BES Special Municipality Naturalization

This is naturalisation as a Dutch national for people living on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius or Saba — the three islands that are constitutionally part of the Netherlands rather than separate countries of the Kingdom.

That constitutional position produces an administrative arrangement found nowhere else. There is no local receiving authority at all. Applications are taken in hand directly by the Minister, in practice through the IND's Caribbean Netherlands unit, and there is no island-level intermediary and no local Minister of Justice adding an advice, as there is in Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten. The island administrator's role in this procedure is confined to handing over the decree extract at the end.

But the islands are not simply "the Netherlands" for practical purposes either. The fee is set in US dollars at its own level, the appeal route runs through the Caribbean courts under separate procedural legislation, and the language requirement splits the islands between two different zones. As of 25 July 2026 the substantive conditions are the Kingdom's conditions and identical to those applied in Amsterdam; almost everything around them is different.

Age and residence. You must be an adult with five years of admission and main residence immediately preceding the request, counted across the European part of the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and the Caribbean Netherlands as a single aggregate, not as separate per-island clocks (art 8(1)(c)). Two years applies with at least ten years in those territories in total (art 8(3)); three years to a stateless applicant or an unmarried person cohabiting three years in a durable relationship with an unmarried Dutch national (art 8(4)). The condition falls away entirely for a former Dutch national, a spouse of three years cohabiting with a Dutch national, and an adult adopted in the Kingdom by a Dutch parent (art 8(2)) - though that provision names only the four countries, not the public bodies, an omission whose intent is not established.

Admission is granted by operation of law or by permit under the Wet toelating en uitzetting BES, in force since 10 October 2010, not under Dutch immigration law. A gap in lawful admission restarts the nationality period from zero rather than pausing it.

Language. Level A2 in all four skills (Besluit naturalisatietoets arts 3(1)(h)(2) and 5(1), in force since 26 May 2022). The requirement is cumulative, not a choice: Dutch and the language current on your island. The islands split - Papiamentu on Bonaire, English on Sint Eustatius and Saba. The Dutch component is not waivable. A certificate endorsed for Papiamentu or English is recognised only on islands where that language is current alongside Dutch (art 5(3)); only the Dutch diploma travels Kingdom-wide (art 5(2)).

Good character. No Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag is used. The instruments are a signed declaration of residence and conduct, a judicial-records extract and a police check. The rehabilitation period has been five years since 1 May 2018 and only indictable offences count. It is a refusal ground under art 9(1)(a).

Another nationality. You must do what you can to lose it unless that cannot reasonably be required (art 9(1)(b)), subject to four statutory exemptions at art 9(3)(a)-(d). The born-and-resident exemption names the four countries, not the public bodies, so birth on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius or Saba is not in it.

No income or means condition is established among the statutory conditions. A proposal to extend the five-year period to ten years exists but had not been submitted to parliament as of 25 July 2026; it is not law.

Age. You must be an adult.

Residence. Five years of admission and main residence immediately preceding the request, counted across the European part of the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba as a single aggregate rather than as separate per-island clocks (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap art 8(1)(c), in force since 1 October 2023). Two years applies to someone with at least ten years of admission and main residence in those territories in total (art 8(3)); three years to a stateless applicant or to an unmarried person cohabiting for three years in a durable relationship with an unmarried Dutch national (art 8(4)). The condition falls away entirely for a former Dutch national, for a spouse of three years cohabiting with a Dutch national, and for an adult adopted in the Kingdom by a Dutch parent (art 8(2)) — though that last provision names only the four countries and does not mention the public bodies, an omission whose intent is not established.

Admission on the islands is granted either by operation of law or by permit under the Wet toelating en uitzetting BES, in force since 10 October 2010. A fixed-term permit there is granted for at most five consecutive years (art 6(2)); admission arises by operation of law for, among others, a person born in a public body who has reached 16 and has been continuously admitted since birth (art 3).

Continuity. A gap in lawful admission does not pause the period; it starts again from zero. Main residence is tested primarily on register data, and absences count against you: more than six consecutive months away leads to the assumption that main residence has moved, and so does more than four consecutive months for a third consecutive year.

