EuroPassport: Pioneering an AI-powered path for expats in Europe
Dispatches Europe's founders prepare an innovative platform to simplify the journey for foreign talent in the Netherlands.
Published on March 9, 2025
Cheryl and Terry Boyd at the AI Innovation Center
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EuroPassport aims to redefine the expat experience by offering a comprehensive, AI-powered platform tailored to those navigating the challenges of relocating to Europe. Initially focused on American talent moving to the Netherlands, the service is the brainchild of Cheryl Boyd and Terry Boyd - the founders behind Eindhoven-based Dispatches Europe.
In a pitch during last week's Drinks Pitches & Demos event, the founders emphasized the importance of adapting to global mobility trends. Although the initiative ultimately focuses on talent from anywhere to anywhere, the Boyds underscore the growing influx of U.S. professionals to the Dutch job market. “As we all know, there's a lot of talent flowing into the Netherlands from the U.S.,” Terry Boyd said, framing the migration trend as a direct response to market opportunities and geopolitical shifts. “Donald Trump is one of the reasons. And so we think there's really going to be an arithmetic increase in the number of American expats coming here.”
EuroPassport is envisioned as “a platform, an AI search engine for expats navigating a move to Europe.” The service is designed to do more than simply provide information. Instead, it will function as a “roadmap” for its users by aggregating data on jobs, housing, schools, medical care, and other essential services. Cheryl Boyd: “We made a lot of mistakes along the way. Now with AI, we can aggregate all that information into a platform to give expats a roadmap on getting wherever they're going starting with the network.” The initiators believe that once expats can access vetted and consolidated information, the settling-in process will be both faster and less daunting.
Experience
The platform’s development has been a labor of love until now, with the Boyds' own experience as a driving force. “It took us 18 months to find out for ourselves how to settle here,” Cheryl recalled, humorously adding, “That's 18 months of researching, 50 tabs open on our browser.” Despite the inherent challenges, the founders are confident EuroPassport can address longstanding issues in expat support. Terry Boyd highlighted the limitations of current solutions: “I've been thinking about this for years, because most expats use Facebook expat communities which are full of foolish people and so even if this isn't great initially it's going to be better than that, right?”
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Looking ahead, EuroPassport intends to integrate sophisticated features such as ranking algorithms and a community portal. One vision is to allow users to type in specific queries: “You ask a question, you put in your prompt, it's going to show you, okay, so you have a 10-year-old and a 14-year-old, and it's going to show you schools in the Netherlands, providing tailored information based on individual needs." The founders also pointed out an encouraging trend: “The Plank Institute has gotten more applications by skilled Americans in the last few months than they have years,” reinforcing the urgency and potential market for their solution.
Despite still being in a theoretical phase, the team is ready to move forward. “Yeah, and this is all kind of theoretical at this point. We have the idea and the plan, we have the mockups for the platform, we now need someone who can help us build the MVP, so we can start to test it. We need AI developers.” If that challenge is solved, Cheryl and Terry Boyd are confident they have built the essential companion for expats seeking a seamless transition to life abroad.
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