And now for something completely different...

[Peter Korsten]

Gert van Santen schreef:

> Well, the story is like this. Her dad was a Dutchman, her mother 
> is still Dutch, and she wants to get her Dutch passport. We have 
> been searching into all kinds of laws and rules for a couple of 
> weeks now, and it seems it is going to work out. She even has a 
> job offered to her already :-)

Off the top of my head:

Since she's over 18, and presumably has Dutch (by birth, both her 
parents are/were Dutch and one is already enough) and Australian 
citizenship, she should have another 4 years before she would lose the 
Dutch citizenship.

The rule is that if you're born with citizenship of both the Netherlands 
and another country, you'll lose the Dutch one if you live outside the 
European Union for 10 years consecutively. This starts counting from the 
age of 18.

Anyway, that was the last time I read the law text (which is not fun, 
let me tell you). And let me stress that this is what I *understood* 
from it.

The fact that she would have a Dutch passport would not imply that she 
couldn't lose her citizenship. So if after she gets it she moves out 
again and keeps moving around the world (except the EU) for more than 10 
years, she'd lose it.

And then to get it back would be rather difficult, because she would 
probably have to renounce her other nationality.

It used to be more relaxed, but what with the Dutch going happy happy 
moving towards the right of the political spectrum, it has been 
tightened considerably.

Three guesses how come I know a thing or two about dual citizenship...

But as said, I'm not a lawyer and Yana can't read Dutch, so I suggest 
you enquire at the local town hall and they'll probably send you to The 
Hague.

- Peter