UK National Business Visitors Granted Broader Business Activity Rights

The situation

According to a government publication, the Netherlands now allows UK national business visitors to conduct activities directly based on the EU-UK Free Trade Agreement, which includes more activities than those generally permitted for business visitors.

A closer look

The Netherlands permits UK nationals to conduct the following activities as a business visitor, beyond the typical business visitor activities:

UK national business visitors	Other non-EU national business visitors
Consultations with business associates	Work permit required
Independent research by technical, scientific and statistical researchers	Work permit required
Research or analysis by market researchers and analysts	More limited sales or marketing activities, such as making sales calls to potential clients
Receiving training in techniques and work practices	Training must be intra-company
Receiving orders, negotiating sale, or concluding sales agreements of services or goods as a representative of a supplier of services or goods (excluding direct sales, delivering goods or supplying services themselves)	These are the same activities as ‘sales or marketing activities’, which are currently allowed as a business visitor in the Netherlands.
Engaging in a commercial transaction (limited to management and supervisory personnel and financial services personnel (e.g., insurers, bankers and investment brokers)	This is a broader set of allowed activities than for EU nationals.
Supplying services as a translator or interpreter	Work permit required
Business visit for establishment purposes (senior employee setting up an enterprise)	Work permit required

 

Impact

• Expanded business activities. Affected UK national business visitors should benefit from this clarification, as it allows them to participate in more activities than previously allowed, without requiring a work permit in the Netherlands.
• Stay limit. UK national business visitors should still limit their duration of stay to 90 days in a 180-day period, counted cumulatively across the Schengen Area.
• Posted workers. Employers must complete posted worker notifications for UK national business visitors who are posted from a company in another EU Member State to the Netherlands.

 

Background

• Current exemptions. The general Dutch business visitor regime and work authorization exemptions list are already expansive, and include numerous activities listed in the EU-UK Free Trade Agreement.
• Brexit permits issued. The Netherlands is unique in Europe in already having granted Article 50 permits to most of its UK nationals who resided in the Netherlands before December 31, 2020. Most EU countries are currently starting permit issuance, with target completion dates toward the end of 2021.
• EU-UK Free Trade Agreement. The EU-UK Free Trade Agreement permits entry and temporary stay for business purposes for short-term business visitors, business visitors for establishment purposes, contractual service suppliers, independent professionals and intra-corporate transferees. Other provisions of the Free Trade Agreement do not facilitate regional immigration policies for UK nationals.
• Direct effect. Direct effect of this segment of the EU-UK FTA is in line with the Council of the European Union's views. In principle, UK national business visitors should be able to undertake these activities in all EU Member States, provided the Member State did not make a reservation on this point.

 

Looking ahead

This government publication indicates that the Netherlands seeks to ease the negative impact of Brexit as much as possible to continue facilitated access for UK nationals. Additionally, throughout the pandemic, the Netherlands has continued to strive for safe access for business visitors to maintain its business-friendly climate. Fragomen expects the Netherlands to continue its efforts to attract foreign talent.

This alert is for informational purposes only. If you have any questions, please contact the global immigration professional with whom you work at Fragomen or send an email to [email protected].