Apply for recognition as sponsor

Continuity means that your organisation can comply with all financial obligations in the longer term. Solvency is that the organisation has the financial health to deal with financial setbacks.

Advice from the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO)

The IND can ask the Netherlands Enterprise Agency (in Dutch: Rijksdienst voor Ondernemend Nederland or RVO) for advice on the continuity and solvency of businesses. For start-up businesses the RVO uses a point system to assess this. A maximum of 100 points can be obtained. You need at least 50 points for positive advice.

Sections of the point system

1. Registration with the Dutch Chamber of Commerce (in Dutch: Kamer van Koophandel or KvK)

• Is the organisation registered?
• Have there been any changes in partners, shareholders or control since the application date?
• Has there been a takeover, suspension of payment or insolvency of the organisation or of its owners/directors and officers?

2. Business Plan

• Market potential
  • Description of unique characteristics of the product or service.
  • Qualitative and quantitative analyses of the market, focusing on one’s own business environment.
• Organisation
  • Clear and appropriate organisational structure.
  • The right competencies in relation to entrepreneurship, management and subject matter.
• Financing
  • The organisation can deal with future financial setbacks for 3 full years.
  • The turnover forecast is adequately substantiated and in line with market potential. 
  • The cash flow from factual business activities must be positive for 3 full years.

Are your organisation and the natural persons and legal entities involved in your organisation, reliable? The IND examines this in the application for recognition. You are considered unreliable in the following situations:

• Your organisation, or the natural persons and legal entities involved in your organisation, became insolvent 3 times in the year preceding the application.
• The tax authorities gave your organisation a negligence penalty in the 4 years before the application.
• Your organisation got 3 or more penalties in the 4 years before the application. These are the penalties concerned:
  • penalty under the Aliens Act (Vw);
  • penalty under the Foreign Nationals (Employment) Act (Wav); and
  • penalty under the Minimum Wage and Minimum Holiday Allowance Act (WML).
• The IND withdrew your recognition as a sponsor in the 5 years before this new application.

Your research institution must meet these requirements.

Public research institution

• Your research institution has been recognised by the government or receives funding or subsidies from the government. Your institution uses job profiles for researchers in paid employment under the job family ‘research and education’.
• Your institution is listed in the Annex to the Higher Education and Research ACT (in Dutch: Wet op het hoger onderwijs en wetenschappelijk onderzoek or WHW).

Private research institution

• Your research institution is listed in the National Academic Research and Collaboration System.
• Your institution has a Research and Development Statement under the Law on the reduction of income tax and national insurance contributions (in Dutch: Wet vermindering afdracht loonbelasting en premie voor de volksverzekeringen or WVA).

These requirements apply to your school.

Schools for higher education

• Your school is accredited by the Accreditation Organisation for the Netherlands and Flanders (NVAO). 
• Your school provides higher education as referred to in the Higher Education and Research Act (WHW).
• These situations apply to your school.
  • Your school has signed the Code of Conduct for International Students in Higher Education. 
  • Your school provides study programmes in the context of the development cooperation policy of the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
  • Your school provides study programmes in the context of the Cultural Policy Act (Special Purpose Funding) (in Dutch: Wet op het specifiek cultuurbeleid). 

Secondary schools

• Your school provides secondary education as referred to in the Secondary Education Act (in Dutch: Wet op het voortgezet onderwijs or WVO).

Vocational education schools

• Your school provides vocational education as referred to in the Adult and Vocational Education Act (in Dutch: Wet educatie en beroepsonderwijs or WEB).

Secondary schools that offer the international baccalaureate diploma programme

• Your school is accredited by the International Baccalaureate Organisation.
• Your school is part of an international organisation that exchanges students across the world. National committees of this international organisation determine the country of placement. Your school places students in a boarding school.

These requirements apply to your au pair agency or exchange organisation.

• Your au pair agency is located in the Netherlands. Or in another EU or EEA country. 
• Your au pair agency is registered in the Commercial Register at the Dutch Chamber of Commerce. If this registration is not required by law, then this requirement does not apply.
• Your au pair agency or exchange organisation has a cultural purpose.
• Your au pair agency runs an exchange programme that has been approved by the Minister of Asylum and Migration. Read more about the requirements that an exchange programme must meet in 
  Exchange Programme 3015(PDF, 257.63 KB)