Another new one...
 

Hello All!

I'm yet another new one here, joined with hope of getting some help, support & friendship from some like minded people. :)

I'm planning to move to the Alkmaar region in April, going to be moving in with my boyfriend for 6 months at first. We should be moving down to Utrecht after a few months. Have been planning this for a few months now and things are starting to come together.

Very worried about getting a job over there as I speak little to no Dutch. I'm learning as much as I can, but its slow. Hoping I can find some sort of work to fund a lang course to help me along.

I have a ton of questions about visa's and jobs and pet passports (my lovely cat needs to come with) floating round in my head, muddling along the best I can. Does anyone fancy pointing me in the direction of a thread thats covered all this before? Any kind words of encouragement are appricated, to be honest they are needed right now!

:D

Darna

Re: Another new one...
 

Utrecht is a great city.
Moving from the U.K. to The Netherlands should prove easy regards your personal requirements. We take it your boyfriend is Dutch and will show you how to register at the town hall etc.
Look at the first posting on the following thread. It has a link to a web site which gives links and all the information you should need.
http://britishexpats.com/forum/showthread.php?t=420757
Finding work with out the native language in any country is difficult. What is your present job? Computer skills are easy to move around, for example.
Ian found the language difficult so now we are here in Spain.
If you look at the DEFRA web site you will find more information about taking your cat to The Netherlands. However if you find the information not so clear they have phone number and the folks on the other end are more than helpful.

Other will hopefully post here too.

Re: Another new one...
 

Dont worry Irene, i'm still lurking out here :D

have a good read and check out some of the links, any questions just let me know.

Re: Another new one...
 

I hope you keep lurking after you have moved ;-) it will be a lonely forum without you.

Re: Another new one...
 

dont worry.

Im a natural born lurker :sneaky:

Re: Another new one...
 

We are thinking of moving back to The Netherlands. So maybe we’d be able to help.
Nice house Paul ..but too expensive for us.
All we need now is a job for Ian!:unsure:

PS JDR, are you not lurking?

Re: Another new one...
 

Thanks.

It goes on sale officially this week, but we already have a second couple coming on Wednesday, so fingers crossed.

Why are you looking at moving back ?

Re: Another new one...
 

Hi Ferkew, Darna_Moon, Casa, fdr, and everyone else! I am so grateful to have found this forum because my wife and I are seriously comtemplating relocating to the Netherlands (town 30 min out of of Amerstdam) from Toronto, Canada, and we are desperate for advice from friendly, knowledgeable people.

I am a soon-to-be chiropractor (graduate in June) and I am in negotiations with a Dutch chiropractor seeking an associate. I LOVE Holland, been there twice, but I really don't want to make any hasty decisions that I will regret later. I have heard the Netherlands is extremely expensive, but everyone I talk to has a different opinion.

I am being offered a starting salary earning approx. 42,000 Euro in my first year. Will this afford us a reasonable lifestyle in the Netherlands? I realize this is a broad question, but I have no context in which to assess whether we will be able to live comfortably or not. My wife is a lawyer and she may or may not work while we are there, a lot depends on how we are managing financially. I checked out www.xe.com/ucc/ to calculate how much that translates into Canadian dollars, and it converts to $64,000 CAN.

Can anyone offer me advice as to whether 42,000 Euro (gross salary) offers a reasonable, or even comfortable lifestyle? We're not big spenders, but we would like to sock away some savings to pay back student loans!

ANY ADVICE WOULD BE GREAT!!!!!!! Thanks....

Chris and Holly

Re: Another new one...
 

Thanks for all the replys! Nice to see people out there! Post again soon when I have more time!

Thanks again!

:lol:

Re: Another new one...
 

Hurrah! So far all going ok!

Have managed to sort out Pet Passport (which is going through as we speak)! Have had a nice (if standard) reply from Undutchables about looking for work. And clearing though all my stuff is going nicely. Also handed in my notice at work. No turning back now!

Random question... does anyone know. When I report to the goverment office for my Sofi number, I've been told it would be a good idea to get a residency visa too, to help get a bank account. Does anyone know what I need with me/to do to get one of these?

Thanks a milion!

:lol:

Re: Another new one...
 

Language hasn't been a problem for me, but I work in IT. You can't work in IT without speaking English ;-)

As for learning the language, don't go mad if it goes slow. My experience was the same - the courses in England were woeful. Linguaphone is also ancient and poor.

Buy yourself a copy of the Van Dale Dutch-English dictionary. It's the best, though it is expensive.

You can follow a dutch language course at most unis. They're not cheap - to become fluent you need to complete two day courses, which cost 960EUR each plus 160 EACH for books. Beware they're only in Dutch. So you need the dictionary. Oh, and they start twice a year - Feb and September. I'm two weeks into my course, and am impressed - very well structured.

So budget 2500EUR for the courses, over either one or two years (two years if you're doing them in the evening).

Your boyfriend'll be able to do most of the other stuff for you..

EDIT: Undutchables are useless c***s, they'll fob you off unless you're available to work immediately. Just apply for jobs on monster.nl, do the cover in dutch but explain your situation.

EDIT: Your boyfriend needs to help you with the residency. You *MUST* do this, iirc you won't get a sofinummer without it. You just need to go to your local town hall, with your boyfriend. Take all your proofs of ID (and his). Ask for the 5-year residency, or you'll have some problems in 3months if you haven't found a job. Get your boyfriend to ask about it.

Re: Another new one...
 

Ok, thanks for all the advice. I'll talk to my boyfriend about it all :) .

Re: Another new one...
 

Why a problem in 3 months ?
If she is an EU citizen, she is able to live and work legally anywhere in EU, or have they changed the rules again ?

Re: Another new one...
 

If you have a permit for 3 months, you may get interviewed when you want an extention. If you can't prove that you're employed or can support yourselve, they'll deny you the residency.

Hasn't happened to me as I registered as a permanent resident, but it happened to my brother-in-law's colleague. Who is German. Or maybe they really do hate the Germans, proving my other argument wrong ;)

Re: Another new one...
 

Why do you need a permit ?
If you are an EU citizen you dont need a residencia to live in Europe, or has The Netherlands got its own rules ?
In Spain only non EU citizens need a permit to work.