Hello everyone and happy new year.
As the title suggests, my partner and myself are looking to move and work in the Netherlands. We are EU citizens.
We've been planning for a while and, due to the cycle of no job>no house and no house>no hiring, we decided to try and make it through employment agencies that provide accommodation. The plan is to find a job and accommodation at least short term, so that we will have an active job to leverage looking for an apartment.
Currently we are on stand-by, waiting for a decent enough offer to book our plane tickets. We have already quit our jobs a little while ago and let our current landlord know that we are leaving by the end of January.
However, I have a thought I can't shake off and I would like people's opinions and experiences on the matter;
Many say that employment agencies and the accommodation they provide are either a scam or a horrible experience. So I ask, what are our options here? Do we just tough it out until we find a place of our own? Is it as bad as people say, so we should avoid it completely?
Can we use some of our savings to find an apartment after all? I keep seeing that landlords require x3 amount of rent to even rent you the apartment in the first place.
Even though we're so close to going with the agency, I can't help but have second thoughts. Any opinion and/or advice would be greatly appreciated!
This seems.. dumb
Depends on what kind of work, if it's low skilled work then yeah; You have very little legal protection especially if you're both working at the same place. And if you lose the job you'll be on the street, something they will probably use to put pressure on you.
But it does depend, does this agency provide their own accommodation, or do they help you find accommodation at third party renter or renting agency. If the latter, that's already way more above board and less likely to be a scam.
Or is this high skilled work? You've given absolutely no indication of salary range, but seeing as you're not talking about having job interviews I'm guessing that's not the case?
Agreed - I hope you thought long and hard about this decision, OP! Cancelling your current place and quitting your job feels risky.
One question I had: where are you moving from? And indeed, what's your education? Are you rolling into ASML or picking boxes? There's a major difference in employability, but in both cases, the job market is pretty rough these days. At that point, I'm not sure an agency also providing housing will save you from that - so if they do offer you something, I wouldn't be surprised if it was a scam and/or crappy working conditions. Are there even such agencies for highly skilled labor?
This is something that exists for very low paying jobs ánd high paying jobs, not so much the middle. High earners will expect the companies hiring them to have an agency that gets them a furnished apartment and helps them move etc but we're talking 2000 euro's in rent then.
Hello and thank you for your opinion and advice.
It does feel dumb but from previous contacts with agents, we're given a span of about 2 weeks to move at best, which did not give us enough time to make any preparations.
I did not give too much info in the original post, indeed. However it's low skilled work, I wasnt able to find anything notable. It's mainly a stepping-stone move, trying to break the cycle. Work and live in a temporary place, find an apartment of our own and move on to do our Masters. I haven't been able to find or even think of another way, and I'm slowly losing faith.
We do however have back up plans, so worst case scenario we fly back.
Oke well, it needn't be a disaster. Just know that these companies will expect you to be a very hard worker, no sick days, no asking about overtime or breaks. You are, in theory, protected like any other Dutch worker but in practice, eh, not so much because it'd take a while for you to get some legal defense and you probably don't have the time.
I'm not sure what your financial reserve is but know that it's going to go FAST in case you get here and they don't have your housing ready, or won't pay you until you've worked there a month. Stories I've heard a lot are those where someone will get there and their housing will take like a week. Which doesn't sound long, unless that's a week of being homeless which sucks; So you'll need money for a week (at least!) in a hostel.
You're going to want to keep the money for tickets, and the money to get to the airport, and at least a few 100 euros for a hotel aside at all times for if things go badly (except if you have family to help you in case of emergency). At least until you have an actual apartment.
That said, these companies wouldn't survive if they fucked everyone over, there are plenty of people who have a nice enough experience. Good luck!
We have decent savings which would last us a couple of months in a hotel/airbnb if need be, but if that were the case, we would be left with virtually nothing and we'd have to fly back and start over. starting over in my country is NOT possible, as the working conditions and salaries are horrible. There is also support from our families but we'd rather not go that route.
To keep it short, we're not going to be living in the streets, but we'd rather not see ourselves in that situation.
If only we could secure a place to stay without a pre-existing job.
In any case, thank you again for your time and your comments
That's not going to happen unless you know someone personally.
In fact, even with a job, they'll not only require 3 to 4 times income but also a contract for indefinite time which you won't have at the start.
Would 2 incomes not cover that? It's essentially what we're basing our efforts on. If that were to be pointless, then we might aswell not waste time and money . Whats your opinion
Lets put it this way, I'm Dutch and considered marrying my platonic friend because they wouldn't rent to the two of us while not being married.
Sometimes they'll only count the second salary for 50%.
That said, there's been a lot of changes to make cohabitation easier.
I mean I wouldn't risk it but I think it's possible, it's just not going to be easy. Wouldn't a study visa be easier?
I see. The situation is indeed dire.
From what I've heard, a study visa would be way easier, however we want to be gone from where we are right now ASAP.
Hence our desperate course of action including those agencies.
dutch housing market is VERY VERY VERY overheated. the cheap options (called social rent) have 5-10 years waiting time in most places. (some will be available in a lottery system, but that is 1000 people rolling the dice for 1 house) the free market options are VERY expensive so basically none of those are available for migrant workers unless they have high income jobs
sadly, this situations leads to abuse of foreign workers, by having living conditions / work contracts that are unacceptable and maybe illegal, but are taken by desperate workers. I would try to avoid becoming one of those.
So yeah, definitely find yourselves a job and a home maybe? The job market is rough everywhere, Netherlands included, why would they go through the effort of hiring people who need a home basically NOW. For high earners, they'll help you, but otherwise yeah it's not going to be pretty. Combining living and the job is illegal when done in a certain way.
I came to the Netherlands from Spain with one of those agencies that offers accomodation and work for “no-skill” job.
Back in the days your work contract was attached to your accomodation, however I think is not legally allowed anymore (Not 100% sure).
I used to work as an orderpicker in a Warehouse. I was sharing a room with another person and I was luckily that was near my workplace.
Sharing a room is not the best, but it’s something to start with, if you go with your gf maybe you get a room for both of you.
Overall is good to make some money and try to get your own accomodation asap, which honestly can take a few months if not having a good income and indefinite contract.
On the other hand I also heard stories from other people having issues with drugaddicts and problematic roommates, missing payments, no locks living in bungalows, dirty toilets or having to travel from an acccomodation in Belgium to work in the Netherlands (If you don’t have your own car, the agency can provide transport but it also stops in other workers houses and some people were spending 1,5h to go to work and another 1,5h to go back in a day).
Check different agencies, check for other people experiences in those agencies, ask the agencies questions…
When I asked them if they were gonna give me a room in Belgium or Netherlands, I was told they didn’t know where I would be placed until I was in the country, so they were transparent with that.
Keep in mind that starting your life in a new country is harsh and not easy :)
Thank you for your comment. If you could share the name of the agency you worked with (or others you've heard things about) I'd greatly appreciate it
Honestly, dont do it. The housing market is a nightmare and the agencies might scam you. There’s a lot of people that live on the streets. They came here as migrant workers through agency. Then for whatever reason they lose their job. And no job then also means no housing.
Would not come here if I was you.
I am aware. I am slowly losing any confidence I had built up whatsoever hah. I have an 'escape plan' if all goes to shit, so at least I'll shoot my shot. The issue is that there is no other way to start up, as landlords wont even accept savings and up-front payment for a 6 month lease, to at least find work