Recuperação de perdas anteriores a 1985 (artigo 28.º)

This pathway is for people who held Dutch nationality before 1985 and lost it, and who now want it back. Dutch law has no single "restoration" application. Three separate instruments do the work, and which one fits depends entirely on how the nationality was lost.

The narrowest is the declaration under article 28 of the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap (RWN, the Kingdom Act on Netherlands Nationality, consolidated text in force since 1 October 2023 and unamended since). It is reserved for women who lost Dutch nationality by, or in connection with, a marriage concluded before the RWN entered into force. It must be made within one year of the dissolution of that marriage, or within one year of the moment the woman could have learned of the dissolution, and it takes effect retroactively to the date of dissolution.

For everyone else who once held Dutch nationality the working routes are the option (optie) for former Dutch nationals — a written declaration that the receiving authority confirms — and, where nationality was lost automatically and EU citizenship went with it, the proportionality-based restoration option. Ordinary naturalisation also remains open, and for former Dutch nationals it is easier than it looks: the five-year residence condition does not apply to them at all (RWN art 8(2)).

One point on the widely reported plan to extend the general naturalisation residence requirement from five to ten years: as of 25 July 2026 that is a proposal which has not been submitted to parliament. It is not law, and in any event the residence condition does not apply to former Dutch nationals.

O Artigo 28 do RWN fornece um caminho de restauração geral RESIDUAL para casos de perdas anteriores a 1985, não pertencentes ao escopo de uma coorte específica. Elegibilidade: o candidato deve (i) documentar a nacionalidade holandesa anterior (certidão de nascimento + registros de nacionalidade), (ii) evento de perda de documento (registros de naturalização estrangeira + status do Artigo 14/15/16), (iii) provar 12 meses de hoofdverblijf contínuos em NL (evidência de registro BRP), (iv) demonstrar bom caráter (equivalente a sakavottorð + declaração de bom caráter), (v) manter registro de imigração limpo. Requisitos documentais exigentes para casos mais antigos; A prática administrativa do IND amadureceu para a acomodação de casos documentados. Processamento típico de 12 a 24 meses. Recusa passível de recurso bezwaar 6w → Rechtbank Den Haag → cassatie Hoge Raad. A cidadania da UE é atribuída automaticamente após o reconhecimento.

Principais afirmações marcadas com a rota:

• Regras de transição anteriores a 1985: 1892 Operações úmidas até 31/12/1984; disposições transitórias na RWN preservam as aquisições; correção de gênero da linha materna retroativa 1964+… (pinos = 4, conf = 0,92)
• Motivos de perda anteriores a 1985 (artigo 7º molhado de 1892): serviço estrangeiro voluntário, aquisição de cidadania estrangeira, casamento com cidadão estrangeiro (mulheres); O Artigo 28 da RWN restaura alguns…

Take the routes one at a time.

The article 28 declaration, for the marriage cohort: you lost Dutch nationality by or in connection with a marriage concluded before the RWN entered into force, and you file within one year of the dissolution of that marriage or of being able to learn of it.

Option as a former Dutch national (RWN art 6(1)(f)): you are an adult; you held Dutch nationality, or the status of Nederlands onderdaan-niet-Nederlander, at some time; and you have had at least one uninterrupted year of toelating voor onbepaalde tijd (admission for an indefinite period) together with hoofdverblijf (principal residence) in the Kingdom, running up to the moment of confirmation. Time spent as a Dutch national does not count towards that year — it has to be accrued as a foreign national. In practice this ground requires you to move to the Kingdom and hold permanent residence status there for a year; it cannot be exercised from abroad. Excluded: anyone who lost Dutch nationality for failing to renounce another nationality after naturalisation or option.

Two features make option the lighter procedure. There is no integration or language requirement at all — the Handleiding in force since 1 July 2026 states that a confirmation cannot be refused because the optant does not speak Dutch. And the duty to renounce your other nationality is confined by RWN art 6a(1) to one single option ground, which is not this one.

Naturalisation: the five-year residence condition does not apply to former Dutch nationals (RWN art 8(2)). What still applies is the naturalisation test at CEFR level A2 in all four skills (Besluit naturalisatietoets arts 3(1)(h)(2) and 5(1), in force since 26 May 2022), the good-character condition, the duty to renounce your other nationality subject to four statutory exemptions, and the declaration of solidarity.

