The Expat Center Brabant was launched on 25 February this year, and this exceptional facility for foreign companies operating in Brabant has already hit the mark. Interest has been overwhelming, with an ever-increasing number of municipalities participating. And last but not least, many expatriates are already familiar with the center. The Expat Center Brabant is truly a unique entity.

The initiative at the time came from the Tilburg municipality and the Brabant Development Agency (BOM Foreign Investments). They got in touch with Eindhoven, where allocated a high priority to the creation of a center for expatriates was allocated. Eindhoven was to become the pivot of the project, and also organized services for the other municipalities. That was the intention from the very start - the center had to be there for the whole of Brabant.

This is confirmed by Paul Kleijne of BOM. “The whole province had to benefit from this facility. This understanding resulted in our resources being strongly combined amongst the Immigration and Naturalization Services, the province of Brabant, Brainport Eindhoven, the major towns in Brabant and BOM. Our collective interest prevailed, and that accelerated our entire approach.”

Nines and tens
Today the Expat Center Brabant is operating at full steam. "Even during our pilot project with ASML, Fuji, Philips, NXP and Sony we already issued dozens of residence permits,” recalls coordinator Ron Stoop. “Those were mostly for information workers and their families. We now have 25 companies and the universities in Eindhoven and Tilburg are also participating, which means we are also extending our services to include academic researchers and other target groups.” Stoop is very pleased with the many positive responses. “In the surveys we are getting nines and tens. Using our quickest system, we are able to arrange all formalities within 12 days. No other expatriate center in the world can match that.”

Linked systems
Kleijne highlights the fact that Brabant was the first region to link all systems within an expatriate center. “Soon all the municipalities, and consequently all the foreign companies, in Brabant will gain from this. The service desk in Tilburg is already operational while Breda is already on board, as are other municipalities in the region. In the environs of Eindhoven the municipalities will also be linked up, including places like Veldhoven, where ASML is based. This means that we can bring the Expat Center even closer to the companies.”

“And that also underscores the international nature of the Brabant economy,” Kleijne concludes. “The Expat Center Brabant gives us yet another unique selling point.”

www.expatcenterbrabant.com