Employers may employ asylum seekers after 3 months
What changes?
Are you an employer and do you wish to employ an asylum seeker? In future, this will be permitted sooner. Asylum seekers who have a good chance of getting an asylum residence permit will be allowed to work after 3 months. Currently a waiting period of 6 months applies. At the same time the 24-week limit will be abolished: asylum seekers were previously only allowed to work for 24 weeks a year. That limit will no longer apply.
Please note: under the new rules, asylum seekers from safe countries are actually no longer allowed to work at all.
The main changes are:
- The waiting period for asylum seekers who are highly likely to be granted asylum will go down from 6 months to 3 months.
- The previous requirement that an asylum seeker is only allowed to work for 24 weeks a year will be abolished.
- Asylum seekers from safe countries are not allowed to work at all anymore.
What remains in force?
- You have to apply for a work permit (TWV) to the Employee Insurance Agency (UWV) before an asylum seeker starts work for you.
For whom?
- employers facing staff shortages
- entrepreneurs wishing to hire an asylum seeker
- temporary employment agencies and secondment firms
When?
It is not yet known when this change in the Foreign Nationals Employment Implementation Decree (Besluit uitvoering Wet arbeid vreemdelingen) and the Foreign Nationals Employment Act Implementation Regulations (Regeling uitvoering Wet arbeid vreemdelingen) will take effect.
Please note: The effective date of this measure is not yet final. Entry into force is subject to its passing through the Lower and Upper Houses (Tweede en Eerste Kamer) of parliament. After publication in the Staatsblad or Staatscourant (Government Gazette, in Dutch) the law can take effect.