The core of a restoration claim is proof that you once held Dutch nationality — an old Dutch passport, a bewijs van Nederlanderschap (certificate of Dutch nationality), a historical population-register extract, or consular records — plus evidence of how and when it was lost. For the option as a former Dutch national you also need your permanent residence document and a population-register history covering the qualifying year.

For naturalisation the standard civil-status set applies: your own birth certificate; birth certificates of children included in the request; an adoption deed or judgment where relevant; a marriage certificate where the claim rests on marriage; and divorce or repudiation deeds and, in countries that use one, the family booklet. Those last two exist to check for bigamy, which must be ended before nationality is granted. A valid foreign passport must in principle be produced unless you are registered as stateless in the population register — a registration of "unknown nationality" is expressly not the same thing.

Foreign documents must be legalised or apostilled, at your own cost. Legalisation establishes formal authenticity only — the signature, the signatory's capacity, the seal — so a verification investigation can still be ordered where a legalised document is suspected of being substantively wrong.

One live gap: the Handleiding instructs officials to apply "the legalisation circular currently in force", but the most recent located version (Stcrt. 2023, 8509) was repealed with effect from 1 January 2024 and no successor could be located as of 25 July 2026. Ask the receiving authority which instrument it applies before paying for legalisation.

Translation is required where a document is in a language other than Dutch, English, German or French, by a sworn translator, preferably into Dutch, physically attached to the original or certified copy. On Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba only Dutch and English are accepted untranslated.

Where you file depends on where you live, and for an option declaration the authority that receives it also decides it — the IND is not the decision-maker (BVVN art 2, in force since 1 March 2017):

• European Netherlands: the burgemeester (mayor) of the municipality where you are registered.
• Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba: the Minister, operationally the IND's Caribbean Netherlands unit. There is no island-level receiving authority; the gezaghebber plays no part in taking the declaration.
• Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten: the Governor of the country concerned.
• Outside the Kingdom: the Netherlands diplomatic or consular post in whose district you have your principal residence.

Declarations and requests are lodged in person; a proxy is permitted only for compelling reasons (BVVN art 3(1)-(2)). You may only file with the authority for the place where you are registered or actually live — other files are not accepted.

The declaration is date- and service-stamped on receipt and you get a copy. The authority checks the fee obligation first and only then takes the file into handling. It assesses the ground on the documents put before it, cross-checks the population register, and investigates residence status and public order. For the proportionality-based restoration ground it must seek the IND's advice, which is not binding on it.

If the conditions are met the authority confirms the acquisition in writing. Nationality does not vest on that date alone: the confirmation takes effect only when it is physically handed to you, in principle at a naturalisation ceremony, and then backdates to the date the document itself bears (BVVN art 60a(1)). Handover must happen within nine weeks of the finding that you meet the conditions (BVVN art 60a(7)). Adults and minors aged 16 or over must first make the verklaring van verbondenheid (declaration of solidarity); the confirmation cannot be made known before that has actually been done (RWN art 6(2)).

Two clocks, very different in length.

Option: the authority must decide within 13 weeks of receiving the declaration, extendable once by at most 13 weeks, so 26 weeks is the ceiling (RWN art 6(5)). Where the authority asks the Minister for advice on whether renunciation can reasonably be required, four weeks are added (RWN art 6a(6)) — an absolute maximum of 30 weeks. The clock does not start on filing: it starts only once the fee has been paid or fully waived and any requested supplementary documents have been supplied. On a positive outcome the period ends only when you take receipt of the decision at a ceremony, so 26 weeks rather than 13 is the realistic ceiling.

Naturalisation: one year, running from the latest of payment of the fee, the decision fully waiving it, or receipt of the requested supplementation (RWN art 9(4)). The decision may be held (aangehouden) at most twice by six months, giving a two-year ceiling. The year starts only once all documents necessary for assessment have been received.