Language and integration. Level A2 in all four skills — speaking, listening, writing and reading (Besluit naturalisatietoets arts 3(1)(h)(2) and 5(1), in force since 26 May 2022). B1 is more than sufficient but is never required. The requirement is cumulative, not a choice: Dutch and the language current on the island of your main residence. The islands split. On Bonaire that language is Papiamentu; on Sint Eustatius and Saba it is English (IND, accessed 25 July 2026). Both at A2. The Dutch-language component is not waivable.

Good character. There is no Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag in this procedure. The instruments are a signed declaration of residence and conduct, which every adult and every child aged 16 or over must sign, an extract from the judicial-records service, and a police-systems check. The rehabilitation period has been five years since 1 May 2018, and only indictable offences count.

Existing nationality. The general rule is that you do what you can to lose it unless that cannot reasonably be required, with four statutory exemptions — see edge cases.

There is no income or means condition among the statutory conditions. On proposed law: a proposal to extend the general five-year period to ten years exists, but as of 25 July 2026 it had not been submitted to parliament, and it is not law.

The main rule is a legalised or apostilled foreign birth certificate together with a valid foreign passport. Departure from it happens only where the documents are genuinely impossible to obtain, or where insisting would be disproportionate in your case.

The wider civil-status set is your own birth certificate; birth certificates of any children included in the request; an adoption deed or judgment where relevant; a marriage certificate where the request rests on marriage; a divorce or repudiation deed; and a family booklet where the country of origin uses one. The divorce deed and family booklet are there to check for a subsisting second marriage, which must be ended before nationality is granted. The birth certificate establishes your names under your own law and whether you have a surname at all. You bear the cost of obtaining, translating and legalising everything.

The translation rule on these islands is stricter than in the European Netherlands. In the European part of the Netherlands a translation is required only where the document is in a language other than Dutch, English, German or French. For Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba the accepted set is narrower: Dutch or English only. A French or German document that would pass untranslated in Rotterdam must be translated here. Translations must be by a sworn translator, preferably into Dutch, and physically attached to the original or the certified copy.

Where documents cannot be obtained, the recognised grounds are specific. For civil-status records: the country never drew up such deeds; the register was destroyed; or an official report of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has led to a decision not to require deeds from that country for the time being. For a passport: statelessness, or a similar official report. Finding the journey to your country of nationality inconvenient is not enough on its own. A conscription call-up not older than one year at the date of filing replaces the passport requirement.

Stateless applicants registered as stateless in the register need not produce a foreign passport, but registration as "nationality unknown" is expressly not the same thing and does not carry the exemption. Holders of asylum permits may produce a Dutch refugee passport or alien's passport instead, because they may not be referred back to the authorities of the country they fled — an exemption clawed back where they have since obtained a document from those authorities in person, caused a legal act involving them, travelled voluntarily to the country of origin, or were born in a different country from the one they fled.

Minors born in the Kingdom, or in a country covered by the apostille arrangement, need not produce their own foreign travel document when naturalising alongside a parent, provided the parent holds a valid foreign passport and a legalised or apostilled birth certificate. That relief does not extend to an adult child applying independently.

As of 25 July 2026 the country-by-country legalisation chain is not established here: the policy manual refers to "the legalisation circulaire currently in force", but the most recent located version lapsed on 1 January 2024 and no successor was found. Confirm the chain with the IND unit before assembling documents.

The sequence is shorter than in Aruba, Curacao or Sint Maarten because there is no advisory layer between you and the decision-maker.

You lodge the request in person. Filing in person is required, with a proxy permitted only for weighty reasons, and you may only file with the authority competent for the place where you are registered or have your main residence. On Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba that authority is the Minister, operating through the IND's Caribbean Netherlands unit (Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap arts 3 and 39, in force since 1 March 2017). The Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland describes the process as running through three contact moments, an arrangement in place since 1 January 2025 (accessed 25 July 2026).

The fee obligation is checked before the file is taken into treatment; unless you are exempt or payment is fully waived, you pay on filing, and non-payment or late payment leads to the file being set aside with written notice. The unit then investigates residence status, public order and the other conditions, and decides. There is no self-advice step, because the body that would give the advice is the body that takes the decision.

