Support NeoGAF

[Deleted member 1235]

I'm moving there in 2 months, need to know the ins and outs and whatever makes things easier for getting in to the country. I will be doing the 12 month working holiday visa, But I am also trying to hook up a work permit and transfer from work. Anyone know much about the place? Also, how tight is the immigration? In NZ we have a revolving door policy almost, so I don't know much about this kind of stuff.

 

[Kola]

If you're not wearing Feyernoord Rotterdam jerseys I bet you will have lots of fun. Amsterdam is really great. If you wanna see some good pics of the city you might even watch Ocean's Twelve. Just saw it two weeks ago. Although the movie sucks you get some nice shots of the Grachten and other famous parts of Amsterdam. I did the same when I went to Japan (Lost in Translation).

A good thing about Holland is also, that all the young peeps speak very good English, so language won't be a problem for you at all. You might even laugh about Dutch, it's such a funny language, hrhrhr (at least the neighbouring countries laugh about them =) ).

 

[Keyser Soze]

I cant tell you much except the majority of people are real friendly and 80% of the people speak some form of english, mostly very good!

Lots of cute girls over there... most of which would not talk to me (i guess they did not speak english)

oh and stay away from any kind of Amsterdam beer, it tastes all kinds off awful!!!

 

[warhead]

Can't help you with stuff about the working permit but any other question regarding the city I'd be glad to help you out, I live close to Amsterdam and spend a lot of time around there, so if you're searching for certain stores, places to see, places to go out etc, feel free to ask.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

I'm more interested about the housing situation, me and my girlfriend want to get a place. what is reasonable $$ to pay for an apartment/flat/whatever?

 

[warhead]

It's pretty tough to get a place but you'll have the most chance in the South East part of Amsterdam. It's the closest thing we have to a ghetto though, but as always some parts are worse than others. Over there your rent will be around 250-300 euro's a month, more in the center of the city that easily boosts up to somwhere around 400 or more.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

hmmm. I heard that, what do most people do for housing then? What makes it tough to get a place?

 

[warhead]

Basically that there are a lot of people who are looking for a place, 'specially in the low priced stuff. You'll get a place sooner if you're registered, if you want a place and someone who's been registered as someone that's looking for a place wants it too than you can nananana hey hey kiss it goodbye. It's not impossible though, just respond to as much adverts as possible.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

so you would just suggest hunting and probably taking something that maybe isn't to flash at first? whats being registered mean?

 

[warhead]

Yeah I would suggest that. As for your other point, you can register by a so called 'woningbouwvereniging' (wich is as much as a housing authority) but I believe you actually have to live around Amsterdam to qualify for that. Plus for you it's not very usefull since you'll only stay for about a year. The best thing is to search in as much places as you can (internet, local paper, supermarket etc) for places that are for rent.

 

[Rei_Toei]

Good luck on finding housing in Amsterdam. Not to disencourage you, but it might also be a good idea to look for housing around the city. Sure, not as much fun as living in the city, but it's probably gonna be easier finding something suitable for a reasonable price, and public transport around Amsterdam isn't too bad.

 

[norinrad21]

There are private renting firms, usually a 6 months contract to a year, the both of you could have a nice place downtown or the southern part for around 800s euros. South east is nice too if you don't mind being in the shitty subway on a daily bases. I live in Amsterdam north, nice place lots of green but hmm sort of apart from the rest of the city, takes me usually around 20 minutes by bus to get downtown which is great.

You just have to let the firms know which part of Amsterdam you would like to live. Personally i'd advice north and south.

You could get a place tomorrow if you wanted to, money talks i suppose.

 

[warhead]

You could get a place tomorrow if you wanted to, money talks i suppose.

That's a fact. It's way easier to get a more expensive place than a cheap one, but isn't that the same all over the planet?

 

[iapetus]

If you like whisky, then you've chosen the right place to live. Best damn whisky bar I've ever seen is in Amsterdam...

 

[Prince]

don't know anything about immigration policies but i have lived here in Amsterdam for all my life so if you have any specific questions ?

 

[Deleted member 1235]

don't know anything about immigration policies but i have lived here in Amsterdam for all my life so if you have any specific questions ?

Whats the perspective on drugs etc from people that actually live there? Whenever I say "I'm moving to Amsterdam" someone always says "Ohhhhh Amsterdam! You know whats legal there right!?" and so on and so forth. Uhm, care to comment? :lol

How tourist friendly is it? Do I need to be worried about pickpockets, getting mugged that kind of thing? High or low crime?

 

[norinrad21]

I dunno i live here and drugs don't really bother me nor do i care about who uses them and what not. You'd probably enjoy it like most people who just happen to pass through, everything drugs related is just meh.... to me.

Crime is pretty low but watch out for eastern europeans pretending to be cops, We've been getting a lot of them all over the city so becareful. They target mostly tourists


here's a link to the immigration service, everything is in English

http://www.ind.nl/EN/index.asp

 

[warhead]

Offcourse there are pickpockets but you can find those everywhere. Crimerate isn't too high IIRC. Further it's pretty tourist friendly, and a lot of dutchies speak enough English to help you out with stuff.

Whats the perspective on drugs etc from people that actually live there?

We don't see it as a big deal. It's just there, like regular bars, poolhalls or coffeehouses. It's part of the culture, just like the red light district. When I walk through there it's easy to see who are tourists and who aren't. Most of the Amsterdam residents walk there like there's nothing going on, while tourists are looking at all the girls in the windows and the Live Sex XXX signs you see hanging around there.

