Before our one-way flight from Calgary to Amsterdam, looking forward to 9 hours of in-flight movies (Sept 2017)

*** Since the time of this writing, the laws around the Working Holiday Visa have changed. On October 1, 2018 the Dutch government decided to start cracking down on the types of work you can do with this visa, limiting it to incidental work (nothing full-time). This means that in order to move here and start working, you will unfortunately have to find a job that will sponsor a highly-skilled migrant visa. ***

A little bit of background

To give this post some context, I want to start with sharing some background on me and my story of moving to the Netherlands on the working holiday visa. My name is Dave, and I’m a 24 year old Canadian (or Canadese, according to my Dutch residency card) who moved from Toronto to Amsterdam in September, 2017 with my girlfriend Madi (also Canadese). Prior to moving, we were both living in Toronto and working in our first post-grad jobs. I was in sales at a software startup, and Madi was working in retail buying at the Hudson’s Bay Company.

Although we were really enjoying our lives in Toronto, we always shared the dream of living and working abroad ‘at some point’. What I started to realise as our time in Toronto progressed was that finding this ‘point’ was inevitably going to become more challenging. When would we both be at the same point in our careers where we would be comfortable with dropping everything and just leaving? Next thing you know, it’s 2, 3, 5 years later and all of your friends are getting married, buying houses etc. and the idea of moving just becomes too daunting. Life happens.

Luckily, the ‘point’ presented itself to Madi and I in spring of 2017. My company had just been acquired by a large tech company based in San Francisco, and many key members of the team were moving down to the US in the process (myself not included…damn Trump). Madi was already in between jobs at the time, so we decided that this was our chance. We decided we were moving. We didn’t know where at that point, but we’re not the type to overthink decisions when they feel right. So despite having little semblance of a plan and strategy, I gave my notice at work the next day.

Why I wanted to write this

During the months leading up to our move we spoke with a handful of fellow Canadians who had moved to Amsterdam in the past, but the conversations were always more focused on living in Amsterdam rather than practical tips for moving. This was because most of the people we spoke with had moved for jobs (aka they were sponsored on a highly skilled visa), so a lot of the immigration admin was taken care of by their respective companies and they were landing in a fairly comfortable position.

We are on the more adventurous/reckless side so we decided to quit our respective jobs in Toronto and take a leap of faith. Maybe we’re just lazy and didn’t do enough digging (actually, highly likely), but we found it disappointing that there was no ‘one stop shop’ post where we could find all of the common pitfalls to avoid. We vowed that once we had made our move and semi-settled we would document all of our mistakes on the world wide web in the hopes of saving someone else a bit of stress or a few bucks.

So, to be clear, this post is intended as a mini survival guide to help folks who are moving to the Netherlands without a job and taking advantage of the working holiday visa (although certain advice will be universal). We are also Canadian, so some of the immigration content is specific to that context.

Before you move to Amsterdam…

These are the main mistakes that we made in the process. If you are in a similar situation to us and are planning on moving to Amsterdam, my hope is that you can avoid making the same ones.

TL;DR

Book immigration appointments NOW Get a legalised birth certificate Arrange a place to stay when you land Start searching for jobs Shamelessly ask your network for connections in Amsterdam

Book immigration appointments ASAP

Make them well in advance of your move!!! Ideally, do this before you book your flight to come here so that you can hit the ground running. You need two appointments:

Visa — this appointment is with the IND. It can be at any IND office in the Netherlands, so if you are on the phone with someone and they are saying there’s nothing in Amsterdam, ask them to check other cities. We ended up going out to Den Hague for ours (after a week of calling every day to check for cancellations) because we could get in about a month ahead of our scheduled appointment in Amsterdam.

Registration — the Dutch government likes to keep tabs on you, so before you can get a job and earn any money you need to register and get your BSN (of course it stands for Burger Service Number, welcome to Holland). You must schedule your registration appointment with the city that you plan on living in, so for this one you’re limited to a certain number of offices. If you’re moving with a job sponsorship, there’s a special office for you that I’m sure is efficient and lovely. If you’re a pleb like us, you will need to book your appointment at one of the Amsterdam city offices (see the list, here).

What we did….

