Adquisición voluntaria menor de nacionalidad extranjera

This pathway addresses a question families abroad ask constantly: if a child acquires another nationality - usually because a parent applies for it on the child's behalf - does the child lose Dutch nationality?

The first thing to understand is structural. Where Dutch nationality ends under Article 15 of the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap it ends by operation of law: no authority takes a decision, no notice is sent, and there is nothing to object to. Families typically discover the position years later, when a passport application is set aside. That makes the question one of proof and of court declaration rather than of application and appeal.

What is established as at 25 July 2026: the thirteen-year residence-abroad cessation ground counts only uninterrupted periods completed during adulthood - the statute says "tijdens zijn meerderjarigheid" - and applies only to a person who also holds a foreign nationality (RWN art 15(1)(c)). Years spent abroad as a child therefore do not count towards it, and the clock is interrupted by the issue of a Dutch travel document or a declaration of possession of Dutch nationality (RWN art 15(4)).

What is not established here: the text of the separate automatic-loss ground concerned with voluntary acquisition of a foreign nationality was not decoded in the sources behind this page. This page therefore does not state whether, or on what conditions, that ground reaches a person who was a minor at the time. Anyone in that position should have the status determined by a court rather than assume an answer in either direction. Minors are a real share of these cases: they accounted for 17 per cent of the proportionality-review requests the IND registered between February 2020 and July 2023.

• Menores que adquieren voluntariamente la nacionalidad extranjera antes de los 18 años, caso por caso según la jurisprudencia del Hoge Raad; la decisión de los padres generalmente es insuficiente para la pérdida…

Because automatic loss produces no decision, the primary route is a court petition to establish nationality under Article 17 RWN. Anyone with an immediate interest may file, including a parent or guardian acting for a child, provided the point is not already live in other court or administrative-appeal proceedings. Residents of the European Netherlands file with the rechtbank Den Haag; people living in Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten or the Caribbean Netherlands file with the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie. The forum follows residence. A petition may also be brought in respect of someone who has died (RWN art 17(2)).

The Minister is an interested party in every such petition; the rechtbank hears the State and the Gemeenschappelijk Hof hears the public prosecution service (RWN art 18(1)). Once final, the decision binds every body charged with executing any statutory scheme (RWN art 19) - which is the point of going to court rather than arguing the question with each authority in turn.

If the outcome is that nationality was in fact lost, and that loss also cost the person EU citizenship, the route back is the restoration option under Article 6(1)(p) RWN. A written declaration is filed in person with a municipality in the European Netherlands or with a Netherlands diplomatic or consular post abroad; the receiving authority must seek the Minister's advice in every such case (RWN art 6(3)), and that advice, while not binding, is followed in almost every case. Where the option succeeds, re-acquisition is retroactive to the moment nationality was lost and no declaration of solidarity is required (RWN arts 6(1)(p) and 6(8)). There is no filing deadline for that declaration.

Establishing a child's nationality costs court fees, not application fees; nothing is payable for having, or for losing, nationality by operation of law.

Court fee for a petition to establish Dutch nationality under Article 17 RWN, on the 2026 schedule in force since 1 January 2026 (Regeling indexering, Stcrt. 2025, 39855 of 24 November 2025): EUR 341 for a natural person, EUR 93 for a person of limited means (onvermogenden), EUR 735 for a legal person. Only cassation lies against the outcome, and the Hoge Raad fee for a petition of unspecified value in 2026 is EUR 386 for a natural person and EUR 932 for a legal person. The fee table itself is verified; the classification of an Article 17 petition as a petition of unspecified value is an inference, so confirm the amount with the court registry before filing. The fee charged by the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie, which is the forum for families resident in the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom, is not established here.

If the restoration option is used, the fee is the ordinary option fee. In the European Netherlands that is EUR 241 for a single declarant, EUR 412 for a joint declaration and EUR 27 per co-opting minor child, on the 2026 schedule in force since 1 January 2026 (WBN 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31825). The Caribbean constituencies set their own amounts in their own currencies - Aruba in Aruban florin, Curacao and Sint Maarten in Caribbean guilder, the Caribbean Netherlands in US dollars - and these must not be derived by converting the euro figure. Payment must reach the receiving authority within six weeks of the declaration being received, failing which the declaration is set aside without being handled (Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002, art 6).

