Work rights by residence permit: what the endorsement on your Dutch residence document means, and when your employer needs a TWV

In the Netherlands, your right to work is part of your residence status. You do not apply for a personal work licence, and no test or diploma unlocks it. The permission is written on the back of your residence document, in a note called the arbeidsmarktaantekening (labour-market endorsement). For some permits that note says you may work freely. For others it says your employer must hold a TWV (tewerkstellingsvergunning, work permit) for you. Only the employer can apply for a TWV, at UWV, the Employee Insurance Agency. Citizens of the EU, the EEA and Switzerland stand outside this system: they work without any permit. This guide explains the endorsement texts, the TWV and the single permit (GVVA), and the rules for the common permits: family, highly skilled migrant, student, orientation year, asylum and temporary protection for Ukraine.

Every residence permit is granted for a purpose: staying with a partner, studying, working for one employer, asylum. Your work rights follow from that purpose. You cannot request extra work rights on top of your current permit; you can only change to a different permit. Two documents carry the permission. The first is the labour-market endorsement on your residence document. The second, for some workers, is a work permit that the employer must hold, or the additional document that comes with a single permit.

The rules come from the Wet arbeid vreemdelingen (Foreign Nationals Employment Act). The Netherlands Labour Authority inspects workplaces, and employers must check the identity and work rights of everyone they hire. The fine for illegal employment falls on the employer: the standard amount for a business is €6,000 per illegally employed person, and it rises for repeat offences. A serious employer therefore asks to see your residence document before you start. That is normal, and it protects you both.

Turn your residence card around. On the back, under 'aantekeningen' (remarks), the IND prints whether you may work and whether a TWV is needed. If you have a single permit (GVVA), you also received a separate paper: the additional document. It names the employer you may work for and the conditions. Keep it with your card, because together they show your full work rights. These are the endorsement texts you will see most often:

Your work rights follow from the endorsement, not from your nationality, your diploma or your BSN. Two people from the same country can have opposite work rights, because they hold different permits. If your endorsement does not match your situation, or you lost the additional document of your GVVA, contact the IND before you sign a contract.

EU law gives free movement of workers. If you are a citizen of an EU country, Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein or Switzerland, you may live and work in the Netherlands without a residence permit and without a work permit. A valid passport or ID card is enough. This also applies to self-employed work. You still need to register at the gemeente (municipality) and get a BSN for the practical side of life; the BSN and gemeente registration guide explains how. British citizens lost free movement with Brexit, so the normal permit rules now apply to them. If your family member is an EU citizen but you are not, check the family routes in the residence permits overview.

A TWV is a work permit for one worker with one employer. The employer applies for it at UWV. You cannot apply for a TWV yourself, and you cannot take one with you to a new employer. UWV only grants it if the employer meets conditions. The employer must, for example, pay the normal wage for the work and must not have been fined for breaking Dutch employment law in the past 5 years. For some groups, extra conditions apply.

For a job of more than 90 days done by someone who will live in the Netherlands, the residence permit and the work permit are combined into one application: the single permit (gecombineerde vergunning voor verblijf en arbeid, GVVA). The employer or the worker applies for the GVVA at the IND. A separate TWV is used for work of up to 90 days, for workers who will not live in the Netherlands, and for people who already hold a Dutch residence permit, such as students and asylum seekers. After 5 years of uninterrupted legal work in the Netherlands, the TWV requirement ends and a residence permit for paid employment is enough.

A partner or family permit usually copies the labour-market access of your sponsor. If your partner is a Dutch national, your document says 'arbeid vrij toegestaan. TWV niet vereist' and you may take any job from day one. The same free access applies when your sponsor is a highly skilled migrant, an EU Blue Card holder, a researcher, an intra-corporate transferee or essential personnel of a start-up. If your sponsor holds a GVVA, you may only work if your employer obtains a TWV. If your sponsor has a study permit, you are not allowed to work. The application route for partners is covered in the MVV and family reunification guide.

The kennismigrant permit is tied to an employer that the IND has approved as a recognised sponsor. You can look up any employer in the public register of recognised sponsors. Your endorsement allows work for that sponsor, and self-employed work next to it. A different job needs either a TWV or a new recognised sponsor that takes over your permit. Losing your job does not end your permit at once: you get up to 3 months to find a new recognised sponsor, and up to 6 months if you have held the permit for 2 years or longer. The search period never runs past the end date of your permit. A minimum salary applies; the current amounts are on the IND site. The 30% ruling is a tax arrangement, separate from work rights; the income tax guide explains it.

With a student permit you may work next to your study, within two limits. Your employer must hold a TWV, which the employer requests at UWV. And you may work at most 16 hours per week, or instead full-time in June, July and August. The Labour Authority checks these limits at the employer, so an employer who says 'we cannot give you more hours' is following the law. There are two useful exceptions. An internship that is part of your study programme needs no TWV. And self-employed work next to your study has no hour limit and needs no TWV, as long as you keep meeting the conditions of your student permit. Getting full work rights after graduation goes through the orientation year or a work permit; see the common problems below.

The orientation year is a 1-year permit for people who finished a degree or research in the Netherlands, or a degree at a foreign university in the top 200 of the major world rankings, within the past 3 years. The endorsement says 'Arbeid vrij toegestaan, TWV niet vereist'. You may take any job, switch jobs, freelance or start a business, all without a TWV. The permit cannot be extended, so use the year to move to a lasting permit, for example as a kennismigrant.

