IND Offices
The immigration department (IND) has confirmed the closure of some of its local office by 2023.
This concerns offices located in Utrecht, Rotterdam and Eindhoven.
Since the department is continuously working on expanding its online modules for all applications and communications, the need to physical offices has been decreasing.
However, offices in major (expat) cities will remain open to cater to the need for face-to-face communication as well as identity checks and provision of residence permits.
Expats and migrants will be able to visit IND offices in Den Haag, Amsterdam, Den Bosch and Zwolle.
These locations will also expand their cooperation with expat centres to provide a broader service to their clients.
IND Audits
The audits are not made public or announced beforehand, but the IND does carry out audits of the recognised sponsor companies throughout the year.
These audits are extensive and comprise of checks of the paperwork administration, salary administration and payments, as well as cross-checks with other authorities such as the tax office.
Non-compliant sponsor companies maybe blacklisted and loose their sponsorship status as a result of these audits.
In such cases, the employees holding a residence permit through these companies are expected to find a substitute company to take over their permits. This can be a tedious endeavour and it is therefore advisable to check that your sponsor company is compliant with the IND regulations.
Residence permit holders can find more information about the obligations of their sponsor companies on the website of the IND, for example in the brochure “Coming to work in the Netherlands” – https://ind.nl/en/forms/3086.pdf