Kara de Rooy works at the back office international of the Personnel and Organization Department (DPO). De Rooy: “A DPO official is present at each Department who takes care of immigration procedures around expats and their partners. They see to the applications submitted to the IND (Immigration and Naturalization Service) or the UWV (Benefits Agency for Employed Persons Insurance Schemes). All are subsequently dealt with via our back office. We check whether everything is in order, are the point of contact for questions from IND or UWV, maintain contacts with the embassies and answer any questions that our colleagues may have.”

De Rooy chiefly sees the expats whose partners are coming to the Netherlands later. “I have an intake interview with the expat and explain how the procedure works. For example, legal dues are much higher when your partner comes to the Netherlands later, than when you arrive here together. People need to be informed about this.”

DPO also helps with practical questions not directly related to the residence permit or the job situation. “Thus, we have an online community for partners in the TU/e meeting place website and have arrangements with health center De Parade on the site of Máxima Medisch Centrum in Eindhoven. All TU/e expats and their partners can go there and they speak English well at that center.”

Once the partners arrive in the Netherlands, they are received properly, says Willem van Hoorn, internationalization policy officer at DPO. “We invite the partners to the introductory days, so that they can get acquainted with other people”, says Van Hoorn. “For some time now we have also been providing Dutch courses for partners, which we do in cooperation with the adult education center. We now have two levels and a third level will be added before long.” All three courses will begin again in February.

Finally, as of January there will be a monthly informal meeting for the partners in the common room in De Bunker at Kennedylaan. “We want to give partners an easily accessible opportunity to meet up so that they can exchange information and ideas, and get to know each other better. TU/e provides coffee, tea and cake.” The next meeting will be on Tuesday morning February 15. (HB)

Look for more info on www.tuemeetingplace.nl