amongst other, the Agency OrangeVisas. Hidde Terpstra, Managing Partner of the agency, explains:
“The Netherlands is a very attractive country to live, given its high quality education, living standards, almost zero crime rate and a very big middle class population. However, the Dutch government does not provide proactive service on its Investor Visa; since we started a few months ago, we got directly every day a few people submitting a request.”
An Indian living in Dubai, confirms: “the peace in the country, and the open mindedness of the Dutch citizens is directed what attracted me”.
The Dutch investor visa also includes for partner and dependent children.
After 5 years the visa becomes a Permanent Residence Permit or (after passing the language & culture test) a Dutch passport. The applicant must reside in the Netherlands (or Europe) for 4 months per year.
The Dutch passport is one of the powerful european travel documents in the world.
