Continuing the trend line for emigration, I would like to touch on my personal experience, which may be useful to others. I will try to divide the post into two parts, the first of which will be devoted to practical information, and the second to my own feelings.
Part one. There
Actually, the process of registration in my case was quite simple (due to the absence of wives or children):
- We communicate with the recruiter (henceforth all communication in English)
- We communicate with the employer
- We pass online testing (with a webcam, a few tests + wrote code in the editor)
- We communicate with the leadership of the employer
- The employer draws up a visa at IND
- I am waiting for notification that documents from IND to the embassy in Moscow have been transferred
- I sign up to the embassy by phone (this is important, the general line is not there, but I called at least a couple of hours). I come and give my passport, I get an entry visa on the same day.
- I'm moving
Of the documents, in fact, I did not apostil anything, since my apostille and translation of the birth certificate were still not recognized, since a Dutch office is required for translation. I personally translated the diploma into English (including a Ph.D.). I also filed a certificate of no criminal record, but it turned out to be of no use to anyone.
At the first stage, I got into 2 suitcases + a computer, so I flew as an ordinary housekeeper with a surcharge for 2 extra. places. For the initial placement, I booked some cheap studio on Airbnb, which actually looked more like a garage (sad smile).
For the expenses that are coming for the first time:
- Airplane ticket. (With extra baggage of € 250) Here is the simplest, although on holidays tickets are worth hoo
- Reservation of apartments. At least 3 weeks, the price if you look in advance, 35 euros per day, total 750 euros
- Two-month apartment rental price. It is desirable in appearance. It all depends on the specific place where you want to live. The price can start from 1100, in areas remote from large cities, to 1700 in Amsterdam. On average, you need to count on 1350 Euros for an apartment with furniture and 200-250 euros less without. Total 2700 euros.
- Food. It also depends on preferences, but I personally lived at a rate of 300 euros per month
- Transport. I recommend taking housing near work (if it is not in Amster) and buying a bike right away. A bike can be found simple new for 250 euros. I don’t see much point in the road, since the country is flat, the 21st gear is clearly not needed. If you are going to work in Amster, then I still recommend living outside the city and taking a ticket. Why - I will explain in the second part. The fare will cost about 150 euros per month.
In general, in the first month you have to meet 5000 euros with a margin. You should count on exactly a month, because salary is usually paid once a month.
The algorithm of actions for the first month after the move:
- Go to T-Mobile and buy a prepaid SIM card. Why prepaid? Because without a bank account you won’t be given a contract. Why T-Mobile? Because on it you can definitely go to the contract with saving the number.
- Ask for broker contacts. The first thing you should do is start looking for housing. Without a permanent address, you cannot get a BSN (tax number), and without it you cannot get a bank account. Without a bank account, you can not issue almost anything, including the same housing (yes, we are in a closed cycle)
- For the cost of housing, you can focus on www.funda.nl . Calling through the site is pretty useless. Ads first spin a couple of weeks at the brokers, and only then get to the site. It is likely that those apartments are simply gone. Moreover, I personally called back only 3 times out of 10. In other cases, there was not even an answer. Therefore, it is important to find an active local broker. In general, housing can be found both in a week and in three. But in three weeks, if you don’t sit on the couch, you should find (I don’t know about Amster, it can be more complicated there).
- For housing you need to pay a deposit of 2 months (usually). Sometimes it happens a month, but this is rare. They usually ask to pay by bank transfer. This is precisely the main problem, because you don’t have an account. You can open a card in banks like Revolut or Bunq (they make it possible to open an account and provide BSN later), but they don’t have ATMs, you can transfer money only through SWIFT. I agreed that I made a deposit through the company where I worked, stupidly brought them in cash, they made the wiring. Other people were somehow registered at the address of the enterprise, they received BSN there and then were registered at the place of the apartment.
- Immediately upon arrival, you need to register at IND to get your ID. He will be instead of a passport. Everything is simple, signed up, arrived on a given day and just got it. From the moment you receive your overseas. you do not need a passport.
- Within 4 months, you will also need to have an X-ray on TB. This is required, but the algorithm is simple. We are recorded in the nearest state. center (I had it at Utrecht City Hall at the station), we come, we pay 40 euros, we leave. They will attach the results themselves, if they find something, they will contact you.
- You also need insurance upon arrival. It is necessary. You have 4 months to issue it, but there is no reason to postpone it, because when you make it, you will be charged anyway for the entire period from the moment you enter. I made out here www.zilverenkruis.nl The price is more or less the same, the minimum cost is regulated by the state.
