The European work permit scams, and how to check any offer in five minutes

Every week someone writes to us with an offer letter from a Dutch logistics firm, an Irish care agency or a Danish hotel, and a request to pay a few hundred pounds for the permit processing. Every one of them so far has been fake. This guide is the pattern, and the five-minute check that beats it.

The one rule that ends most scams

In the Netherlands, Ireland and Denmark, the employer applies for your permit and the employer pays the government fee. You do not. There is no lawful way for a third party to sell you a permit, a sponsorship, a licence or a place on a list. So the moment anyone asks you for money in connection with a job offer, the offer is not real. Not the visa fee, not the processing fee, not the insurance, not the ticket that will be refunded later. None of it.

The shapes it comes in

• An offer letter from a real company, copied from its website, with a Gmail or Outlook reply address. Real employers write from their own domain.
• A recruiter on WhatsApp or Telegram who found you on a job group and has a job that needs no interview.
• A company that says it holds a sponsor licence for the Netherlands but is not on the IND register. The register is public; we search it for you.
• A Danish or Irish employer that asks you to pay an agent to arrange the permit. Both governments say the employer applies.
• A permit or visa document sent to you as a PDF before any application was made. Permits are issued to the employer and the embassy, not emailed to candidates.
• Anyone who guarantees the outcome. Nobody can. Not the employer, not a lawyer, not us.

The five-minute check

• Search the company on the Sponsor check page of this site. If it is Dutch and not on the IND register, it cannot sponsor you as a highly skilled migrant. If it is Irish or Danish and not listed, it may still be real, but move to the next checks.
• Find the company's real website and its real careers page. Is the job there? Is the email domain the same?
• Look the company up in the national company register: KVK for the Netherlands, CRO for Ireland, CVR for Denmark. All three are free to search. The number on our sponsor page should match.
• Ask for a video interview with the hiring manager. A scam cannot produce one.
• Refuse any payment. Watch what happens. A real employer shrugs; a scam gets angry or disappears.

If you already paid

Stop paying now, whatever they say about losing what you already sent. Report it to Action Fraud if you are in the UK, and to your bank; a card payment or a transfer within the last few days can sometimes be recalled. Keep every message. And tell us the company name so we can check whether its real employer is being impersonated; we have alerted companies before.