Real performance is published for naturalisation only, and only up to 2024. In 2024 the average time from filing at a municipality to the ceremony was 182 days, down from 344 days in 2018; the municipal stage took 13 days, the IND stage 95 days for grants, and the Kabinet van de Koning 18 days from proposal to Royal Decree (IND, Monitor Naturalisatie en Optie 2018-2024, June 2025). Across 2018-2024, 82% of granted requests filed in the European Netherlands reached a ceremony within a year of filing. For option no national processing-time series exists: the IND holds only confirmations and never sees refusals.

A missed deadline confers nothing — there is no silent approval. The remedy is a written notice of default, after which a statutory penalty payment runs from two weeks later, capped at 42 days (Algemene wet bestuursrecht arts 4:17-4:20). Do not assume that regime is available outside the European Netherlands; that has not been established.

These are the 2026 tariffs, in force since 1 January 2026 and running to 31 December 2026 unless re-indexed. Each constituency has its own legally fixed amount in its own currency; these are not conversions of one another and must not be treated as such.

European Netherlands (WBN 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31825): option EUR 241 single, EUR 412 joint, EUR 27 per co-opting minor child. Naturalisation EUR 1,139 single, EUR 1,454 joint, EUR 168 per co-naturalising child, with a reduced tariff of EUR 847 single and EUR 1,163 joint for stateless persons and holders of an asylum residence permit.

Aruba (WBN-A 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31841): option Afl. 501 / 857 / 56; naturalisation Afl. 2,368 / 3,023 / 349, reduced Afl. 1,761 / 2,418.

Curacao and Sint Maarten (WBN-CM 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31847): option Cg 502 / 858 / 56; naturalisation Cg 2,373 / 3,029 / 350, reduced Cg 1,765 / 2,423. The Cabinet of the Governor of Sint Maarten publishes 2026 option fees of Cg 481 / 823 / 52, which do not match the instrument. The instrument governs; underpaying risks the file being set aside.

Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (WBN-BES 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31842): option USD 282 / 481 / 32; naturalisation USD 1,331 / 1,699 / 196, reduced USD 989 / 1,359.

Pay in one instalment. If the fee is not paid within six weeks of receipt of the declaration or request, the file is set aside without being handled (Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002 art 6). The receiving authority keeps the whole of an option fee; part of a naturalisation fee is remitted centrally.

A warning that catches people out: the consolidated text of the Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002 still prints 2011 figures — EUR 789 for a single naturalisation against the EUR 1,139 actually payable in 2026. Never quote it as the current fee.

Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap (RWN), BWBR0003738, consolidated text in force since 1 October 2023, with no amendment in force since that date (verified 25 July 2026):

• art 28(1)-(3) — acquisition by written declaration and confirmation for a woman who lost Dutch nationality by or in connection with a marriage concluded before the RWN entered into force; the declaration must be made within one year of dissolution of the marriage, or within one year of being able to learn of it; acquisition is retroactive to the date of dissolution; art 6(3)-(6) apply mutatis mutandis.
• art 6(1)(f) — option for a person who at any time held Dutch nationality or the status of Nederlands onderdaan-niet-Nederlander (Netherlands subject who is not a Netherlands national), after at least one uninterrupted year of admission for an indefinite period together with principal residence in the Kingdom.
• art 6(1)(p) — option for a person who lost Dutch nationality by operation of law where EU citizenship was lost with it and disproportionate consequences under EU law were reasonably foreseeable at that moment. Inserted by the Rijkswet of 17 November 2021, Stb. 2021, 572, in force 1 April 2022.
• art 6(9) — a person who has ever acquired Dutch nationality by option may afterwards use only the former-national ground and the proportionality ground.
• art 8(2) — the five-year residence condition does not apply to anyone who has at some time held Dutch nationality or that subject status.

Procedure: Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap (BVVN), in force since 1 March 2017. Binding policy: Handleiding Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 2003 (HRWN), version in force since 1 July 2026.

ID da fonte	Citação

Contagem de pinos: 6.

A refusal is an ordinary administrative decision. In the European Netherlands the chain is bezwaar (objection) to the authority that decided, then beroep to the rechtbank, then hoger beroep to the Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State. Each step carries a six-week deadline running from the day after the decision is notified (Algemene wet bestuursrecht art 6:7).

