How to become an IND Recognized Sponsor?
The Netherlands is home to a thriving tech ecosystem, with a growing number of innovative startups and scale-ups every year. As these companies want to grow and succeed, an option that is often overlooked is becoming a recognized sponsor with the IND, which can attract talent from all over the world.
Recognized sponsor is a government-supported program that allows companies to sponsor highly skilled migrants from outside the European Union (EU) to work in the Netherlands. This can be particularly useful for tech scale-ups as it allows them to attract top talent from around the world to drive their growth and development.
Global hiring drives innovations
It has been proven in several studies that a diverse and inclusive work environment – of which having internationals on your team is a big part – helps your company reach its milestones faster. Different perspectives give you a 360-degree view of your company and its need to grow. At YTA we see that this is one of our success factors. We understand exactly what stage your company is in and what challenges you face to grow your human power in the best possible and sustainable way. We have experienced ourselves that a large international talent pool is a large part of our success, and we are incredibly proud of that.
About the IND process
To become a recognized sponsor, your company must officially apply for this at the IND. The IND follows multiple criteria to check and ensure that a company is eligible to become a recognized sponsor, and this is exactly where it can get difficult.
Tech scale-ups are dependent on investors. A lot must be invested in the first few years and the profitable result only becomes visible after a few years. If you cannot demonstrate that your company is profitable and has a healthy clash flow and solvency ratio, the IND is obliged to transfer the case to the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO), another part of the Dutch government that will conduct a more in-depth investigation.
The entire process can be very time consuming. The IND has 90 days to check your case and award the sponsorship, or to report that the case has been transferred to the RVO and more data needs to be submitted to support your specific case. The RVO also has the right to take another 90-120 days to reach a conclusion. So, before you know it, at least 6 months have passed; precious time that you don’t want to waste. Time is money and with ambitious growth plans and the immediate need for talent, you want the sponsorship awarded as soon as possible.
Here to help
Our team of experts knows exactly what it takes to go through this process lean and fast. We are able to ask the right questions and can advise you on the best strategy based on that. The process can be time consuming, but we are here for you and take many steps out of your hands so you can focus on what you do best: scaling up!