Artículo 15 de la RWN + jurisprudencia del Hoge Raad

ID de fuente	Cita

Recuento de pines: 2.

There is no administrative objection or appeal against loss that occurred by operation of law, because there is no decision to attack.

Against the outcome of an Article 17 petition, only cassation to the Hoge Raad is available: "Voor de belanghebbenden staat van de beschikking uitsluitend beroep in cassatie open" (RWN art 18(2)). Cassation is confined to questions of law, so the entire factual case must be assembled at first instance.

Where the case turns on whether the loss was compatible with EU law, the courts do not defer. The Council of State held on 5 February 2025 (ECLI:NL:RVS:2025:421) that an EU-law proportionality test must always be carried out where loss of Dutch nationality also means loss of EU citizenship; that the test is performed as at the moment of loss; that it must take in consequences that were reasonably foreseeable at that moment as well as those already materialised; and that the circumstances in which nationality was lost must themselves be weighed. In its ruling of 12 February 2020 (ECLI:NL:RVS:2020:423) the same court held that the thirteen-year cessation provision is not invalid as such but must be left unapplied in the concrete case where its application is disproportionate, with restoration flowing from Article 20 TFEU - and placed the burden of substantiation on the individual, who must show concretely that at the moment of loss it was reasonably foreseeable that they would exercise EU rights.

Where, by contrast, an authority has taken a decision - a refusal to confirm a restoration option, for example - the ordinary chain applies: a free objection within six weeks, appeal to the rechtbank (EUR 200 for a natural person in 2026), further appeal to the Council of State (EUR 297). Outside the European Netherlands the Algemene wet bestuursrecht does not apply and the local administrative-procedure statutes govern instead.

• Keeping a Dutch travel document current is the one concrete protective step our sources pin. The thirteen-year cessation period is interrupted by the issue of a Dutch travel document or of a declaration of possession of Dutch nationality, and a fresh thirteen-year period then starts from the day of issue (RWN art 15(4)). For a family settled outside the Kingdom and the EU treaty area, that is the mechanism that resets the clock.
• The thirteen-year clock counts only adult years. A period completed while the person was still a minor does not run against them under that ground.
• After a successful restoration, the thirteen-year clock starts again on the day the option was confirmed (RWN art 15(4)). Re-acquisition is not a permanent immunity.
• Restoration is closed to anyone whose loss occurred before 1 November 1993, because EU citizenship did not exist before that date and so cannot have been lost with Dutch nationality. It is equally closed where the person held another EU member-state nationality at the moment of loss.
• Having previously acquired Dutch nationality by option does not block the restoration route: of the seventeen option grounds, the two that remain open to a previous optant are the former-national ground and the disproportionate-loss restoration ground (RWN art 6(9)).
• The restoration option is the only route to a proportionality assessment. Since 1 April 2022 there is no free-standing "proportionality application"; the test is performed inside that option procedure on the Minister's advice.
• Do not rely on reported plans for a simpler statutory restoration route. That was a proposal when it was reported in 2023, its status as at 25 July 2026 is not established here, and it must not be treated as available.

• Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap, consolidated text in force since 1 October 2023, no amendment in force as at 25 July 2026: https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0003738/2023-10-01 - arts 6(1)(p), 6(3), 6(8), 6(9), 15(1)(c), 15(4), 17, 18 and 19
• Rijkswet of 17 November 2021 amending the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap (proportionality test), Stb. 2021, 572, in force 1 April 2022: https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stb-2021-572.html
• Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap, in force since 1 March 2017: https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013605
• Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002, in force since 1 January 2011 (rules only; the printed amounts are 2011 base figures and are not payable): https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013782
• WBN 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31825 of 19 September 2025, in force 1 January 2026 - 2026 option fees, European Netherlands: https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stcrt-2025-31825.html
• Regeling indexering (court fees and Wet griffierechten burgerlijke zaken table), Stcrt. 2025, 39855 of 24 November 2025, in force 1 January 2026: https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stcrt-2025-39855.html
• Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State, 5 February 2025, ECLI:NL:RVS:2025:421
• Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State, 12 February 2020, ECLI:NL:RVS:2020:423
• IND, Invoeringstoets evenredigheidstoets bij automatisch verlies Nederlanderschap, July 2023 (source of the 17 per cent minors figure; statistics are as at mid-2023)