Country Update 2026: THE NETHERLANDS

Contributed by: Esther Wolthuis and Dilara Karasahin (Kroes Advokaten)

May 2026

1. Legislative Changes

One of the most important legislative developments is the integration of the EU Asylum and Migration Pact into Dutch law. The aim is that this should introduce faster asylum procedures, mandatory screening of irregular arrivals within 3 days, and expanded use of EU databases for asylum tracking. These changes represent the largest overhaul of the Dutch asylum system in about 30 years.

The Dutch senate approved the new “two-status system” act, introducing differentiated protection statuses with varying rights to asylum seekers. The Asylum Emergency Measures Act was rejected in April 2026, but the government is preparing replacement legislation.

The asylum procedure will change significantly upon implementation of these new laws. Important changes include the elimination of the ‘intention procedure’ leading to an immediate decision that can be appealed only in court, and the delayed introduction of the lawyer in a later stage of the procedure.

The EES (Entry/Exit System) has been implemented in October 2025. Persons who enter the Schengen area for short stay are now automatically registered in a digital system. The ETIAS system is planned to be implemented in late 2026, establishing a mandatory registration and approval system for travellers who are exempt of the Schengen visa requirement.

2. Business Immigration

As was the case in 2025, the Dutch government is still considering measures to tighten the highly skilled migrant scheme. The aim is to make the system more selective and prevent abuse of the highly skilled migrant scheme. Although this review of policy is still ongoing, one implemented change has been the requirement for recognized sponsors to retain proof of salary payments (such as bank statements) rather than relying solely on payslips.

Several plans to significantly restrict business migration have been pitched and proposed, but no concrete bills have been adopted yet. Plans to restrict the Highly Skilled Migrant scheme are still in development. The previously proposed policy to restrict EOR constructions has not been implemented yet. Plans to restrict the EU Blue Card by submitting it to a labour market test have been adopted by the parliament, but later scratched again due to potential challenges in the execution.

Furthermore, on the 21^st of May 2026, the deadline for implementation of the Recast Single Permit Directive 2024/1233 lapsed. The Netherlands has not yet implemented the directive into national legislation. There has been no update on how to interpret provisions that may have direct effect in the meantime.

One of the changes that the Single Permit Directive brings into Dutch immigration law, is that the national highly skilled migrant scheme should now be defined as a single permit, whereas this was long disputed by both policy makers and even the Council of State. This means that more favourable conditions contained in the Single Permit Directive must now also be applied to persons holding a highly skilled migrant permit. Examples of these are the extension of the job search period following unemployment from 3 to 6 months.

3. Family based immigration

The bill to abolish payment of administrative fines due to late decision by the IND (immigration services), has been accepted and implemented in April 2025. Family members who are ‘regular’ migrants can now no longer receive a penalty payment if the IND exceeds the legal deadline. For asylum seekers this was already the case for a longer time. The court judicial fine is still unaffected, although there has been debate around the question of abolishing this too.

In April 2026, the IND has published an internal work instruction making it easier to use assets in order to prove ‘sufficient and sustainable income’, which is needed to be eligible for family reunification. The existing policy was very complicated and hardly used in practice. Now the IND has decided that assets equal to 3 years of the minimum wage should be regarded as sufficient. The assets must be freely accessible, such as a savings account. It must also be clear that the savings belong to the sponsor and that the required taxes have been paid.

Serious restrictions to the possibility of family reunification for refugees have been proposed, including abolishing reunification of young adult children and unmarried partners. This proposal has stranded for now.

4. Asylum

The most important development is the adoption of the EU Asylum and Migration Pact. A central feature of the 2026 policy is the overhaul of the asylum system to make it faster and more restrictive. New EU-wide rules require mandatory screening at borders, accelerated asylum procedures, and quicker return decisions for rejected applicants. The Pact implementation has been approved by Parliament in May 2026. The government has introduced further restrictions at the same time.

The decision deadline that had been extended to 15 months, has been reversed back to 6 months.

In June 2025 the IND resumed the assessment of asylum cases from Lebanon and Syria, which had been frozen since late 2024.

There had been much legal uncertainty surrounding country nationals with a residence permit in Ukraine, who were granted a Temporary Protection status before. The Council of State finally ruled that ending the Temporary Protection status of this group was lawful. Access to shelter, work and municipal support has ended on 4 September 2025, if no individual procedures are running.

5. Deportation

New legislation proposals include criminalization of illegal stay (politically controversial and not yet adopted) and expanded powers to declare migrants “undesirable” and facilitate removals.

6. Citizenship

Proposals remain under discussion to increase the applicable language requirement from A2 to B1, although there is no clear timeline.

A law proposal to extend the residency period for naturalization from 5 to 10 years was offered for consultation, but there is no indication on whether this proposal will be handled any further.