Requirement cooling-off period for Intra Corporate Transferees will be amended: it will only be applicable after the maximum duration of the ICT-permit has been reached

One of the current conditions for a residence permit in the Netherlands for an intra-company transfer based on the European Intra Corporate Transferee Directive (ICT Directive 2014/66/EU) is that the employee has not been transferred to the Netherlands in the previous 6 months. If that is the case, the employee must first leave the Netherlands for a ‘cooling-off’ period until 6 months have passed after the first transfer ended, before a new ICT application can be submitted. On the 19th of January 2023, the State Secretary for Justice and Security announced that this implementation of the European Directive in Dutch law is incorrect and must be amended.

In order to guarantee the temporary nature of an intra-corporate transfer and to prevent abuse, the European Directive allows EU countries to require that there is six-month period between the end of a transfer that has reached its maximum duration and a new application for an ICT residence permit. When the ICT Directive was implemented, however, it was not included in the Dutch regulations that this requirement may only be imposed when the previous transfer has reached its maximum duration. It concerns a maximum duration of 3 years, if the transferee is a manager or specialist, and a maximum duration of 1 year, if the transferee is a trainee. This addition will now be included in Dutch legislation.

This means that the required cooling-off period of 6 months will no longer apply to employees who were in the Netherlands as transferees in the past 6 months for a shorter period than the maximum duration of 3 or 1 year(s) of the ICT permit. Therefore, if they returned to the company outside the EU that transferred them to the Netherlands, they can immediately apply for an ICT permit again. The amendment is expected to come into effect on the 1st of July 2023.

For transferees who want to stay in the Netherlands for more than 3 years (or 1 year, if it concerns a trainee), the ICT permit cannot be extended. The ICT permit can be changed into a different kind of residence permit, such as a highly skilled migrant permit or an EU Blue Card, within that period.