When the Migration Pact comes into effect on 12 June 2026, the Netherlands wants to reduce the waiting period for access to the labour market for asylum seekers to 3 months. Italy and Greece aim for a maximum of 60 days. Most EU Member States will maintain the longer waiting periods they currently have.
EMN NL ad-hoc query | International protection
The Netherlands aims to shorten the waiting period for access to the labour market for asylum seekers with the introduction of the Migration Pact, most EU Member States retain current period
11 March 2026
> Read the compilation of answers from 20 EU Member States* to the ad-hoc query** from EMN Netherlands
When implementing the European Pact, the Netherlands wants to shorten the maximum waiting period for asylum seekers to be allowed to work from 6 to 3 months. Article 17 of the revised European Reception Conditions Directive (EU-2024/1346), which Member States must apply with the introduction of the Pact, stipulates that asylum seekers may work no later than 6 months after submitting an application.
How are other countries dealing with this? What are the intended waiting periods after the introduction of the Migration Pact in different EU Member States? Twenty countries publicly responded to an information request that EMN Netherlands internally issued within the European Migration Network.
Most Member States retain current waiting period
Most EU Member States will retain the current waiting period they already apply (see table), even after the introduction of the Pact, with the exception of Luxembourg, Germany, and Greece. Luxembourg is considering reducing the waiting period from 6 to 4 months once the Pact takes effect. Germany is preparing a new asylum law in which the period will be shortened, just like in the Netherlands, from 6 to 3 months. Although Greece has not yet transposed the Reception Conditions Directive into national legislation, the waiting period was recently reduced to 60 days. The Greek authorities aim to allow access to the labour market from the first day of the asylum application.
Slovakia had previously had similar plans to shorten the waiting period from 6 to 3 or 4 months. However, in the new Slovak asylum law, which is expected to come into force with the introduction of the Pact in June 2026, the current waiting period of 6 months will remain.
*Participating countries: Austria (AT), Belgium (BE), Bulgaria (BG), Estonia (EE), France (FR), Germany (DE), Greece (EL), Hungary (HU), Italy (IT), Croatia (HR), Latvia (LV), Lithuania (LT), Luxembourg (LU), Netherlands (NL), Poland (PL), Slovakia (SK), Slovenia (SI), Spain (ES), Czech Republic (CZ), Sweden (SE)
**An ad-hoc query (AHQ) is an EMN tool to gather information on migration and asylum policy in EU Member States and observing countries of the EMN.
