Netherlands: No change on dual nationality but 10-year residence plan dropped

AMSTERDAM: The incoming government in Netherlands has no plans to change the laws on dual nationality to make it possible for all foreigners to keep their original nationality when becoming Dutch, but has dropped the 10 year residence requirement.

The plans, published on Friday, state that Dutch nationals living abroad will not lose their Dutch passports “any quicker” than people in Germany, Belgium, France and Britain, but newcomers in the Netherlands who want to go through the naturalization process will still have to give up their other nationality.

What this means in practice is unclear, given that the Netherlands and Austria are the only EU countries where dual nationality is still disallowed. Germany recently passed a law whereby people can keep their original nationality when they become German.

Legal experts argue that it would be discriminatory to allow people who are originally Dutch to have more than one passport but not new Dutch nationals.

The next Dutch government’s plans for changing nationality law are “ambiguous, morally inconsistent and practically impossible,” according to Maarten Vink a professor in citizenship studies at the European University Institute in Florence in a post on LinkedIn.

The coalition agreement does, however, suggest that the outgoing cabinet’s controversial plans to stretch the residency requirement from five to 10 years has been dropped although it will go up to six years (two temporary residency permits) for refugees.

“This pretty clearly implies that there are no plans to significantly change the requirements for non-asylum migrants,” immigration lawyer Jeremy Bierbach. Bierbach said in a previous analysis that the outgoing cabinet’s plan was “an act of desperation in the run-up to the election”.

The new coalition document also implies that the language requirement to become Dutch through the naturalisation process will rise from A2 to B1 but again, is not specific about the impact of this on naturalisation applications from non-refugees.

Naturalisation is one of two routes open to becoming Dutch and requires in most cases that people give up their original nationality.

The other – becoming Dutch by option – is more complicated but does allow applicants to have more than one passport, if they qualify.