A lawyer has claimed that the IND immigration service is giving British citizens ‘faulty information’ about their residence rights after Brexit.

Jeremy Bierbach, an immigration attorney at Franssen Advocaten, has filed a complaint to the IND claiming that its website incorrectly advises that in order to stay indefinitely in the Netherlands, Brits need evidence of ‘sufficient income’.

It had linked to a definition for non-EU citizens, where such income is defined as a salary or pension of around €1766 a month for a couple, he said – although this link has now been removed.

But Bierbach says that EU law only requires that Europeans based in the Netherlands should be ‘self-supporting’ and can live from financial resources such as a lower pension, parental assistance or savings, as long as they have enough money to avoid requiring need-based social assistance.

The Dutch government has pledged that even if there is no deal after a Brexit transitional period, Brits living in the Netherlands before the UK’s withdrawal will have the same rights of residence that they have had as EU citizens.

Bierbach stresses that this applies regardless of whether expats are living a modest life or the high life.

‘[The IND website] is just advice and doesn’t have any legal force, but the ramifications of people being informed incorrectly is that it exerts a dissuasive effect on Brits who want to move here or stay here,’ he told DutchNews.nl. ‘It says a lot about the attitude of the Dutch government towards allowing Brits to stay. It is assumed that they are living desirable lives, expats working in shiny offices, but if you don’t have a job, they sound more stern.’

Scruffier Brits

Bierbach said that under EU law, the Dutch government is not entitled to define what a ‘sufficient’ level of income is, and that this must be assessed on a case by case basis, as demonstrated in previous court cases he has fought. ‘I have had clients who were artists, living in an anti-kraak [temporary tenancy], getting by on coffee, cigarettes and €900 a month their parents transferred them. You are perfectly free to live a broke lifestyle if you choose.’

Case law from 1982 has ruled that EU citizens working part time are still truly economically active if they are ‘effectively and genuinely working’ – and Bierbach argues that, by analogy, people with less than the supposed ideal level of resources can still be self-supporting. ‘I do wonder if there is a motive to discourage scruffier Brits,’ he adds.

There are currently 82,879 first and second generation British nationals living in the Netherlands, although it is unknown how many of them have a monthly income, and how many are dependents or living from savings. There are, however, 10,719 resident British nationals over the age of 65.

A spokeswoman for the IND told DutchNews.nl: ‘An incorrect link was indeed put on the Brexit page by accident. We have now removed it.’