Rather than dedicating some time and effort to visa research like any rational person would, Madi and I lollygagged around for the summer after quitting our jobs. We knew there were appointments, but we very naively assumed we could book them within two weeks of our flight. Our flight was September 6 and when I called for a registration appointment the earliest they had was October 18…

Get immigration documents organised ASAP

Start the process of legalising your birth certificate right now. For your registration appointment, you need a legalised birth certificate. This means that you have to physically send it to your federal government, they give it a thumbs up and a stamp, then you physically send it to the Dutch Embassy, and they also give it a thumbs up and a stamp. Fun process, right? You might even have to get a new birth certificate before starting the stamping process, but double check that for your case. More about this here.

What I did….

When I finally got around to serious research regarding Dutch immigration (two weeks before our flight), I figured out that we needed to do this. It was one of many, ‘Oh fuck’ moments in my research phase. We ended up having to get special birth certificates issued for this purpose, and express ship them to a service in Ottawa (capital of Canada) that specialised in this kind of thing. They physically took them to these offices in Ottawa for us and got the stamps and express shipped them back. This is who we used. Of course because you are in a tight spot and they know it they absolutely hose you on price, I think with shipping and everything we spent $500+ getting two pieces of paper stamped.

A month and a half in and we are officially legal! Now we just need to convince companies to pay us.

Have a place to stay

When you land in Amsterdam, you’re going to want to have a place to stay set up. The last thing you’re going to want to do after a long-haul flight is carry your bags around from door-to-door. Ideally, you can find a relatively cheap Airbnb or hostel room. Then once you’re here you can explore the city a little bit and hit the Facebook groups hard looking for a longer term room or apartment rental in a good neighborhood.

What I did…..

In this case, we totally lucked out, and it probably saved out entire move from turning into a complete flop. About a month before we moved Madi and I were introduced to a couple at a summer BBQ who had lived in Amsterdam for 25+ years and knew a ton of people here. They then connected us with a couple who happened to have an empty garden house that they offered for us to stay in when we arrived. Looking back, I wonder what we would have done if this intro didn’t surface. It was another one of those really important things that we were taking the ‘ignorance is bliss’ approach to. Oh well, sometimes things just work out!

Start looking for jobs

The Dutch hire slow because it’s way harder to fire people here than in North America. It’s not uncommon to go through 3–5 interviews before receiving an offer, which takes a long time if you’re doing 1 interview per week. So it’s important to start conversations early and set yourself up for success when you move.

Set up a few Amsterdam job alerts for the type of role you will be looking for when you land. If you have a good idea of what you will be looking for, I would try to sort that out and get a focus before moving.

I think the best place to start is LinkedIn, and you could add in Angelist if you’re looking for a role at a startup. Make sure your resume is up to date* and start proactively applying or direct messaging people at companies you find interesting and get a conversation started. You will probably have a hard time getting to a job offer from abroad, but at least you can get some coffee chats lined up for when you arrive.

* Make sure your location is Amsterdam, otherwise people might be confused as to why you’re applying. The Dutch also include their DOB/age in the info section.

Shamelessly ask for connections

Leverage your network to source some connections. We found that when people found out we were making such a radical move they really went the extra mile to introduce us to anyone they knew in Amsterdam. Some of them were super random, but you never know who’s going to know someone who knows someone that has an awesome place they’re renting out for super cheap…

Once you’re in Amsterdam….

TL;DR

Get a bike Get a prepaid SIM Make Chrome your default browser Hustle for a job Get a bank account

Get a bike

Do this your first or second day in Amsterdam. As you will see, it’s the way people get everywhere here. Once you have a bike, the city totally opens up and no place is more than 15–20 minutes away. Bikes also get stolen like crazy here, so I would advise getting a fairly cheap second hand one to start. You will see a TON of options if you put ‘bike shops’ into Google Maps, or you can try the Waterlooplein flea market (more here). I got mine there and paid 90 euro with two locks included. Swapfiets is another great bike membership service that is totally hassle-free, which Madi joined after her first bike got stolen.

Get a prepaid SIM

Another day one task. Connectivity is super key; you’re going to need plenty of Google Maps to navigate this semi-circle city. Pop into any Vodafone or Tele2 store and grab a prepaid sim card. You can get them pretty cheap, I think we had 3 GB of data and 30 minutes of calling for 20 euro per month.

