Why you should move to the Netherlands (as a Software Professional) | Top 5 reasons
Most people these days want to settle abroad. If I go ask any person working in IT sector about what are the countries they are considering for moving and settling abroad, the obvious answers are either the US or Canada.
Let's talk about the US, if you want to work in the US, you need to have an H1B visa which comes with its own complication. As you know, H1B visa works on the lottery-based system which makes it unpredictable. You need to depend on your luck if you want to work in the US. Also with the new US got policies and restrictions, it has become difficult to relocate there especially for Asians.
Talking about Canada, it is a good option. You need to get a PR first for which you will have to get IELTS, wait for 6 to 12 months for your PR, and then finally move there. Once you reach there, you need to first get a job. But finding a job in Canada is not easy as Canada does not have a lot of job opportunities as compared to the US. So, searching for a job there would be a stressful process since you are not earning anything but spending in Canadian dollars.
You might think if not the US or Canada, then what is the other good option. I am going to present one such option which is moving to Europe specifically the Netherlands. I myself relocated from India to the Netherlands in just one month.
I will be sharing 5 reasons why you should consider relocating to the Netherlands:
Easy Relocation Process: The first step to relocate here to the Netherlands is to find an employer who can sponsor your visa. There are so many companies in IT sectors that can do that, for example, Miro, Booking, Uber, Plaid, etc. If I talk about the difficulty level of interviews for these companies, I personally found them easy than the interviews I have given in India.
You might think, if it is this easy then why not all people are actually relocating here. I also had similar doubts, but I was able to get offers from 5 companies. So, it is not that difficult, you just need to practice some basic coding and system design skills.
Once you receive an offer from any of the companies that can sponsor your visa, you just need to provide few documents and wait for a week or so. I was able to get my visa within a week.
30% Tax Ruling: If you are hired from outside the Netherlands and your salary is above a certain threshold which will be the obvious case for anyone hired in IT sector, you are hired as a High-Skilled Migrant and you get 30% tax ruling for the first five years.
In case you get the 30% tax ruling, 30% of your gross salary will be totally nontaxable and taxes will be applied to the remaining salary. So your take-home salary is impacted significantly and you will be paying around 25–30% taxes which is quite comparable to what you already pay in India.
Easy PR process: Getting a PR or citizenship is a factor that you should consider prior to relocating to any country. If we talk about the citizenship process of the US, it is quite tough — people have to spend so many years even a lifetime sometimes just to get citizenship. For Canada, you will land there with the PR, but you will have to pay consultants, give an IELTS.
Getting a PR in the Netherlands is quite simple, once you complete 5 years of residency here, you will get the PR easily. You can get citizenship as well after 5 years just by giving a dutch exam.
Expat Friendly: You might think since the primary language of the Netherlands is Dutch, you will have to know that for day-to-day communication. But that is a myth actually, we have been here for over 2 years now and from what we have seen everyone can speak English here.
Another thing to mention is the accessibility of your regional-specific grocery items. So as we are Indians and we obviously love Indian food, thus we need some specific Indian pulses, spices, etc. We are always able to find our Asian stores in every nook and corner of the Netherlands.
Inclusiveness: Here in the Netherlands, you will find people from all over the World. We are from India, and we are able to find such a nice Sikh community and there are actually two Sikh temples also.
I noticed that people here are not judgemental at all. Just to mention a fact, Netherlands was the first country to legalize same-sex marriage.