Dutch recognised sponsors: IND notification deadlines

A sponsor in the Netherlands must report to the IND any change that affects a residence permit or the recognition, in most cases within 4 weeks. A change of the administrative address where worker files are kept must reach the IND within 2 weeks. A missed report can bring an administrative fine and suspension or withdrawal of recognition.

The failure that costs the recognition

One lapse shows how the two deadlines interact. An employer moves the office where it keeps the worker files and tells the IND in week 3 or 4, inside the general deadline. The address change, however, falls under the records duty and carries a 2 week deadline. The records duty is breached on day 15, and the IND may impose an administrative fine, with suspension or withdrawal of recognition as sponsor possible.

The error is easy to make because two deadlines run side by side. Most changes carry 4 weeks; the address of the worker files carries 2. A compliance calendar that uses a single deadline for every change is wrong for exactly this case.

Three obligations and where the rules sit

A recognised sponsor carries three legal obligations under the Vreemdelingenwet 2000: the duty of care, the duty to keep and retain records, and the duty to provide information. The detailed notification rules sit in articles 4.17 to 4.26 of the Voorschrift Vreemdelingen 2000, which is published in Dutch only. The framework for the recognised sponsor itself is in Chapter 2 of the Vreemdelingenwet 2000.

The duty to provide information applies to any sponsor, recognised or not. Recognition raises the stakes, because the sanction for a lapse can reach the recognition itself and with it every application filed through the accelerated route.

Reportable changes and their deadlines

The IND groups reportable events into changes about the worker and changes about the company. The table sets out the events named by the IND and the deadline that applies.

Loss of registration with the Labour Standards Foundation (SNA) matters to labour suppliers in particular: a company that keeps supplying staff after losing the registration must report it.

Records: five years after the sponsorship ends

The records duty runs longer than the employment. A sponsor keeps the records of each worker until 5 years after it stops being that worker's sponsor, and shows them when the IND asks. An employer that archives or destroys files when the contract ends, under a general retention policy, can be in breach years later during an IND check.

The practical step is to set the retention clock from the end of sponsorship, as the IND requires, and to record in the file the date on which sponsorship ended and why.

How to report

Changes reach the IND through one of three channels:

1. IND form 7588, for changes concerning the sponsor itself, such as a new address or a closure.
2. The purpose specific forms, for changes concerning an individual worker.
3. The Business Portal, accessed with eHerkenning, for sponsors that file online.

The IND publishes the forms and the list of reportable changes on its page on the obligations of sponsor and recognised sponsor. An employer that assigns one named person to each channel, and logs the date each change occurred next to the date it was reported, has the evidence it needs if the IND opens a compliance check.

Employers comparing the accelerated route with other options can read the guides on the recognised sponsor route and the GVVA single permit. Current vacancies are listed on the job board.