Costs under the 2026 schedule: nothing for the objection (Awb art 7:15(1)); EUR 200 for the appeal to the rechtbank and EUR 297 for the further appeal, both for an individual (Awb arts 8:41(2)(b) and 8:109(1)(b), set by the indexation regulation of 14 November 2025, Stcrt. 2025, 39855, in force 1 January 2026). The court fee must be paid within four weeks of the registry's notice or the appeal is inadmissible; proven insolvency excuses it.

The objection stage is a full reconsideration, not a legality check, and you have a right to be heard; the authority decides within six weeks, or twelve where an advisory committee is involved, extendable once by six weeks (Awb art 7:10). On the domestic refusal grounds the Council of State then reviews only with restraint, and departing from the naturalisation policy demands "very great restraint" (20 June 2018, ECLI:NL:RVS:2018:2056). Where EU law is engaged because loss of EU citizenship is in play, review is intensive (5 February 2025, ECLI:NL:RVS:2025:421).

Outside the European Netherlands the courts and fees differ. Appeals go to the Gerecht in eerste aanleg and then the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie; first-instance court fees are NAf 150 in Curacao and Sint Maarten, AWG 25 in Aruba and USD 84 in the BES islands. The BES objection deadline is not established — do not assume six weeks there.

If the dispute is whether you are a Dutch national at all, the remedy is a petition under RWN art 17 to the rechtbank Den Haag, or to the Gemeenschappelijk Hof if you live in the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom. Only cassation to the Hoge Raad lies from it.

The one-shot bar. Anyone who has ever acquired Dutch nationality by option may afterwards use only two of the seventeen option grounds: the former-national ground and the proportionality-based restoration ground (RWN art 6(9)).

The qualifying year is stricter than it reads: a year of admission for an indefinite period, accrued as a foreign national, with principal residence, running unbroken up to the moment of confirmation. A year on a temporary permit does not count.

Residence gaps reset rather than pause: where a permit does not follow directly on the previous one, the period starts again from zero. Registration as a niet-ingezetene (non-resident) also counts against you — it is expressly listed as an indication that principal residence has moved abroad. More than six consecutive months outside the country, or more than four consecutive months in the third consecutive year, raises a presumption of relocation.

Naturalisation still requires the A2 test even from someone who was never subject to the civic-integration obligation, and civic-integration exemptions do not automatically carry over. One exemption is worth checking on older cases: at least eight years' residence in the European Netherlands during compulsory-school age exempts you outright, and those years need not be continuous or even lawful.

There is no Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag here. Character is tested through a signed declaration of residence and conduct, a judicial-records extract obtained by the authority, and a police-systems check. The rehabilitation period is five years, raised from four with effect from 1 May 2018.

Not attending the ceremony is fatal. The decision lapses by operation of law one year after the date it bears, no objection or appeal lies against the lapse, and you must start over. One safeguard: where the municipality failed to send three invitations within that year, the decision counts as handed over in time.

All instruments below were retrieved and read on 25 July 2026.

• Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap (RWN), BWBR0003738, consolidated text in force since 1 October 2023 — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0003738/2023-10-01
• Rijkswet of 17 November 2021 amending the RWN (proportionality on automatic loss), Stb. 2021, 572, in force 1 April 2022 — https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stb-2021-572.html
• Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap (BVVN), in force since 1 March 2017 — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013605
• Regeling verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap, in force since 10 October 2010 — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013506
• Handleiding Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 2003 (HRWN), version in force since 1 July 2026 — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBW33099
• Besluit naturalisatietoets, in force since 26 May 2022 — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013604
• Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002 (base text; not the payable amounts) — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013782
• WBN 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31825, in force 1 January 2026 — 2026 fee table, European Netherlands — https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stcrt-2025-31825.html
• Algemene wet bestuursrecht — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0005537
• Regeling indexering of 14 November 2025, Stcrt. 2025, 39855, in force 1 January 2026 — 2026 court fees — https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stcrt-2025-39855.html
• IND, Monitor Naturalisatie en Optie 2018-2024, June 2025 — https://ind.nl/nl/documenten/07-2025/monitor-naturalisatie-en-optie-2018-2024.pdf
• Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State, 20 June 2018, ECLI:NL:RVS:2018:2056; 5 February 2025, ECLI:NL:RVS:2025:421