EU Blue Card or the national permit: which route is easier
Where both routes exist, the national one is often the easier door — and in the Netherlands the gap is large enough to decide the question for a recent graduate.
Several countries run two parallel routes for qualified hires: their own national scheme and the EU Blue Card. People assume the Blue Card is the better one because it is European. On the numbers that is frequently backwards.
The Netherlands: the same headline figure, very different discounts
For 2026 both Dutch routes ask for the same standard salary: €5,942 gross a month.
The discounts are where they part company. The national highly skilled migrant scheme drops to €4,357 for applicants under 30 and to €3,122 under its reduced criterion. The Blue Card's reduced criterion is €4,754 — more than €1,600 a month above the national one.
For a recent graduate that difference decides the question outright. The national route asks for a salary the Blue Card route would reject.
Germany: only one of the two is on offer
Germany's Blue Card threshold for 2026 is €50,700 a year, or €45,934.20 for shortage occupations and people who graduated within the last three years. Comparing routes there is not the question; comparing countries is.
What actually differs beyond the number
- The Blue Card is an EU instrument, so it carries mobility rights between member states that a national permit does not.
- A national scheme can impose conditions the Blue Card does not. The Dutch route requires an employer recognised as a sponsor by the IND — an offer from a company without that status cannot become a permit at all.
- Thresholds are revised on different schedules, so a gap that exists this year can narrow or widen in January.
The practical order
Check whether both routes exist in your country. If they do, compare the discount that applies to you rather than the headline figure — age, how recently you graduated, and whether your occupation is on a shortage list. Then check the employer-side condition, because that one is out of your hands entirely.
Every figure above is on our country pages with the authority it came from and the date we checked it.
This page is information, not advice. We are not an employer, a recruitment agency, a visa centre or an immigration adviser, and we are not affiliated with any government body. Rules change — confirm against the official source before you act.