You’ll need to keep renewing your prepaid for at least 3 months because of a funny rule. To prevent fraud, phone companies here don’t let you set up an auto-renew phone plan until you have had a Dutch bank account for at least 3 months. So that means you need to a) get your BSN, b) open a bank account, and c) wait 3 months from that day to get a real phone plan. Oh, the Dutch and their systems…

Make Chrome your default browser

While we are on the note of phones, I would highly recommend setting Chrome as your default web browser on your computer and mobile. Chrome will auto-translate Dutch sites for you, which is really helpful when you’re exploring and trying to find business hours etc. If it’s not auto-translating, you should be able to toggle that feature on in settings.

Hustle for a job

Once you are boots on the ground it’s time to start networking pretty aggressively. I would recommend dedicating a few hours a day to putting in job applications and continuing to message people and set up conversations.

In addition, you can now start hitting up networking events and making in-person intros. There are quite a few on the Meetup app, which is pretty popular here. You can also check the websites for the coworking spaces* in town to see what they have going on.

*TQ, Impact Hub and WeWork are great places to start looking.

I personally went the more traditional route as I find networking events pretty painful. I focused on applying/messaging on LinkedIn and the intros I had received from friends, former colleagues etc. I ended up getting my current job from a cold email I had sent before moving. It took a while to materialize (about 3 months), but 5 interviews later I got an offer!

Get a bank account (I recommend ING)

A lot of grocery stores and certain checkout lines don’t take cash, so it’s important to set up a bank account quickly for convenience. NOTE: You must have already done your immigration appointments and have your BSN to open up an account.

Dutch service is terrible in general, but I was pretty shocked when we went to set up bank accounts here. We went into three ABN AMRO branches and they all told us we needed to book an appointment for one or two weeks later. They were literally pushing our business away.

The first ING we walked into (located here), we went right up to the counter and opened up two accounts within 15 minutes. Now, that was probably partly because they were experiencing a lull in the day, but I find everything about ING more pleasant. Their website is in Dutch, but they have a great app in English. We haven’t had any trouble with them so far.

A quick update on us

We’re creeping up on the 5 month mark in Amsterdam now. Overall, we’re loving the city. There are still moments where I’m biking around and I have to remind myself that we actually live here now. The architecture and people are so unique and quintessentially European that it can feel quite surreal.

We scored an awesome 3-month rental that we found on this Facebook group. January 2018 marks our final month in this current rental, and we are moving into another 3-month rental (a houseboat!!!) that we found on the Facebook marketplace. Facebook is a great place to look for rentals to avoid paying fees, but you really have to be on it and persistent to beat out the competition. After this next rental, we are hoping to settle into a longer-term place in the Oud-West area.

I am 2 months in to my job here at a local startup and really enjoying it, and Madi is in some really promising conversations with a few creative agencies here. She was offered a job around the same time that I got mine, but decided to hold out for something that felt like a better fit.

Now we’ve transitioned into the phase where we’re settling into a routine, trying to make new friends, and planning our next weekend trip around Europe ;)

Another day, another badass church

Saturday’s are FTH (for the herring)

Update #2

We’ve just crossed the year mark in the Netherlands, and this post is now the first thing on Google when you search ‘Canadian moving to Amsterdam’. The internet’s pretty cool.

We’re settling in for our second winter here, currently in a long term apartment in the Westerpark area. We’re both working full time in central Amsterdam, and have agreed that we probably have one of the most picturesque commutes in the world. Luckily, my work has sponsored me on the highly skilled visa (and Madi as a registered partner) so we’re in the clear deportation-wise. One thing that has come up a few times from people reaching out about this article is the ability to work for the same company beyond 12 weeks on the working holiday program. In my case, I had no issue with this, but I have heard of a few people running into some trouble. My advice would be to make sure that the companies you’re talking to are cool with bringing you on with that visa and there won’t be any surprises down the line. You should also make sure to discuss the eventual move to the highly skilled visa.

Get in touch!

If you have any further questions about moving to the Netherlands (from Canada), or you just want someone to grab a beer with once you’re here, please respond to this article in the comments!