Moving the the Netherlands

Hi Pumadal and welcome to the Forum.

As a South African, you have no right to live and work in any EU country, so you'll need to go through the appropriate immigration process.  At the top of the page is our Handy Tools section, select that and you'll get our Expat Guides, if you read through those, they will provide some answers to many of the questions you will have regarding immigration into Holland.

With regards to work; you say you want a well-paid job; for one of those, you'll need:

  Relevant experience.
  Relevant qualifications
  Speak the local language
  Luck

You've already said that you don't wish to teach, which unfortunately appears to be your experience, so you'll be looking for something where your Uni background will provide some support.  There are generally 2 ways of achieving this:

First is to find an employer that will sponsor your move.  You could also apply to multinationals who work in English; I'd recommend using something like Google to find the work agencies (uitzendbureaus) in the area where you're interested in moving to, then give them a call to see what they think of your chances in finding work.

Second, is to come here hoping to find work; this link will take you to the Government website that explains the process.  If the UWV don't think you can get any work here, they may advise the IND to decline your visa application.

Lastly - if your heart is set on moving to Holland, then learn Dutch, your Afrikaans will help a little bit, in so much as some words and syntax are very similar, but basically, Afrikaans is Dutch, mixed with German and African tribal languages, as they spoke them over 200 years ago, so not used much in modern day Holland.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team