You may do paid work while your asylum application runs, and the conditions have changed twice in recent years. The current rules: your application must have been with the IND for at least 6 months, your employer must hold a TWV, and you need a valid W-document (vreemdelingenidentiteitsbewijs, the asylum seeker's identity card). The old limit of 24 weeks of work per year is gone: the Raad van State (Council of State) ruled in 2023 that UWV may not refuse a TWV for that reason, so there is no limit on the number of weeks you may work. Your employer sends UWV the application with a copy of the signed draft contract. UWV checks with the IND that your application has run 6 months, and with COA (Centraal Orgaan opvang asielzoekers, the reception organisation) that you receive reception. The pay must be the normal market pay for the job.

Since 12 June 2026, new European asylum rules apply. Asylum seekers from safe countries of origin who applied on or after that date are not allowed to work; UWV checks this when the employer applies for the TWV. A separate plan to shorten the 6-month wait to 3 months has been announced, but it is not yet in force. Self-employed work during the procedure is possible only if your client (opdrachtgever) holds a TWV for you, under the same conditions as an employer.

The day your asylum application is approved, the restrictions end. As a statushouder (status holder) your residence document says 'arbeid is vrij toegestaan': you have the same position on the labour market as Dutch citizens, and no employer ever needs a TWV for you. This also holds while you wait for a decision on the renewal of your asylum permit: you may keep working.

People who fled Ukraine and fall under the EU Temporary Protection Directive may do paid work without a TWV. The employer must report the job to UWV at least 2 working days before the first working day. As proof of your status you show the sticker in your passport or the O-document from the IND. Temporary protection currently runs until 4 March 2027. The free access covers paid employment only; self-employed work is only allowed through a separate permit arrangement. The Government.nl page on work and income keeps the current conditions up to date.

Volunteer work also falls under the work rules. If your document says 'Arbeid vrij toegestaan. TWV niet vereist', you may volunteer without any paperwork. Asylum seekers may volunteer without a TWV, but the organisation must hold a vrijwilligersverklaring (volunteer declaration) from UWV. UWV grants it when the work is unpaid, the organisation has no profit aim and the work benefits society. The declaration is valid for 3 years and covers the type of work, not one person. Internships follow the study rules. An internship that is part of a Dutch study programme needs no TWV. For asylum seekers in Dutch education, a signed internship agreement with the school, or a BPVO agreement (beroepspraktijkvormingsovereenkomst) in vocational education (mbo), replaces the TWV.

Whether you may work for yourself is a separate question, and the answer differs per permit. The endorsement 'Arbeid vrij toegestaan. TWV niet vereist' includes self-employed work. Kennismigranten, orientation-year holders and students may also work self-employed next to their main status. People under temporary protection for Ukraine may not do so automatically, and asylum seekers need a TWV held by their client. For people whose permit gives no route, a dedicated residence permit for self-employed persons exists. Check your endorsement first, then the conditions on Business.gov.nl, the government site for entrepreneurs. The practical side of starting as a freelancer, such as registering with KVK, is outside this guide; Business.gov.nl covers it step by step.

A BSN (citizen service number) proves only that you are registered in the Netherlands. Everyone who registers gets one, including people whose document says 'Arbeid niet toegestaan'. It says nothing about work rights. Some employers still treat 'has a BSN' as 'may work', and some wrongly refuse people whose endorsement is fine because they misread the card. The check the employer must actually do is look at your identity document and the endorsement on your residence document. So show the back of your card together with your BSN. That prevents problems later, during a Labour Authority inspection. How to get a BSN is covered in the BSN and gemeente registration guide.

You cannot fix this alone, because only the employer can send the TWV application to UWV. Some employers refuse because they do not know the procedure; others expect months of paperwork. Send them the IND page on employing a foreign national and the UWV work permit page. For students and asylum seekers the TWV is a standard procedure, not an exception. If the employer still refuses, the job cannot legally start; working anyway makes the work illegal and exposes the employer to the €6,000 fine per person. Put your energy into employers who already employ people in your situation. If you qualify for the kennismigrant route, search the register of recognised sponsors instead: those employers need no TWV for you at all.

Then paid employment is not allowed with your current permit, and an employer who hires you anyway breaks the law. The realistic route is a different permit. Check whether another purpose of stay fits your situation, for example work, study or a partner permit, and what its conditions are. The residence permits overview walks through the routes. Contact the IND before you act: changing permits has its own conditions and fees, and the IND can tell you what you may do while an application runs.

Your student endorsement, with its 16-hour limit, does not change on the day you graduate. Two routes give full work rights. The first is the orientation year: apply within 3 years of graduating and get 1 year of free access to the labour market. The second is a direct change to kennismigrant: a recognised sponsor hires you and the permit changes. Do not start working full-time on a promise. First ask the IND what your current endorsement allows while the application runs.

Once your work rights are clear, the next steps are practical. The job search guide covers where to find work when your Dutch is not fluent yet, and the CV and application guide covers Dutch CV conventions. Before you sign anything, check the offer against the legal minimums in the employment contracts guide. And if you have just arrived, the wider arrival admin is in the first 90 days checklist.