- From the second month, it is advisable for you to start issuing 30% tax. (More about him later). This process may take a couple of months in which you will pay taxes in full. Then, with the receipt of the taxi, they will be returned to you, but there is not enough money at the time of the move, so this is in your interests.
- As soon as you get the apartment, immediately make out the Internet. Internet connection is sometimes 3 weeks. Look at the home Internet from your mobile operator, sometimes there are good discounts on phone + Internet + TV / TV packages
- The second thing is to draw up a communal apartment. This is electricity and gas (well, water, but it's a penny). In the Netherlands, you can connect any service provider to any home, so look at the rates. It works this way - you calculate the payment, at the end of the period you are recalculated, returned if more or pay extra if you should.
Well, now that we have mastered the above, we can calculate the finances.
Senior's salary, which you can count on if your level is decent, is from 70 to 90 thousand euros per year, 70 from Moscow more likely than 90. After a year of work, if I had stayed, I could go to 90 , since from there it’s much easier to search and go for interviews.
Accordingly, your amount “on hand”, before taxing, from a salary of 70k per year will be 3722 (Read thetax.nl here) After - 4594. A salary of 90k will give 4400 without taxing. Below is a table of income and compulsory expenses, as I had for about one person in a small apartment (take into account a smaller amount, since after 5 years taxes will be taken in full anyway):
Travel expenses are not indicated, since by law, travel from home to work is covered by the employer. However, in practice, this covers the railway pass only from station to station. If you want to travel everywhere and on everything, then the price will already be about 300 euros per month.
It is also worth noting that trains are very expensive. A trip from Amsterdam to The Hague will cost 24 euros by train, and a tram in The Hague for a day will be 9 euros (if you want to go to the beach).
With general spending more or less clear, now I will write some prices for products. Immediately, I note that I am writing my experience on the basis of Jumbo and I did not search for discounts or promotions.
Part two. Back
In this part, I would like to touch on my own impressions and feelings. Since each person has different ideals and goals, I do not pretend to be true, but maybe my vision will come in handy.
I would like to start with the IT climate. The IT industry in the Netherlands is growing, partly due to the brackets, as English companies are migrating to nearby Europe. However, there are vanishingly few IT specialists in Holland, which is why the backbone of the IT class is emigrants. Moreover, if you have people from the CIS in your team, then you are fabulously lucky, because they certainly know how to do something. We had Turks in our team, and I assure you, it is perfectly normal for them to throw a request pool on a code that has not been tested at all. As far as I understand from talking in chat rooms, this situation is observed in a bunch of places, including Booking, although the level there is higher for sure. So if you want to pump, and you are not a team leader, then 100% growth there will not work. Run fools.
Money. Despite the fact that you are a white bone and earn 2 times more than a normal Dutchman, you are unlikely to be able to greatly improve your standard of living. Roughly speaking, I in Moscow with my housing after all the expenses had about the same as in the Netherlands. Food, with the exception of some items such as cheese, is significantly more expensive. Directions are very expensive. If you go somewhere weekly on a weekend somewhere, then you can safely throw 150 euros on this per month. Well, or immediately take a full pass. Without taxiing, you will most likely receive less from Russia, and substantially less from Belarus / Ukraine.
Taxes. Not everyone knows the features of the tax system in the Netherlands. There are taxes on everything. You will pay for garbage, sewer, car (easily 100 euros per month), for real estate. And most importantly, a cherry on the cake, for the money in your account! If you put in an amount above 50 thousand euros, you will pay approximately 4% each year with an excess amount. This rule applies to full residents, so it will only start touching you in 5 years. However, if you want citizenship, you must keep this in mind. That is why no one stores money, but invest it in stocks / buy big houses (the second real estate is taxed higher).
Habravchanin! If you think that you can live in retirement in a civilized Europe, then here you are wrong. Not only that, the pension is a gigantic 1000 euros, so if you live with your wife, you will receive 1600 for two. If you save money additionally, you will still pay taxes from them, only at the time you receive the pension. That is why everyone retires to Spain. But there is more to it than that. Pension is 2% for every year in the Netherlands. So if you left at 30 and retired at 67, you will receive only 740 euros. How to live on 740 euros is a separate issue.
Separate kind words deserve delivery. In the Netherlands, retail is extremely scarce. Most products are ordered online. Well, the delivery delivers when it is convenient for her wherever it is convenient. Even if you paid more for delivery after 18.00, you fled like a fool just to find a letter on the email that at 18.30 no one was home and the order was at the pick-up point. I was especially pleased to drag a cabinet for furniture from Jumbo a mile from me. Another time, they brought me to work at 8.50, although the delivery was supposed to be from 11 to 13. I would even say that. Of the 20 deliveries on time and to the place, there were only 5. Moreover, PostNL works best. And yes, if you want to leave claims DHL NL, then the call is paid, but they do not answer emails.
