[THIS NEWS ITEM IS OUT OF DATE: SEE https://www.franssenadvocaten.nl/english/bill-change-natu…house-parliament/ ]
Several years ago, the Dutch government (a coalition of the conservative-liberal VVD party and the social-democratic Labor party) sent Parliament a proposal (at the behest of the VVD) to change the Dutch nationality statute to increase the residence requirement to become a Dutch citizen from 5 years to 7 years. The legislative process for this proposal has gone very slowly, and so any news that that this change definitely is going to be voted into law has so far been premature (various sources, including the government itself, have even named dates that this would ‘definitely’ occur by, which by now are long past).
What is true is that the preliminary phases of the legislative process (the committee phase, and the government’s revisions after that) are complete. The proposal next has to be debated in the plenary session in the lower house (Tweede Kamer) of Parliament. This was originally scheduled for February 2016, but as of the date of this posting, it now has been delayed once more, with no definite date known. [Update on 3 April: according to a newly published long-term agenda, the debate has now been scheduled for 30-31 May and 1 June.] [Update on 1 June: according to the most recent long-term agenda, the debate has now been scheduled for 7, 8 and 9 June.]
To answer a frequently asked question: if the proposed law were to be passed in its current form, then there would be no exception (i.e. ‘grandfather clause’) for immigrants currently in the Netherlands who have already completed, or are close to completing 5 years of legal residence– they would have to wait an additional 2+ years before being able to file their naturalization petitions.
If you are close to the 5-year mark, the best advice Franssen Advocaten can offer you is to make sure that you have all of your qualifications lined up to file a naturalization application as soon as you reach that point, but before the point in time that the proposed change in the law would enter into force, IF it is passed by Parliament. Chief among those qualifications is having a diploma for having passed the inburgeringsexamen (or an equivalent qualification), so if you have not done so yet, do not delay in registering for and taking that exam– you do not have to wait to reach the 5-year point to do that.
For any further questions about this or any other aspect of Dutch nationality law (or Dutch constitutional law), do not hesitate to contact Franssen Advocaten.
