Netherlands · Startup Visa
Netherlands Startup Visa: a year to build something new
Sign with an RVO-recognized facilitator, pass the innovation test, and the IND gives you twelve months to turn the idea into a Dutch company.
Here's the deal in one line: the Netherlands gives you a year to build an innovative company, but only after a recognized Dutch mentor agrees to take you on. No investment minimum. No points test. And no extension when the twelve months are up.
How it works
A mentor has to say yes before the IND does
A facilitator is a business mentor on a public list kept by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, and the application cannot move without a signed cooperation agreement from one of them. That's the real gate. Everything else is paperwork.
You write a step-by-step plan covering the company's structure, roles, legal form, staffing, goals and the product itself. RVO reads the plan and advises the IND on whether the idea is new here. Your facilitator can file the whole thing online through the IND's Business Portal, or you can file it yourself.
The IND aims to decide inside 90 days and can take longer while it waits on RVO. Americans don't need an MVV entry sticker, so you can file directly and sit out the wait in the Netherlands rather than at home.
Money, time, and what you get to skip
$24,400
Living money you show for the year
EUR 1,766.77 a month on the IND's table, parked in a Dutch account
No minimum
Capital the permit makes you invest
RVO judges the idea, not your balance
1 year
How long the permit runs
It cannot be extended, so year two is a different permit
2 years
The self-employed permit that follows
Five years of residence in total opens permanent residence
The test
What the Dutch mean by innovative
New to the Netherlands
The product or service has to be new here, not just new to you. RVO is the judge; it's judging the plan in front of it, rather than your resume.
New technology, or a new way of working
The test has two other doors. Your startup can use new technology in how it builds, distributes or markets what it sells, or it can organize and work in a way the Dutch market hasn't seen. Deep tech isn't required. A genuinely new model is.
You have to be running it
The IND wants you playing an active part, which it defines as being more than a shareholder or a financier. Here's the catch: a consulting shop, an agency, or an American business you are simply continuing from a Dutch address is a hard sell against that innovation test. Those companies are exactly what the other Dutch routes are built for.
Startup Visa
For innovative startups with a clear economic benefit to the Netherlands. Applicants are assessed on a points system (minimum 90/300 points required). After one year, applicants may switch to another residence permit.
- Government cost
- $1,500
- Processing time
- ~90 days
- Timeline
- 3 months
- Difficulty
- Easy
Key requirements
- Viable, innovative business plan
- Business must serve an 'essential Dutch interest'
- Proof of sufficient income (at least 70% of Dutch minimum wage)
- Support from a recognized Dutch facilitator
- Previous entrepreneurial experience (preferred)
- Multiple clients (avoid single-client freelancing)
About that data card
Read that requirements list against the IND's own start-up page and some of it belongs to a different permit. There's no scoring system on this route. The points test on that card and essential Dutch interest line attached to it are what the self-employed permit asks for in year two. Being allowed to skip them is the entire reason this permit exists. The $1,500 is a planning estimate rather than a bill: the IND charges EUR 423 for a start-up application in 2026, about $485, plus EUR 254 for a partner and EUR 85 per child. The 90-day decision window is accurate. Euros here convert at roughly $1.15 as of mid-September 2026, and that rate moves.
The facilitator
Who can be your facilitator, and what they charge
RVO publishes the list of recognized facilitators, and the rules about who can be one are specific. Your mentor needs a track record with innovative startups, healthy finances, and a deputy inside the organization. They can't hold a majority stake in your company, and they cannot be family out to the third degree, so your uncle with the incubator is out.
They also charge. Pricing is private and varies a lot, with published guidance clustering somewhere between about 4,000 and 10,000 euros for the year, roughly $4,600 to $11,500. Ask what you get for it because sector fit and investor contacts are the whole value.
One clause matters more than the fee. To hand you the simplified move into the self-employed permit, your facilitator signs a declaration that you finished a mentoring process of at least three months. Start that relationship late and you'll reach month twelve without the paper that makes year two easy.
The rules that ride along with the card
Your company, not someone else's
The card allows self-employed work. A salaried Dutch job needs a separate permit from your employer.
Family comes along
Partner and children file as family members on permits that run in step with your own.