Food. Here you can say only one word. Unedible. They even manage to dry fresh fish in Folendam to chips. Bread, unlike Germany, even from bakeries, is not tasty. Sausage can be taken only Spanish or Italian (well, or craft). Beer is only Belgian. The only exception is cheese (well, vegetables, but, thank God, they don’t cook them).
Weather. Despite the fact that last year the weather was abnormally warm and there was no snow at all, the weather in my opinion is worse than in Moscow. Darker, windier, colder in summer. In St. Petersburg, perhaps it seems.
People. If you think the Dutch are working, then I will disappoint you. This is not true. Most Dutch will not stop for the sake of greater revenue. The broker actually does not work on Fridays (well, except perhaps from 10 to 14x). For women, it is quite normal to work 4 days (permitted by law). Dutch managers quite successfully procrastinate in the office. In addition, do not forget that in the Netherlands a lot of people work for themselves. So to throw people for money is easy. In my case, when leaving, they took 500 euros without checks for taking out the boxes from the basement (which I didn’t throw out just because there were no rubbish bins for the cardboard within a kilometer radius). Do you want to go to court.
Relationship. The Dutch speak English well, so in the everyday sense there are no problems. There is a problem with the Dutch language, it is very hard to hear by ear, and the Dutch, seeing a stupor, immediately switch to English. With personal relationships, everything is quite complicated. Dutch women are tall, bright and beautiful by nature, however, in 90% of cases they do not take care of themselves. Excess weight of 20 kg is not a problem, to put on the first thing that the hand felt too. Books are usually not tried to read as well. So there’s no problem talking technically, but there’s nothing to talk about at all. There are probably other girls, but in Moscow the chances of finding a smart girl are much greater.
There are, however, pluses. These include a mortgage at 2%. So you can potentially take an apartment for 20 years and pay about the same as for a rental. Another thing is that the purchase market is an auction, and it’s hard to say the exact price. You can lose the lot by not paying 2000 euros. Another plus is its excellent location. You can fly across Europe in 2 hours, and in some places, such as Paris or England, you can take a train in 3 hours (Talis and Eurostar). It is also worth noting very good roads and bike paths.
Thoughts
Below, I would like to debunk some misconceptions about life "in Europe."
- “I will earn more.” Moving to the Netherlands, an IT specialist will definitely not improve the standard of living. Without a wife and children it will turn out approximately the same, with them it will be significantly poorer
- “The quality of life will increase.” If you live not in Amsterdam, you will not grow much. The streets are clean, the tracks are neat, the transport is good. However, you pay a lot of money in the form of taxes and fares.
- “I know where my taxes go.” This is generally interesting here. You pay Social Security Tax (in my case it is 9,500 euros per year), and pay 1,500 euros per year of insurance separately. Yes, the transport is good, but the price is consistent. The roads are good, but they pay separately for them at 1000-1500 euros per year. What my Payroll Tax is worth 17,000 euros per year is not clear. Apparently, the same officials. Since no more than 4000 are retired per year.
- “Services work.” No, you have a better chance of getting a service or feedback from us. There you simply will not be answered by mail or sent by a paid telephone (and they will not be answered there). The installer can take money for the call and do nothing. And yes, you can wipe your claims, go to court. It may work, but lawyers are also expensive.
- “Education is better.” The PhD salary at the university is 2,700 euros. No more pay - collective agreement. Will someone go to work from knowledgeable engineers or IT for 2700 euros? So they develop the "design".
conclusions
It seems to me that everyone can draw conclusions for himself.
For my part, I can say that if you are a married introvert without children and real estate, and your other half works in IT, then I recommend moving. Mortgages are cheap, the overall quality of life is higher. Cook the food yourself.
If you are single, then do not recommend. It is unlikely that you will find a common language with the Dutch, and hanging out with expats is such a thing for yourself, it's easier already at home, there is more choice.
If you are single, then it is possible. However, it should be borne in mind that the Dutch themselves normally relate to +20 kg for their girls and dumb clothes. So to win them with your makeup and chiseled figure will not work.
If you are a family with children, I also do not recommend it. Life is very expensive, in kindergartens you will hang out with Filipino children, and what will happen to education after another 20 years is another question.
As for me, after a year I returned to the position of architect, and I do not regret it. And while in Europe, I can fly on vacation anyway. Till. Haha