If you are from the US or Japan you should absolutely check out DAFT: the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DAFT_%28treaty%29

https://ind.nl/EN/individuals/residence-wizard/work/working-...

It allows you to be a freelancer in Holland. No citizenship, but you do get a residency permit that is up for renewal every 2 years, as long as you satisfy the requirements (no social benefits, only freelancing, &c).

Unfortunately the "friendship" is not mutual :(

There is a Knowledge Migrant Visa which means that anybody with decent IT skills should not have a problem. Though I think you need the job offer first. Hiring people from outside the Netherlands and getting them a visa is very normal so it shouldn't be a barrier for anybody who wants to move to Amsterdam. There is also a tax incentive where foreigners don't pay as much tax (30% ruling, the first 30% of your income doesn't get taxed) for the first ten years. Again, if you are sufficiently skilled you should qualify.

I think this specifically is a reason why it is so hard for Dutch startups to hire non-EU citizens. The minimum salary for the Highly Skilled Migrant Worker visa is something like 35k a year. This is waay more than a small company can afford, and it doesn't even include the registration costs for hosting a Highly Skilled Migrant Worker.

It's €42k/year for workers under 30 and €51k/year if over 30. Which to be honest for a skilled developer is not out of the ordinary in NL (which is the point of those minimums).

If you can't afford to pay someone with the skills to qualify as a Highly Skilled Migrant, then I think the small business needs to reconsider their hiring needs.

Unfortunately, a lot of software development jobs in the Netherlands pay less than that.

Interesting. The same applies to the 30% ruling I see (http://www.expatax.nl/30ruling.php). You need a high salary to qualify for it.

Good starting points:

http://www.expatica.com/nl/visas-and-permits/Moving-to-the-N...

http://www.newtoholland.nl/

Amsterdam has basically an entire website on the matter: http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/local/work It also links to search engine with moderately up-to-date vacancies: http://www.iamsterdam.com/en/local/work/working-in-amsterdam... The search application is an older version of one of products developed by Textkernel, they have a number of positions open: http://www.textkernel.com/company/jobs/

Disclousure: I am currently working for Textkernel

If you are interested, and an American citizen, send me a DM and I'd be glad to answer any questions.

Your contact info isn't in your profile, so I'll reply here.

I am an American citizen hoping to move to Utrecht in the near future, and would like to ask you a few questions. Contact info is in my profile.