If the outcome is positive, the Minister proposes you to the King and the grant is made by Royal Decree. Refusals and decisions to hold the file do not require a decree; the Minister may take those alone. Extracts of the decree are then sent to the authority of your place of residence — for the public bodies, the island administrator (gezaghebber) — for handover.

Nationality vests at the handover. The decree takes effect for a named person when that person's own extract is handed over, and then backdates to the date the decree bears (art 60b(1)). Before that you must make the declaration of solidarity: a fixed statutory text, in Dutch, normally spoken in person, by which you swear or declare that you respect the constitutional order of the Kingdom, its freedoms and rights, and will faithfully perform the duties that citizenship brings. The wording is fixed by statute and cannot be departed from; the choice between the religious and the secular closing formula is yours. The decision may not be made known before the declaration has actually been made.

One consequence of the backdating is worth understanding. Because the decree takes effect retroactively to its own date, a new fact arising between that date and the handover does not reopen the assessment — a person who acts contrary to public order in that window still acquires the nationality, and a person who reaches majority in that window is not re-tested. Until the handover, however, you are not yet Dutch and must continue to meet your obligations as a foreign national.

The legal deadline. One year, and it does not run from the day you file. It runs from the latest of: payment of the fee, the decision fully waiving payment, or receipt of the supplementary material requested for the assessment (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap art 9(4), in force since 1 October 2023). The decision may be held twice for six months, so the absolute ceiling is two years. The statute speaks of holding the decision rather than extending the period, which matters because a decision to hold is itself a decision the Minister takes and against which a remedy exists. The period is identical throughout the Kingdom; what differs between the islands and the European Netherlands is who handles the file, not how long they have.

The period ends when you take receipt of the notification, in principle at a ceremony, not when the internal decision is made.

What actually happens. The Caribbean Netherlands sits near the bottom of the Kingdom on speed. Of granted requests filed between 2018 and 2024, 44 per cent reached a ceremony within a year of filing here, against 82 per cent in the European Netherlands, 77 per cent at diplomatic posts, 67 per cent in Sint Maarten, 49 per cent in Curacao and 42 per cent in Aruba (IND, Monitor Naturalisatie en Optie 2018-2024, June 2025). The delay is distributed across the whole chain: 47 per cent of files from the Caribbean Netherlands reached the IND only after two months, and 65 per cent of IND decisions on grants filed here took longer than three months — the highest share in the Kingdom. Neither the Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland nor the IND publishes an average duration for these islands.

For context on the direction of travel Kingdom-wide, the applicant-experienced time from filing to ceremony fell from 344 days in 2018 to 182 days in 2024, and the IND's own stage on granted cases fell from 254 days to 95 days over the same period. Those are Kingdom-wide means dominated by the European Netherlands, which accounts for 98 per cent of requests; they should not be read as island figures.

From decree to ceremony. You must be summoned within six weeks of the date the decree bears, extendable by a reasonable period for special circumstances, and the handover must take place within six weeks of the summons being sent (Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap arts 60b(2) and 60b(7), in force since 1 March 2017).

The deadline that ends everything. If your extract has not been handed over within one year of the date the decree bears, the decree lapses by operation of law as regards you (art 60b(11)). You are not Dutch and must start again with a fresh request. No objection or appeal lies against the lapse, because it happens automatically. In practice up to three summonses are sent, the third by registered post, and where the authority failed to send three within the year the decree is treated as handed over in time and you are Dutch. If the principal applicant does not appear, the extracts for children naturalising alongside them are not handed over either, even if the children attend.

Where a decision is late, the notice-of-default and penalty-payment machinery of Dutch general administrative law is not available on these islands, which apply their own procedural statute; the remedy for delay under that statute is not established in this research.

The tariff for Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba is set in US dollars and is a legally fixed amount in its own currency, not a conversion of the euro figure.

In force from 1 January 2026 (WBN-BES 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31842): naturalisation 1,331 US dollars for a single standard applicant; 1,699 dollars for a joint request; 989 dollars single and 1,359 dollars joint at the reduced tariff; and 196 dollars for each minor naturalising alongside a parent. Option, for comparison, is 282 dollars single, 481 dollars joint and 32 dollars per co-opting minor.

