Information request: ‘Implementation of the waiting period for access to the labour market under article 17 of the recast reception conditions directive’

Ad-hoc query on the intended waiting period, after the introduction of the European Migration Pact on 12 June 2026, for asylum seekers to be allowed to work in the different EU Member States.*

Study period – November-December 2025
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)

Background and scope

• Article 17 of the revised European Reception Conditions Directive (EU-2024/1346), which Member States must apply from the introduction of the European Migration Pact on 12 June, states that asylum seekers may work no later than 6 months after an asylum application.
• In implementing the Pact, the Netherlands intends to shorten the maximum waiting period for asylum seekers to be allowed to work from 6 to 3 months.
• With this information request, EMN Netherlands is mapping the intended waiting periods after the introduction of the Migration Pact in the different EU Member States.

EMN publication

• Compilation of answers from 20 EU Member States to the ad-hoc query, December 2025

EMN Netherlands publication

• News item, '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

*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.