The Netherlands orientation year: your master's from abroad can be a one-year Dutch work permit

Last checked 6 September 2026. Every figure links to the official page it came from.

You finished a master's abroad. The sponsorship never came, the Graduate visa is running out, or you are already home in Lagos with a certificate and a story. There is a route most people in that position have never heard named: the Netherlands' residence permit for the orientation year.

What it is

A one-year residence permit for recent graduates and researchers. For that year you may work for any employer in the Netherlands, or start a business, and your employer does not need a separate work permit for you. You can apply within three years of completing the qualifying degree. The Dutch immigration service (IND) explains it on its own page: Residence permit for orientation year.

The rule that decides it

Your master's, post-master's or PhD must come from a university that was in the world top 200 at the time you graduated, on at least two of these lists: the Times Higher Education World University Rankings, the QS World University Rankings, or the Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai). The general list or the list for your subject both count. Two lists from the same publisher count as one. A bachelor's from abroad does not qualify; a bachelor's completed in the Netherlands does.

What this means for you: your grade does not enter the calculation. Your university and your graduation year do. Most of the UK, Canadian and American universities Nigerians attend for master's degrees are inside those lists in most years, but the check is done for your year, not this year.

Check yourself in ten minutes

1. Write the year on your certificate.
2. Open the QS World University Rankings for that year and search your university.
3. Open the Times Higher Education rankings for that year and search again.
4. If either rank is above 200, open the subject list for your field on the same publisher.
5. Inside 200 on two different publishers' lists: you pass the education rule.

Applying from Nigeria (or anywhere outside the Netherlands)

You apply in writing at the Dutch embassy or consulate using the IND's single-permit form for the orientation year, which includes the provisional residence permit (MVV) that Nigerian nationals need: IND form 9571. The form lists the documents: your passport, your degree certificate (the diploma itself does not need legalisation; other official documents must be legalised and translated into Dutch, English, French or German), the completed and signed form, a passport photo, and the TB declaration where required.

The application fee is EUR 254.00 (about ₦400,000). IND fees change every 1 January, so confirm the live figure before you pay: IND fees.

Month twelve: the job that keeps you

The permit is one year and does not extend. Inside that year, the target is a job as a highly skilled migrant. For someone who has just completed an orientation year, the salary that job must pay is the reduced figure on the IND required-amounts page: EUR 3,122.00 a month gross, excluding holiday allowance (about ₦4.9m a month), valid from 1 July to 31 December 2026: Required amounts. If a job pays below that line, the employer can apply for a single permit for you instead.

Who this is not for

If more than three years have passed since your degree, or your only foreign degree is a bachelor's, the orientation year is closed to you. The same IND pages list the highly skilled migrant route through a recognised sponsor, and the Netherlands study route, which ends in a Dutch degree that itself qualifies for this permit.

Before you pay anybody

No agent can add your university to a ranking. The fee is paid to the IND, not to a middleman. Nobody can guarantee a permit, including us.

The full pack, with the ranking check step by step, the IND form and fee page, the document list, the salary line for month twelve and a worked example for a 2024 Leeds graduate, is in the Orientation Year Pack. Rules change fast; always confirm on the official page.