The reduced tariff is available to a stateless adult applicant and to a holder of an asylum residence permit or a comparable permit in the Caribbean parts of the Kingdom (Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002 art 3(2)).

The 2026 uplift for these islands was 13.9 per cent against 4.4 per cent for the euro amounts, and the reason is mechanical: the euro figures are indexed each 1 January to a Dutch wage index, and the dollar figures are then derived from those using the euro exchange rate on 1 July of the preceding year (art 9(1)). The schedule runs to 31 December 2026 unless re-indexed.

One warning specific to these islands. The Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland states that fees in the Caribbean Netherlands are indexed in line with the European Netherlands and set at 66 per cent of the European level to reflect purchasing-power differences. That statement concerns residence-permit charges. It does not govern the option and naturalisation fees, which are Kingdom-level amounts set under the fee decree — and the figures bear this out, since 1,331 dollars against 1,139 euro is near currency parity, not a 34 per cent discount. Do not apply a 66 per cent reduction to a nationality fee.

Payment goes to the Minister rather than to a Governor or an island council (art 5(2)), in a single instalment (art 5(5)). If it is not paid within six weeks of receipt of the request, the request is set aside without being handled; that six weeks is suspended while a request for exemption from payment is pending (art 6). Unlike the European Netherlands and the three countries, no retention and remittance table applies here — the fee decree allocates retention to mayors, Governors and heads of post, not to the public bodies.

Exemptions. No payment at all is due from a person treated as a Dutch national under the legislation on the position of Moluccans (art 4(1)). The Minister may additionally grant exemption to a minor filing independently, to someone wrongly treated as a Dutch national for over a year through an administrative error, and on grounds of state interest or merit to the State (art 4(2)) — but not where the error was caused by the applicant's own fraud or carelessness (art 4(4)).

Examination fees are separate and are not established for these islands; the instruments read for the Caribbean Netherlands carry no examination-fee table.

The governing statute is the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap, consolidated text in force since 1 October 2023 with no amendment in force since that date. Nationality is a Kingdom affair under art 3(1)(c) of the Statuut voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden, so the statute applies with identical content on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba as in the European Netherlands.

The grant itself is made under art 7(1): the King grants Dutch nationality to foreign nationals who request it, on the Minister's proposal. The conditions are in art 8(1): majority; no objection to continued residence for an indefinite period; five years of admission and main residence in the European part of the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten or the public bodies Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (art 8(1)(c)); integration, including knowledge of Dutch and of the language current on the island of main residence (art 8(1)(d)); and willingness to make the declaration of solidarity (art 8(1)(e)). Shorter periods are at arts 8(3) and 8(4); art 8(2) removes the residence condition entirely for certain categories.

The refusal grounds are in art 9: serious suspicions of danger to public order, morals or the security of the Kingdom (art 9(1)(a)); failure to do what is possible to give up another nationality, unless that cannot reasonably be required (art 9(1)(b)); with four statutory exemptions from that duty at art 9(3)(a)-(d). The decision period and the power to hold a decision are at art 9(4); the Minister's power to refuse or hold without a decree is at art 9(5). The declaration of solidarity and its fixed wording are at art 23(2).

Procedure is set by the Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap, in force since 1 March 2017. Its art 39 provides that for the public bodies the Minister takes naturalisation requests in hand — note the wording differs from the European Netherlands and the three countries, where an authority receives a request and forwards it; here receiver and decider are the same organ. Arts 39 to 44 carry the rest of the sequence, and the handover, ceremony and lapse rules are at art 60b. The language and test requirements are elaborated in the Besluit naturalisatietoets, in force since 26 May 2022, with the language-zone recognition rule at its art 5(3). The fee is governed by the Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002 and set annually under its art 9.

Admission — the lawful residence that art 8(1)(c) requires — is governed on the islands by the Wet toelating en uitzetting BES, in force since 10 October 2010, not by the Dutch Vreemdelingenwet. Administrative procedure and appeal are governed by the Wet administratieve rechtspraak BES, not by the Algemene wet bestuursrecht.

