Since 2008, the Expatcenter Amsterdam has been working to make it easier for highly skilled migrants to live and work in the greater Amsterdam area.
Its sixth birthday celebrations on June 17 coincided with the 30.000th highly skilled migrant using their services: a new arrival from the UK who was taking up a position at Dutch success story Booking.com.
Over the past six years, more than 800 companies have used the Expatcenter to process residence permits and aid the registration of foreign employees.
Every month, the Expatcenter helps around 500 expats!
Since the service started, it has expanded to service not only the municipality of Amsterdam, but also Amstelveen, Haarlemmermeer, Almere, Velsen and Hilversum.
Other improvements include simplified procedures for migrants and scientific researchers, new registration procedures for short-stay migrants, the introduction of biometric scanning technology to improve security and strengthened partnerships with the Dutch Tax Office (Belastingdienst) and the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND).
As well as helping highly skilled migrants with immigration procedures, the Expatcenter's collaboration with I amsterdam allows them to offer expats information about living, studying and working in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area.
The Expatcenter also hosts regular small events on topics such as Learning Dutch, Filing your Taxes, Legal matters and more.
These events connect expats with the services they need located in their region, as well as providing ample opportunity for them to network and socialise with others in the same situation.