What Is the RVO Step-by-Step Plan?

Where it sits in the process

You apply to the IND for a start-up residence permit. The IND consults RVO. RVO advises on:

• the facilitator
• the innovative nature of the company
• the step-by-step plan to go from idea to company

All three need a positive response. The IND assesses financial means.

The facilitator helps you prepare the plan and then supports you during the year. They do not write a plan that you cannot execute.

What the plan has to contain

RVO’s public pages require the plan; they do not reprint a form. The Netherlands Point of Entry founder guide, linked to RVO’s start-up mailbox, lists the contents RVO looks for:

• Organisation structure
• Roles and responsibilities
• Legal form
• Personnel
• Company goals
• Description of the innovative product or service
• Planning and activities to set up the company

Write to that list. Dates should be realistic for a one-year permit. The start-up residence permit is valid for one year. It is not described by RVO as renewable as a start-up permit. After the year you apply on another basis, usually self-employed, if you qualify.

What a usable plan looks like in practice

A usable plan names who does what in the first year, including the founder. It names the legal form you intend to use. It describes the product without slogans. It sequences activities (build, test, first customers, registrations) instead of listing ambitions.

An unusable plan is a vision statement, a copied competitor homepage, or a financial model with no activities.

Personnel in the plan means how you expect the company to be staffed, not a promise that you will hire. Hiring non-EU staff is a separate immigration question. See Can a Startup Visa founder hire employees?

Who reads it

RVO reads it to advise the IND. The facilitator should have already challenged it. The IND does not “approve a start-up” in the venture-capital sense; it decides a residence permit.

NLVentureDesk, as a proposed facilitator, will not send a plan we cannot stand behind. That is not the same as RVO agreeing with us.

If the idea is not ready, do not pay the IND fee to test a slogan. Confirm current fees on the IND fees page. Use the eligibility check first.