It all started with a message in February 2022. A few months later we found ourselves in Eindhoven, in a new home, in the middle of a new life. In this post we tell how we moved to the Netherlands as an HSM (Highly Skilled Migrant), what we ran into along the way, and what we would do differently looking back.
How the job offer came
In February 2022 an HR consultant from a recruitment agency contacted me. We spoke a few times, and then she sent me two positions she thought suited me: one at Vanderlande, one at VDL. Within a week Vanderlande replied that my CV was a fit. After two interviews the offer came on 25 February, and I accepted it the next day. I started at Vanderlande at the beginning of May.
That’s when I learned how working through an agency goes: the agency finds you the job and also handles the process in between. The company pays the agency a fixed fee, and the agency pays you your salary after taking its commission. So when you look at an offer, it’s worth asking clearly what you will actually receive and how long you’ll be working through the agency.
Then there’s the salary threshold. To come as an HSM, your salary has to be above the threshold set by the IND (the Dutch immigration service), and an employer can’t offer less. The threshold depends on your age and is updated every year. I was over 30, so the higher threshold applied to me. The gross monthly amounts for 2026 (excluding holiday allowance) are:
- 30 or older: €5,942
- Younger than 30: €4,357
- Within 3 years of graduating (reduced criterion): €3,122
For the current figures: IND, Required amounts income requirements. This threshold is separate from the 30% ruling, the tax benefit for expats; we’ll cover that one separately.
Visa and residence permit
You don’t apply for the HSM permit yourself: your employer does. Normally the IND only accepts these applications from recognised sponsors (erkend referent). For Turkish citizens there’s a difference: according to the IND this requirement doesn’t apply to employees with Turkish nationality, though a recognised sponsor is still recommended for a faster decision. Turkish citizens also often pay lower fees.
For us it went like this: my employer applied to the IND, after approval we applied for the MVV (the entry visa for the Netherlands) and came here with it. We collected our residence cards from the IND after we arrived.
Sources: IND, Highly skilled migrant · IND, Turkish citizens and living in the Netherlands
The documents we brought from Türkiye
Your Turkish ID and civil status documents aren’t accepted here as they are. For the municipality registration and the IND we prepared my birth certificate, my wife’s birth certificate, our marriage certificate and our son’s birth certificate. We had all of them translated through a notary and a sworn translator, and legalised with an apostille.
There’s one thing we learned later that would have made life easier: multilingual (international) extracts from the Turkish civil registry need neither translation nor an apostille for use in the Netherlands. If you go with regular documents, a sworn translation and an apostille are required; if you have them translated in Türkiye, the original and the translation are legalised together. For birth and marriage certificates the issue date doesn’t matter either; once legalised they stay valid.
Sources: Netherlands Worldwide, Legalising documents from Türkiye · IND, Translation and legalisation of documents
Finding a home in 2022
A few weeks before arriving we managed to find a rental home in Blixembosch, a neighbourhood in Eindhoven, but it wasn’t easy. The war in Ukraine had just started, energy prices had shot up, many people were moving to Europe, and the rental market felt all of it. So our advice is simple: start looking for a home the day you accept the offer.
Our things at the front door
We brought our belongings from Türkiye and arranged the packing and transport there. What surprised us here: unlike in Türkiye, there was no service that carries everything in and puts it in place. The truck only brought our things to the front door. Six of us, friends included, unloaded the truck and carried everything inside.
So before you plan your move, ask the company whose offer you accepted what your relocation package covers: is transport, carrying things into the home, temporary housing included? Planning your move around that package makes everything much easier.
First me, then my family
I came alone for the first two months, working and setting up the house at the same time. My wife and son arrived at the beginning of July. That in-between period worked really well for us; when they arrived, the house was ready and our daily routine had settled.
One of my walks in Blixembosch during those two months also became the start of our next big step. We wrote about that separately: buying a new-build home in the Netherlands.
A new job six months later
After about six months at Vanderlande I got an offer from ASML, which was growing and hiring very fast at the time, and I started there on 1 January 2023. Changing jobs did not affect our 30% ruling; the company arranged what was needed.
Looking back
If we did it all again, we’d pay more attention to three things. We’d prepare the documents early and look into the multilingual civil registry extracts. We’d start looking for a home the day we accepted the offer. And we’d find out at the very start what the relocation package covers, and plan the move around it.
This post describes our own experience and is not legal advice. Rules and amounts change every year; check the IND pages before you apply. Last checked: November 2026.