Can a foreigner start a business in the Netherlands?

Yes. Nationality is not a condition for registering a company in the Netherlands, and you do not have to live here to own or direct one. Moving to the Netherlands to run the business is a separate decision: that needs a residence permit if you are not from the EU, the EEA or Switzerland.

Two questions hide inside this one. The first is whether you may own and run a Dutch company from wherever you are now. The second is whether you may come and live in the Netherlands to do it. The answers are different, and confusing them is the most common reason a founder decides the door is shut when it is open.

This guide keeps them apart. It is written for a founder whose company is registered outside Europe and who is looking at the Netherlands as a first European base.

Does your nationality decide whether you can start a Dutch company?

No. Dutch company law sets no nationality test for a shareholder or a director. Business.gov.nl, the Dutch government's information service for entrepreneurs, describes the same route for a founder abroad as for one who lives here: choose a legal form, arrange a Dutch business address, register with KVK, the Dutch Chamber of Commerce, and register with the tax office.

What does decide things is the form you pick and the address you use. A BV, the Dutch private limited company, is set up by a civil-law notary and can be owned from anywhere. A branch of your existing company is registered on forms instead, without a notary. The forms, and who uses each one, are set out in which company forms a foreign founder can use.

Source: Business.gov.nl, Start a business in the Netherlands from abroad

Do you have to live in the Netherlands to own the company?

No. A BV can be owned and directed from abroad. The company needs a Dutch business address, not a resident owner. Business.gov.nl asks a founder who registers as a non-resident to show a permanent address abroad as well as a temporary Dutch one, and to give the company a real address in the Netherlands.

Two details catch people out. A post office box is not accepted as a business address. And there is a narrow exception for founders in a border region who can show structural physical business activity in the Netherlands: they may use their private foreign address. What else follows from living elsewhere, from tax residence to the bank, is in do you need to live in the Netherlands to run a BV.

Source: Business.gov.nl, Start a business in the Netherlands from abroad

What do you need if you want to move here yourself?

A residence permit, unless you are a citizen of the EU, the EEA or Switzerland. According to the IND, the Dutch immigration service, two routes are built for founders: the residence permit for startups, which lasts a maximum of one year and runs through an approved facilitator, and the residence permit for self-employed people, which is scored on a points system.

How the two differ:

• The startup permit. You work with a facilitator from the list kept by RVO, the Netherlands Enterprise Agency, on an innovative product or service, and you show you have enough money to live on. The IND aims to decide within 90 days. After that year, a founder can move on to the self-employed permit.
• The self-employed permit. The IND asks RVO for advice and scores your personal experience, your business plan and the added value of the business for the Dutch economy. The application costs EUR 423. The IND must decide within 90 days and may extend that period by up to 6 months while it waits for advice.
• Two exceptions worth knowing. Turkish nationals are not scored on that points system, because of the association agreement between Türkiye and the European Union. Nationals of the United States and Japan can apply under the friendship and trade treaties instead, where the test is a substantial investment in the business, with a minimum of EUR 4,500 for a sole trader, a partnership or a BV.

The conditions for each route, and what they mean for the rest of your team, are in the requirements for the Dutch startup visa and how the Dutch-American Friendship Treaty works.

Sources:
IND, Residence permit self-employed person
Business.gov.nl, Dutch residence permit for foreign startups

What does the Chamber of Commerce ask a founder who lives abroad?

A Dutch business address, valid identity documents and the registration fee. According to KVK, registering a new company or organisation in the Dutch Business Register costs a one-off EUR 85.15, a fee it updates every year for inflation. A founder who cannot come in person can register by post instead of at a KVK counter.

For a foreign company registering a Dutch establishment, KVK asks for proof of registration from the country where the company was founded, no older than one month, certified copies of the memorandum and articles of association, and a document showing who the directors are. Those papers may be in Dutch, English, German or French, and the KVK forms themselves are signed in Dutch. If nobody travels, KVK wants a legalised copy of the identity document of each director and a Dutch power of attorney with original signatures.

For a BV it works differently. The civil-law notary who signs the deed also handles the registration, so the founder never stands at a counter at all.

Sources:
KVK, Registration fee
KVK, Inschrijven buitenlandse rechtspersoon of vennootschap

Where this sits in a move to Europe

Incorporating is the cheap, quick part of landing in Europe. The order of the steps, and where a founder abroad actually loses time, is set out in how to set up a Dutch BV from abroad. What the wider move looks like, from the first entity to a closed round, is on the Route. AETHERION Worldwide is the fundraising and landing practice of AETHERION Capital.

Sources

1. Business.gov.nl, Start a business in the Netherlands from abroad: step-by-step plan, checked 22 September 2026
2. IND, Residence permit self-employed person, checked 22 September 2026
3. Business.gov.nl, Dutch residence permit for foreign startups, checked 22 September 2026
4. KVK, Registration fee, checked 22 September 2026
5. KVK, Inschrijven buitenlandse rechtspersoon of vennootschap (in Dutch), checked 22 September 2026

Checked on 22 September 2026. This page is general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Rules change: check the official source, or ask an adviser, before you act on it.