Searchyear permits and COVID-19 / Corona -- Zoekjaar en Corona

A group of people who are in The Netherlands with a Zoekjaar-residence permit (a permit that allows you a year in The Netherlands while you look for a job there) are lobbying for an extension of their permit now exceptional circumstances with Corona and a semi-lockdown are making it very difficult for them to find that job.

But what are the legal remedies when you cannot fly back home but overstaying might see you in trouble with your insurances and maybe a mark on your immigrational future?


Situation 1: Your Zoekjaar permit is still valid for over 3 months

Use your time to apply for jobs. Are you familiar with http://www.academictransfer.com? In The Netherlands a Phd position is a paid job and comes with a residence permit. Also read up on doing an extra Master as also studying comes with a permit and while you study you can go and look for a Kennismigranten or Research job as well.
In the meantime lobby at parliament and talk with journalists but focus on job-hunting.

Situation 2: Your permit will expire soon but your country has closed the borders even for it's own nationals to get COVID under control

There is a special residence permit that is created in case someone is refused to return home. Mostly that is the case in asylumseekercases where nations split up or certain countries rather see their minorities not return. But I think you might experiment and apply for one of these. But make sure you can prove you cannot travel home.

Application for a residence permit humanitarian temporary --Due to no-fault of yourself not being able to leave the Netherlands-https://ind.nl/en/Forms/7526.pdf-but only if you are unable to return . Be aware of 333 euro handling fee costs.

People who manage to get this permit are allowed to work but not when you are still in the process.

Situation 3: Your permit will expire soon but you could travel home but rather stay and see what will happen

But even when you can go home you might be scared to board an international flight in the midst of a pandemic. I would!

Another option is to apply for a renewal of your searchyear what is officially not possible but add in the cover letter that if it is not possible you urge them to make a special exception due to Corona circumstances and then issue you a permit "at the Ministers discretion".

There is no official form to do this as legally an extension is not possible so I would say use the application form and insert extension and add a good coverletter. https://ind.nl/en/Forms/7523.pdf

You will have to pay handling fee or maybe even not as it is no official possibility for a residence permit  and your application will probably be rejected but while you are in the process you are legal here and not an overstayer. Moreover once you get rejected you can appeal at the IND and in case they rejected again go to court to appeal. That will last a year or so and in that time you can apply for jobs.   I do not think you will be allowed to work during that appealperiod tough.

Situation 4: You are in a relationship with a Dutch person or someone who has the nationality of another EU country

Under Regulation 2004/38 of the EU a EU national who is not Dutch is allowed to bring/keep his/her wife or husband (or long time partner we decided as Dutch) to live with him or her here.

Same thing applies when your Dutch husband or wife finds themselves a job in another EU country: you can legally join them and are allowed to work.

But if your husband/wife in The Netherlands has a steady job and enough income under Dutch immigration law you can stay too. The normal requirement of having to go and get a mvv longtime visa at home is not held against you. Dutch exam will but you might plead that under these exceptional circumstances it would be dangerous and extra hard to have to fly home to do that exam or because you have studied here in Dutch.

Costs

The application procedure I charge 100 euro plus 21 euro VAT for. When your application gets rejected I might introduce you to my lawyer friends who do cases with legal aid so then you probably just have to pay 148 euro contribution.

Contact info: Wytzia Raspe, Vreemdelingenrecht.com, wytzia@yahoo.com. Put in the header "Zoekjaar". I am not a free for all to answer questions-lawyer. Due to medical reasons I have to limit my time.

Interessant artikel? Deel het eens met uw netwerk en help mee met het verspreiden van de bekendheid van dit blog. Er staan wellicht nog meer artikelen op dit weblog die u zullen boeien. Kijk gerust eens rond. Zelf graag wat willen plaatsen? Mail dan webmaster@vreemdelingenrecht.com In verband met geldwolven die denken geld te kunnen claimen op krantenartikelen die op een blog als deze worden geplaatst maar na meestal een dag voor de krantenlezers aan leeswaardigheid hebben ingeboet terwijl wij vreemdelingenrecht specialisten ze soms wel nog jaren gebruiken om er een kopie van te maken voor een zaak ga ik over tot het plaatsen van alleen het eerste stukje. Ja ik weet het: de kans dat u doorklikt is geringer dan wanneer het hele artikel hier staat en een kopie van het orgineel maken handig kan zijn voor uw zaak. Wilt u zelf wat overnemen van dit weblog. Dat mag. Zet er alleen even een link bij naar het desbetreffende artikel zodat mensen niet alleen dat wat u knipt en plakt kunnen lezen maar dat ook kunnen doen in de context. Subscribe to Vreemdelingenrecht.com blog by Email