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Have been seriously thinking about doing this, but the residency requirements give me pause. (You must always have a mailing, non-PO-box address in NL — essenti
by archagon 9y ago
Have been seriously thinking about doing this, but the residency requirements give me pause. (You must always have a mailing, non-PO-box address in NL — essentially, your own place — and have to stay in the country 6 months out of a year, though apparently it’s not really enforced.)
In Europe right now and maybe 25-75 on just pulling the trigger... who knows if our so-called president ends up doing something stupid that blows up this treaty? No other easy paths to residency in the EU as far as I’m aware!
- eastendguy 9y agoThere is the blue card http://www.bamf.de/EN/Infothek/FragenAntworten/BlaueKarteEU/blaue-karte-eu-node.html http://www.bamf.de/EN/Infothek/FragenAntworten/BlaueKarteEU/... Essentially all you need is a normal IT job above a certain threshold
- CalRobert 9y agoWell, there's always the whole "get a job" path. If you're single you might find a European partner which helps. If you're a US citizen another temporary option (but among the easiest) is to get a working holiday visa for Ireland. I believe it's the only EU nation offering working holiday visas to the US. I probably wouldn't bother with it if the DAFT were an option - when I got one it was much earlier in my career. Not sure how the residency requirement is a bad thing? NL is pretty nice as I understand it. Incidentally, this blogger did the DAFT and describes their experience: http://shawnindutch.com/ http://shawnindutch.com/
- archagon 9y agoYeah, I've read that blog! Very useful. I'm sure NL is wonderful, but I can't quite commit to living there full time. For one, all my friends and family live in California. It would be very hard to justify paying rent on an empty apartment for half the year just to keep qualifying, and I would surely get lonely in any case. (I guess I could Airbnb it out if there are services that can do the landlordy bits while I'm away, but it would be hard to ensure that this is possible without actually going through the DAFT process. Even finding a regular, un-Airbnb-able NL apartment without the NL SSN-equivalent is a bit of a Catch-22, since most apartments require the SSN but applying for DAFT is what gets you the SSN in the first place. And you can't apply for DAFT without a mailing address, as far as I'm aware. I think common advice is to stay with friends for a bit, but that doesn't work if you don't know anyone in NL...)
- nl 9y agoSurely if you don't want live there it is easier not to do it? What is the goal here?
- archagon 9y agoWell, the goal would be to spend 4-6 months out of the year in NL and work towards an eventual EU citizenship five years down the line. That would be totally fine. It's mostly the logistics and cost of keeping around an empty apartment for half the year that I'm concerned about.
- selectodude 9y agoThey don't want people abusing the system to get free EU citizenship. It's about attracting talent to NL.
- justincormack 9y agoI would think the residency requirement is 5 years of actual residency, so at half time it would take ten years.
- fapjacks 9y agoIf you do, please document your journey, as I am in the very early stages of a similar decision.