COVID: Are The Netherlands forgetting to be lenient and take measures for their legal immigrants? (visa free travellers, searchyear students)

Corona as it is called in The Netherlands changed the Dutch landscape. Most of us are working from home and people social distance. So far we seem to be able to cope. However now the dust settles a bit and the most urgent matters have been dealt with problems emerge for the group that had been here legally and was taking care of themselves but now still are stuck in The Netherlands and on the other hand see all kind of institutions in a Corona-sleep.

I heard rumoured (from an international webinar) that several countries created a solution to prevent people to become illegal).

• Both Portugal and Italy have new COVID residence permits for people working in certain areas. Italy got into trouble because migrants had left when the pandemic started and there were no people available to pick the harvests.
•  Australia created a Temporary Covid Activity Visa for people working in Healthcare, Agriculture, Food-processing and Agriculture.
  
• New Zealand automaticity renewed the residence permits in essential jobs like healthcare and for international students till the first of September.
  
• The USA give a temporary visa who cannot travel back home or work in healthcare.

We in The Netherlands seem to have focussed on asylum-seekers, visa travellers and illegals: those groups of migrants where the government has a leading role to fulfil in their "zorgplicht".

But what about the people who are here and are still legal but who might be classified as overstayers or see themselves facing a gap in residence?

Short-term visitors

While people visiting on a visa were told they could call and get their visa renewed as a national visa people who had not needed a visa to enter The Netherlands were told there was no document for them and they just had to show they could not fly.

So what will that result in when you are for instance a mother from Brazil visiting your daughter like you do each year? Will your travel insurance still pay out? What if you get ill? Will you be classified as someone who stayed illegally in The Netherlands before when you apply for a residence permit in the future? And what if there are flights but you are scared to board a plane being 80 years old?

Why not do as those other countries did and grant people like that a temporary Covid-residence permit for a certain amount of months? (We had a visit your family permit of 6 months in the past).

I am wondering if applying for a national visa (over the phone with the IND) saying your Schengen visa free stay will expire is an idea. And if they say "no that cannot be done" ask them for a written confirmation so you can appeal against that decision.

Search Year

But what if you were on a temporary residence permit in The Netherlands so you could look for a job after you had been studying here and maybe already counted a lot of years legal stay leading up to a permanent residence permit or even a Dutch passport?

"From hope to despair: New international graduates desperate for visa extensions

By Byron Mühlberg on May 3, 2020 - 13:00

The Netherlands' Immigration and Naturalization ServicePhoto: JoeppoulssenDepositPhotosDeposit Photos

In the wake of the Covid-19 crisis, a growing number of international graduates from across the Netherlands are calling for their temporary visas to be extended as their job prospects have disappeared in the current economic downturn. Many of the graduates are still in the country on a zoekjaar visa, which allows a student from outside the European Union to remain in the Netherlands for up to one year after their studies in order find work in the Netherlands.

Several recent graduates launched a petition on April 14 directed at immigration office IND calling for an extension to their temporary residency, which was created to add highly-skilled and highly-educated talent to the Dutch workforce. An extension of their visas is "just and necessary," they say, to give them the chance they need to get a positive return on the high cost of their tuition as international students."

Continue your reading here: https://nltimes.nl/2020/05/03/hope-despair-new-international-graduates-desperate-visa-extensions

While in this article the lady feels she is entitled to help because she paid the higher college fee that we people with already a master (like myself) have to pay or when you come from abroad and your parents have not been paying Dutch taxes for ages have to pay, I think there are other more solid arguments to help this group. Yes it sucks that you paid to go to Holland to find yourself a very well paid job and now no one is hiring. Join the club. The rest of the people here are also not dancing in the streets. To invest in moving here to apply for jobs was someone's own choice. You can apply from abroad too although that is a lot more difficult but hey are we not all doing interviews on Zoom or Skype nowadays?

The real problem for that group is that they cannot return home with closed borders and with plane-travelling still extremely risky.

https://www.telegraaf.nl/video/868780016/ab-osterhaus-ik-zou-nu-niet-gaan-vliegen

Another problem is that people might have planned to exchange their Zoekyear-status for a "husband of an EU-citizen-status" but now see their spouse unable to join them and their time under the Zoekjaar running out.

Even if you have the funds to enrol in university again just to keep your legal status that leaves you up to the university to apply for a residence permit and how can you guarantee they will do that on time while they have lots of other applications and also are under Corona-measures? Before you know it you might end up with a residence gap and have to start counting from 0 again and wait 5 years for a more permanent status.

The group is lobbying with the politicians. And that might work. People at the IND have already told them that there is no option to extend their residence permit and that change in policy has to come from the government.

But would be forcing a decision by applying for a permit not be wiser? At least it prevents one becoming an illegal alien, a residence gap and you can force the Staatssecretaris to write down her opinion.

I would think that this is a situation that would qualify "buiten je schuld Nederland niet kunnen verlaten" (unable to leave The Netherlands for reasons you are not to blame for).  So I would suggest the following but be warned this is experimenting territory:

Apply with this form https://ind.nl/en/Forms/7526.pdf: Cross you have a valid permit and want to change, cross 491 Cannot leave. Be warned this is designed for people whose country refuses them back in but ignore all that because as you can see on top the government has to do their own check as well to see if you qualify for some other permit.

Then write a coverletter to add to that form and explain about closed borders, Covid situation in your home country, no flights, scared to fly due to warnings, own medical problems. Add to that proof of your claims like a doctors letter, newspaper articles etc. You can also mention that you had a Zoekjaar but due to the lockdown were not able to get hired and now are stuck.

Also put in that coverletter that in case the IND thinks you will qualify for another permit instead or the government is willing to grant you a permit by the Minister's discretion you would be most grateful for that.

Personally I think arguments as "We paid 5 times more collegefees so we are entitled to get an extension" work contra-productive. However you can tell that you have invested a lot of money, saved already a lot of legal stay towards onbepaalde tijd and would beg for some leniency because Corona was what is called Nood Breekt Wet (emergcies break the law - a Dutch proverb).

Students who graduated

If you are a student and are finishing your studies around now but cannot return home due to Corona. probably the Zoekjaar-permit can help you out.

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Kijk ook eens op dit reisblog: https://www.europevisitandvisa.com/

Kijk ook eens op dit boekenblog bijvoorbeeld voor: Review of "House on endless waters" by Emona Elon - Amsterdam Jews during the war

House on Endless Waters: A Novel (English Edition)