The Caribbean Netherlands chain is the shortest in the Kingdom: the body that receives your file is the body that decides it. On Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba there is no local receiving authority at all. The request goes directly to the Minister of Justice and Security, operating through the IND's Caribbean Netherlands unit at the Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland. The island administrator, the gezaghebber, is not a party to the procedure and only hands over the decision at the end. There is no second advice from a local Minister of Justice, unlike in Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten. A grant is made by the King by Royal Decree; a refusal may be taken by the Minister alone (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap arts 7(1) and 9(5), in force since 1 October 2023).

The Netherlands General Administrative Law Act does not apply here either. A challenge runs under the Wet administratieve rechtspraak BES to the Gerecht in eerste aanleg van Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba, within six weeks of the decision and on a court fee of 84 US dollars, and onward to the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie. There is no cassation in this chain.

Administrative procedure on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba is governed by the Wet administratieve rechtspraak BES, not by the Algemene wet bestuursrecht. The deadlines look familiar; the courts and the fees do not.

Appeal against the decision goes to the Gerecht in eerste aanleg van Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba, and must be lodged within six weeks of the day the decision was given (art 16(1)). The court fee is 84 US dollars, reduced to 28 dollars for certain social-security matters (art 17(1)). An objection procedure exists ahead of that, governed by chapter 4 of the same statute, and the original decision must point you to it (art 16(4)) — but the deadline for lodging the objection is not established in this research and should not be assumed to be six weeks by analogy with Dutch law. Ask the deciding authority, and check the decision letter, which is required to state it. A further appeal lies to the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie under chapter 5; its deadline and court fee are likewise not established here.

The onward route is to the Gemeenschappelijk Hof, not to the Administrative Jurisdiction Division of the Council of State in The Hague, and there is no cassation to the Hoge Raad in this administrative chain. Both are common misstatements.

How intensively the court will look. On the domestic refusal grounds — good character, integration, the discretionary elements — Dutch appellate case law applies a deferential standard: the assessment belongs primarily to the responsible State Secretary, and departing from settled naturalisation policy requires very great reserve, though departure is required where only that produces a correct application of the law (ABRvS 20 June 2018, ECLI:NL:RVS:2018:2056). Whether that 2018 formulation survives unchanged after the Dutch administrative courts moved to graded-intensity proportionality review is not established. Where the argument is instead about loss of Dutch nationality and with it EU citizenship, review is intensive rather than deferential, is conducted as at the moment of loss, and takes in consequences reasonably foreseeable at that moment as well as those already apparent (ABRvS 5 February 2025, ECLI:NL:RVS:2025:421).

If the dispute is about status rather than a refusal. A petition to establish whether you are or are not a Dutch national is filed, for a resident of the public bodies, with the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie rather than the rechtbank Den Haag — the forum follows residence, not nationality. The Minister is an interested party, the public prosecution service is heard, only cassation to the Hoge Raad lies against the outcome, and a final ruling binds every body charged with applying any statutory rule (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap arts 17-19, in force since 1 October 2023).

The islands are not one unit for language. Bonaire sits in the Papiamentu zone with Aruba and Curacao; Sint Eustatius and Saba sit in the English zone with Sint Maarten. Treating "the Caribbean Netherlands" as a single language block is wrong, and it has a hard consequence: a certificate endorsed for competence in Papiamentu or English is recognised only on the islands where that language is current alongside Dutch (Besluit naturalisatietoets art 5(3), in force since 26 May 2022). Only the Dutch-language diploma travels Kingdom-wide (art 5(2)).

That produces the sharpest cross-territory trap in Dutch nationality law. Your residence aggregates across the Kingdom; your test credential does not. Someone who spends three years on Saba and two on Curacao and then applies in Curacao satisfies the five-year residence condition on the aggregate — but the Dutch-and-English certificate obtained on Saba is not recognised there, because Papiamentu is the language current on Curacao. Moving between the two language zones preserves the residence clock and destroys the credential. Check this before you move, not after.