Hiring help for young companies
The essential start-up personnel scheme, open until June 2028, lets you sponsor key staff without sponsor status.
Both of you at the KvK
You and your facilitator have to be registered in the Dutch trade register.
A BSN, then insurance
Your gemeente issues a BSN when you register, and Dutch basic health coverage follows within four months.
Tell the IND when things change
Swapping facilitators or rewriting the plan are both reportable. Notify first, pivot second.
If you hold a US passport
DAFT is the other door, and it asks for different things
Dutch law treats American founders differently, and that's worth knowing before you pick a lane. Under the 1956 friendship treaty, a U.S. citizen gets a self-employment permit by putting 4,500 euros of capital, around $5,200, into a Dutch business account and keeping it there. No innovation test. No mentor. The first permit runs two years instead of one.
So what does this route buy that DAFT doesn't? Recognized innovation status, a facilitator's network and credibility with Dutch investors, and an easier time hiring your first foreign engineer. If you're opening a consultancy or a normal small business, DAFT is the simpler door. If what you're building is genuinely new and you want the mentor, this one fits.
Help worth paying for
Michelle Pomlade
Netherlands Local Guide
Michelle moved to the Netherlands on the American treaty route herself and now builds pre-move checklists for people doing the same thing.
Moneycorp
Currency Exchange
Your proof of funds, your facilitator's fee and your rent are all priced in euros while your savings sit in dollars. Moneycorp handles that crossing.
MyExpatTaxes
U.S. Expat Tax Service
Owning shares in a foreign company changes an American tax return, usually by adding forms to it. MyExpatTaxes handles expat filing from the U.S. side.
What founders want to know first
Do I really need a facilitator, and what does one cost?
Yes. A signed agreement with a facilitator recognized by the Netherlands Enterprise Agency is a condition of the permit, and no other mentor or advisor can stand in. Facilitators are private organizations that set their own prices, commonly quoted around 4,000 to 10,000 euros for a year of guidance, sometimes with a separate charge for application help.
What happens when the startup year ends?
The start-up permit cannot be extended, so you switch or you leave. The intended next step is the residence permit for self-employed people, granted for up to two years. A declaration from your facilitator confirming at least three months of completed mentoring can spare you the points assessment that permit normally requires.
Can I take a Dutch job while I build the company?
Not freely. The back of a start-up residence permit says work as an employee is allowed only with a work permit, which an employer applies for on your behalf. The permit is built for running your own company, so plan the first year around the business paying you rather than a salary somewhere else.
Can my partner and children come with me?
Yes. A partner and minor children apply as family members, at EUR 254 for a partner and EUR 85 per child in 2026. Their permits are tied to yours, so in the first year they run twelve months at most. Work rights are printed on the back of each card, so check that line before anyone accepts a job.
Does my business have to be a tech startup?
No. The Dutch test is innovation, not sector. The product or service has to be new to the Netherlands, or use new technology in how it is made, distributed or marketed, or bring a new way of working and organizing. Food, logistics, health and agriculture all qualify on those terms. A consultancy or a plain e-commerce shop is much harder to argue.
How long does a startup permit application take?
The legal decision period is 90 days, and it can run longer while the Netherlands Enterprise Agency finishes its advice on your plan. Dutch immigration firms describe three to four months as normal. Budget for that at the front of your year, because the permit still expires twelve months after it starts.
Is the startup visa or the DAFT visa better for an American?
They ask for different things. DAFT asks for 4,500 euros of company capital that stays in a Dutch business account, with no innovation test and no mentor, and a first permit of two years. The start-up permit wants a new idea and a recognized facilitator, and runs one year. Founders who want the mentoring and the innovation status pick this route.
How much money do I need for the Netherlands startup visa?
There is no investment minimum, but you show living money for the whole year. The IND applies its self-employed norm, EUR 1,766.77 gross a month including holiday allowance for the second half of 2026, which is near EUR 21,200 across twelve months, about $24,400. Immigration lawyers quote roughly EUR 30,000 when family comes too. Proof is normally a Dutch bank statement.
Where should you build it?
Put your plan, your budget and your family through the Expatsi Test and see where the numbers work.
Why not you?