New Dutch Government Drops 10-Year Residency Plan but Keeps Ban on Dual Nationality
Netherlands and Austria now the only EU countries requiring naturalising citizens to give up original passport, but D66-VVD-CDA coalition abandon Schoof government's ten-year naturalisation plan.
The incoming Dutch government will not change the rules to allow foreigners to keep their original nationality when becoming Dutch, according to the coalition agreement published on Friday. However, the new cabinet has dropped the previous government's controversial plan to extend the residency requirement for naturalisation from five to ten years.
The agreement, reached by D66, VVD, and CDA, states that Dutch nationals living abroad will not lose their passports "any quicker" than people in Germany, Belgium, France, and the United Kingdom. But newcomers who want to become Dutch through naturalisation will still have to give up their other nationality, as they do now.
An inconsistent position
Legal experts say this creates an untenable situation. The Netherlands and Austria are now the only EU countries that still require people to renounce their original nationality when naturalising. Germany recently passed a law allowing people to keep their original citizenship when they become German.
Maarten Vink, a professor of citizenship studies at the European University Institute in Florence, called the new government's plans "ambiguous, morally inconsistent and practically impossible" in a post on LinkedIn. Legal experts have long argued that allowing people who are originally Dutch to hold multiple passports while denying this to new Dutch nationals is discriminatory.
The coalition agreement does not explain how the government intends to address this inconsistency.
Residency requirement stays at five years
The previous cabinet, led by Prime Minister Dick Schoof, had pushed to double the residency requirement for naturalisation from five to ten years. That plan was approved by the outgoing government in September 2025, but the new coalition appears to have abandoned it.
Immigration lawyer Jeremy Bierbach previously described the ten-year proposal as "an act of desperation in the run-up to the election." He noted that the new coalition agreement "pretty clearly implies that there are no plans to significantly change the requirements for non-asylum migrants."
For refugees, the residency requirement will increase to six years, equivalent to two temporary residency permits.
Language requirement may rise
The coalition agreement suggests that the language requirement for naturalisation will be raised from A2 to B1 level. A2 is considered basic proficiency, while B1 indicates intermediate ability to communicate in everyday situations. The agreement is not specific about how this change would affect different categories of applicants.
Naturalisation is one of two routes to becoming Dutch. It generally requires applicants to give up their original nationality. The other route, known as the "option procedure," is more limited but does allow applicants to hold more than one passport if they qualify.
A minority government
The D66, VVD, and CDA coalition is a minority government, holding just 66 of the 150 seats in the lower house of parliament. This means the cabinet will need to find support from other parties to pass legislation, making it uncertain whether any changes to nationality law would succeed.
The new government, expected to be sworn in by King Willem-Alexander on February 23, has titled its coalition agreement "Getting Started." D66 leader Rob Jetten is set to become prime minister.
