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Comment by geofft | Hacker News Reader

If I'm reading right, it looks like a company can become a "recognised sponsor," which allows them to sponsor as many of their employees as they want for relocation, provided they meet salary requirements etc. It doesn't look like there is a government-side discretionary approval like the US green card or (at least in the Netherlands) a quota or lottery like the US H-1B. There's a background check but that's it.

https://www.eubluecard.nl/dutch-program/recognised-sponsor

https://www.government.nl/topics/immigration-to-the-netherla...

If that interpretation is correct, then I think this is also "GitLab has the power/authority".

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Anecdata: when I worked at a US tech company, one of our teammates got transferred to the Netherlands because he couldn't get a visa renewal in time. I believe it's a common country to stash anyone who's having visa issues.

My understanding is that this goes back to Rotterdam being a free or open port, since the late Renaissance period. The Netherlands has been a proponent of free trade and what we'd call international citizenship for a very long time

And, you know, the Dutch East India Company being the largest multinational in world history.

Canada is also popular, especially BC - it's where Amazon, Google, and Microsoft move people who couldn't get a H-1B renewal but want to keep them in the same time-zone. It's only a 2-hour drive from Seattle so having in-person meetings is still possible.

Netherlands has the the highly skilled migrant visa. Another option besides the Blue Card.

https://ind.nl/en/work/working_in_the_Netherlands/Pages/High...

I think that is the Dutch implementation of the Blue Card.

The Blue Card exists separately. This would be the US equivalent of H-1B (without the lottery) and the Blue card would be equivalent to EB2/EB3.

Right, but I don't think GitLab can enforce the right to come to the Netherlands. Presumably if the Dutch security services have a reason to stop someone coming in there's nothing that GitLab can do about that.

Correct, you're still subject to regular immigration laws and such; some parts of it are just made easier.

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