Working in the Netherlands is permitted to people with Dutch nationality or the nationality of one of the countries within the European Economic Area (European Union and Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Switzerland) with the exeption of employees originating from one of the eight new EU-countries in Central Europe.

People from other countries, including employees originating from one of the eight new EU-countries in Central Europe, can only work in the Netherlands if they have a residence permit and the employer has a work permit, based on the Foreign Nationals Employment Act (Wet arbeid vreemdelingen, WAV). The application for this work permit is decided upon by the Centre for Work and Income (Centrum voor Werk en Inkomen, CWI).

More information (in English) on working in the Netherlands can be found on the CWI website www.werk.nl.

The Labour Inspectorate (Arbeidsinspectie, AI) is the competent authority under the WAV to enforce the obligations arising from it and check if there are illegal employees working in companies and organisations.

Information on the role of the Labour Inspectorate in the prevention of illegal work in the Netherlands can be accessed by using the following link www.arbeidsinspectie.nl.