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| ACCESS Amsterdam in the new office |
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ACCESS Amsterdam successfully completed a move to the new office in September and is now located on Prinses Irenestraat 59 in the WTC/Zuid neighbourhood.
ACCESS is the first port of call for any expatriate seeking personalised information in English about the Netherlands. If you have just arrived in this country or you have lived in the Netherlands for a long time and face new challenges – our experience, compassion and understanding will help you with answers to those many questions you may have about settling in.
In addition to those already in the country, we have recently started to get more and more questions from the people who just plan to relocate here and need the information to effectively to make their move.
Our main services are free of charge for everyone:
• Our Helpline (in English and in Japanese). We get questions as diverse as, “How can I find a family
• doctor?” to “Where could I buy food from home?” to “Why was I refused the 30 percent ruling status?”.
• Our dedicated team of helpline and information research volunteers do everything to answer each
• question.
We answer questions by phone or by email. It is also possible to come to our office and talk to
• our helpline volunteers if you are lonely or need support and a friendly ear. Our services are completely
• confidential and email addresses of those who contact the service are never used again.
• Personal consultation for expatriates who would like to visit our office to discuss numerous or
• complicated questions.
• We have access to the English-speaking Counselling Network in the Netherlands. This is a self-regulating
• network of professional counsellors who provide services in English and several other languages. Should
• a caller to our helpline need a counsellor, ACCESS refers him/her to one of the counsellors on duty.
• Cancer support services in English, for those with cancer, for their family and friends.
• A quarterly magazine full of informative articles by and about the expat community in the Netherlands.
• Information booklets on a variety of topics (obtaining a driving license, starting your own business,
• public transport, vocational and higher education).
ACCESS Amsterdam also offers several paid services:
• A popular interactive orientation workshop for newcomers to Amsterdam – ACCESSing AMSTERDAM -
• which helps to settle comfortably in the new surroundings.
• A variety of courses and workshops in English for people in all phases of their life in the Netherlands.
• These include childbirth and baby courses, personal development seminars. The topics change in
• accordance with demand.
• ACCESS guide in English: “Babies and Toddlers”.
Recently ACCESS started to work more closely with companies that have a significant number of expatriate employees. We now offer them a variety of paid services which provide us with funds necessary to keep the offices open and support the international community with our core free-of-charge services:
• The “ACCESSing Amsterdam” workshop for the new expatriate employees of the company. This is held
• on the companies’ premises and tailored to the specific requirements of each company.
• An extensive and regularly updated information package for the expatriate newcomers to Amsterdam
• covering the frequently asked questions about life in this country.
• Personal consultations, mentoring services and ‘Q&A’ sessions for employees and clients of the company.
• Opportunities to advertise in ACCESS quarterly magazine which is widely distributed in the international
• community in the Netherlands.
• The opportunity to add a link on the ACCESS website.
ACCESS Amsterdam also works closely with the newly launched Expatcenter in the WTC neighbourhood, which is a short walk from our new office. The Expatcenter helps “knowledge migrants” get all the necessary documents (residence permits, city registration, BSN number) easily and quickly. We are very happy to cooperate with Expatcenter and answer all other ‘non-official’ queries that their visitors might have. Being really close, we complement each others efforts.
We are always delighted to meet new visitors at ACCESS and welcome anyone interested in supporting ACCESS as a sponsor or volunteer. If you are interested and want to find out more, please contact us by email amsterdam@access-nl.org, phone (020) 423 3217 or drop by our new offices (Prinses Irenestraat 59 1077 WV, Monday to Friday 10.00 to 16.00).
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