There is no local intermediary. Unlike Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten, where the Governor investigates and the local Minister of Justice adds an advice, here the Minister takes the request in hand directly. The island administrator has no advisory role; the administrator's function is handing over the decree extract and the option confirmation. Correspondence addressed to an island body will not advance the file.

Admission is BES law, not Dutch immigration law. The Wet toelating en uitzetting BES governs whether your residence counts as admission at all. Its fixed-term permit runs for at most five consecutive years, and the minimum residence period for the indefinite permit is not stated in the statute itself and is not established here — it is likely to sit in the implementing decree, which was not opened. Do not assume the Dutch permanent-residence conditions apply.

Giving up your other nationality. The general duty applies, with four statutory exemptions: nationals of a State party to the Second Protocol of 2 February 1993 to the 1963 Strasbourg Convention; applicants born in the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao or Sint Maarten who have their main residence there when they apply; applicants married to a Dutch national; and recognised refugees (Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap art 9(3)(a)-(d)). Note the second of those names the four countries and not the public bodies — birth on Bonaire, Sint Eustatius or Saba does not appear in that limb. Policy adds further categories under the "cannot reasonably be required" test, including automatic loss on naturalising, states that do not permit renunciation in law or in practice, prohibitive cost, forfeiture of property rights, military-service preconditions, and non-recognised states. On the cost limb, a renunciation fee at or below the reduced Dutch naturalisation tariff can never succeed and one at or above ten times the normal tariff always succeeds — on the 2026 European schedule, 847 euro and 11,390 euro, figures derived from the pinned tariffs rather than stated in the manual. In practice renunciation is only ever required after the naturalisation has taken effect.

Test design. The Minister sets the naturalisation test for Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten after consulting the local Minister of Justice. No such consultation step exists for the public bodies — another consequence of the islands being part of the Netherlands rather than separate countries.

The instruments this route rests on, in the versions consulted on 25 July 2026.

Constitutional position. Statuut voor het Koninkrijk der Nederlanden art 1(2), which provides that Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba each form part of the state structure of the Netherlands, and art 3(1)(c), which makes Dutch nationality a Kingdom affair — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0002154. Art 1(2) was inserted by the Rijkswet of 7 September 2010, Stb. 2010, 333.

Nationality. Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap (BWBR0003738), consolidated text in force since 1 October 2023 with no amendment in force since — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0003738/2023-10-01.

Procedure. Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap (BWBR0013605), in force since 1 March 2017; the Caribbean Netherlands sequence at arts 39-44 and the handover, ceremony and lapse rules at art 60b — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013605.

Test and language. Besluit naturalisatietoets (BWBR0013604), in force since 26 May 2022; the A2 level at arts 3(1)(h)(2) and 5(1) and the language-zone recognition rule at art 5(3) — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013604.

Policy manual. Handleiding Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 2003, edition for the public bodies Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (BWBR0028778), in force since 1 July 2026 — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0028778.

Fees. Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002 (BWBR0013782), consolidated text in force since 1 January 2011 — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013782. That text still shows the 2011 base amounts and must never be quoted as a current fee. The operative 2026 tariff is WBN-BES 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31842, in force 1 January 2026 — https://zoek.officielebekendmakingen.nl/stcrt-2025-31842.html.

Admission. Wet toelating en uitzetting BES (BWBR0028571), in force since 10 October 2010 — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0028571; with the Besluit toelating en uitzetting BES (BWBR0028599) and the Regeling toelating en uitzetting BES (BWBR0028815).

Administrative procedure. Wet administratieve rechtspraak BES (BWBR0028455) — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0028455/2018-08-01.

Performance data and official information. IND, Monitor Naturalisatie en Optie 2018-2024, final report, June 2025 — https://ind.nl/nl/documenten/07-2025/monitor-naturalisatie-en-optie-2018-2024.pdf. Rijksdienst Caribisch Nederland, Nederlander worden and Leges en betalingen — https://www.rijksdienstcn.com/immigratie-naturalisatie/nederlander-worden. IND, Becoming a Dutch national in the Caribbean part of the Kingdom — https://ind.nl/en/dutch-citizenship/becoming-a-dutch-national-in-the-caribbean-part-of-the-kingdom.