Canadian wants to move to Amsterdam

1POSTS

7 years ago

Hi everyone!

My name is Ibra, 33 year old male Canadian living in Newfoundland. i speak English and arabic. im new to this forum and seeking info about the process of moving from Canada to the Netherlands.

i was in Amsterdam last summer to visit my family and i absolutly fell in love with the city and now im thinking about moving over there be close to my family and hopefully find a job as well. im looking at making the move in july of 2019
i already have accomodation in Amsterdam as i have 4 siblings and other family members who have been living in Amsterdam for more that 20 years.

i have been working as a mental care worker here in Canada for the last 8 years. i can't seem to find any jobs online in that field but im willing to work in anything as i like to keep busy

if anyone can tell me where to start or someone from Canada who went through the same process, share his opinion it will be much appreciated

cheers

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Cynic UK/Netherlands Expert

8120POSTS

7 years ago

Hi Ibra and welcome to the Forum.

To get a decent job anywhere, you need 4 things:

Relevant experience
Relevant qualifications
Speak the local language
Luck

I'll leave it to you to tick off the list how many of those you have. Our experience on here tells us that long-range job seeking is problematic at best. Unless you have a skill/qualification that is in great demand, the moment they realised you can't start work tomorrow and don't speak Dutch, they lose interest; speculative CV's tend to fail for the same reason. You have said that you have family already living in Holland, so that will give you a place to start from in your job search, so I wouldn't worry too much about not finding anything from where you live now.

From what you've told us, I don't think you will qualify for a highly skilled migrant visa, so you will need to apply for a work visa; this link will take you to the Dutch government website that explains the process; it's a very useful page as it lists all the possible work permits that are available and links take you to different sections.

One thing for certain, although as a Canadian citizen, you will not need to go through the MVV exam and formally learn Dutch before they will grant your visa, being able to speak Dutch will greatly enhance your chances of finding work, so I strongly recommend you start learning as soon as possible.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team