 

[norinrad21]

yup what warhead said,

Everything is just normal and part of regular life to us.

I walk through the redlights like walking through the supermarket around the corner. Theres no shock and awe factor

 

[Timen]

Whats the perspective on drugs etc from people that actually live there? Whenever I say "I'm moving to Amsterdam" someone always says "Ohhhhh Amsterdam! You know whats legal there right!?" and so on and so forth. Uhm, care to comment?

A LOT of dutchies are annoyed by foreign folks who think our country is some kind of a drug syndicate or something. Sure, you'll come across quite some coffeeshops but most of them are so nasty even the Germans won't visit them. (so i'm assuming you wouldn't either)

And altough you are allowed to use soft drugs, the po-lice will still kick your ass if you act like a junkie and start herassing tourists on the Kalverstraat

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Sure, you'll come across quite some coffeeshops but most of them are so nasty even the Germans won't visit them. (so i'm assuming you wouldn't either)

Hey my girlfriends German! What's wrong with Germans? :lol Only ones I ever met were pretty good to me

I don't really care about the drugs thing either way and I figured the locals wouldn't really give a toss, it's interesting though. NZ isn't to far behind the Netherlands for being reasonably liberal.

So what is considered reasonable rent ? 4-600 Euros a month?

 

[Louis]

Did a Dutch person here saw yesterday ''undercover in nederland '' on sbs ? This episode the presenter did pretend he was tourist and he was walking in the red light district and there were a lot dealers who tried to sell stuff to them , one guy even followed the presenter for a while . Watch out for such things when your in Amsterdam .

 

[warhead]

I had some dude trying to sell me some shit just last saturday on Rokin. A simple No was all it took to get rid off the guy.

 

[bud]

Dude, criminals everywhere...seriously. There are people selling drugs on almost every corner, even in daylight. Whatever you do, don't look like a tourist.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

Given the more liberal attitude, is a street dealer there more likely to sell you bad stuff? These are things I should probably know, I'm not a huge druggie, but I definately intend to sample much of the local culture

Dude, criminals everywhere...seriously. There are people selling drugs on almost every corner, even in daylight. Whatever you do, don't look like a tourist.

Are you local? you sound alarmist.

 

[Timen]

Hey my girlfriends German! What's wrong with Germans? :lol Only ones I ever met were pretty good to me

You should visit the dutch beaches to get a different "perspective" about german people

So what is considered reasonable rent ? 4-600 Euros a month?

Downtown Amsterdam, 4-600 euros won't get you very far, but one of Amsterdam's suburbs will provide you with a decent space to live in for that amount of money

 

[warhead]

Given the more liberal attitude, is a street dealer there more likely to sell you bad stuff? These are things I should probably know, I'm not a huge druggie, but I definately intend to sample much of the local culture

Just get your stuff at a coffeeshop, you can choose whatever weed or hasj you want or even buy pre-rolled joints. Stuff you buy in there is all tested and it's not that expensive so just play safe. Same goes for shrooms and stuff.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

You should visit the dutch beaches to get a different "perspective" about german people

I only know one german, she looks terrific on the beach
One of amsterdams suburbs, how much of a commute will I be looking at?

 

[Louis]

Given the more liberal attitude, is a street dealer there more likely to sell you bad stuff? These are things I should probably know, I'm not a huge druggie, but I definately intend to sample much of the local culture

If you only want to use soft drugs like weed you can go to the coffee shop , i think that's safer then most streetdealers ( some of them maybe have good stuff , but there are also dealers who sell bad stuff ) .

Edit : warhead was before me .

 

[warhead]

If you take the outer areas of Amsterdam you're downtown in about 15 minutes by subway or tram.

 

[Deleted member 1235]

If you take the outer areas of Amsterdam you're downtown in about 15 minutes by subway or tram.

Cheers for all the info guys, one more thing where is the CBD, is that downtown? I'm hoping to get a transfer to one of the Pricewaterhouse offices there if possible.

Also, they sell shrooms in shops! You get fat jail time for even picking those here :lol

 

[Rei_Toei]

They even sell some XTC-effect-a-likes in smartshops as we speak. Dunno how long it will last, though.. .

 

[Shompola]

Is opium legal aswell?

 

[Rei_Toei]

Hahaha, no. People fly to Thailand for that .

 

[warhead]

Cheers for all the info guys, one more thing where is the CBD, is that downtown? I'm hoping to get a transfer to one of the Pricewaterhouse offices there if possible.

Also, they sell shrooms in shops! You get fat jail time for even picking those here :lol

CBD is probably around the World Trade Center wich is located in the south side of Amsterdam, but some companies are located in the southeast. But the public transportation will get you there without any problems (well for most of the time).

 

[Kola]

Hey my girlfriends German! What's wrong with Germans? :lol Only ones I ever met were pretty good to me

There's an old rivalry between Germany and the Netherlands. They've got some kind of inferiority complex, that's why they always talk so mean about Germans, hhrhrhr. =) So never pretend to be a German.

Apart from that it's good that your girlfriend is German since then she will understand most of the Dutch language, at least the when it is written down, so no language barrier for you, even when someone doesn't speak English. (that is, if your girlfried speaks German, I assume she does)

 

[bud]

Given the more liberal attitude, is a street dealer there more likely to sell you bad stuff? These are things I should probably know, I'm not a huge druggie, but I definately intend to sample much of the local culture



Are you local? you sound alarmist.

Believe me, I know.