Loss by Foreign Acquisition (Article 15(1)(a))

This is not a pathway you apply for. It is a loss that happens by operation of law: an adult Dutch national who voluntarily acquires another nationality loses Dutch nationality at the moment the new nationality vests. No authority decides it, no decision is issued, and there is nothing to appeal against, because there is no appealable act.

The practical consequence is that most people find out years later and by accident. The IND's own review of this area records the typical discovery moment as a passport application being set aside, and notes that no help desk exists for people in this position: former Dutch nationals "are often used to being able to turn to a counter; in this case no such counter exists" (IND, Invoeringstoets evenredigheidstoets bij automatisch verlies Nederlanderschap, July 2023).

Two things can be done about it. If you believe the loss never actually occurred — because the acquisition was not voluntary, or because a statutory exception applied — the instrument is a court petition to have your nationality determined, not an application. If the loss did occur and it cost you EU citizenship disproportionately, there is a restoration option, but it is narrow and its date limits exclude most historic cases.

The statute contains exceptions under which acquiring another nationality does not cost you Dutch nationality. Their terms are not established in the sources compiled for this route and must be read against the statutory text itself before anyone relies on them.

Three things have to be true for this loss to have operated, and each is a place where a case can be contested.

You held Dutch nationality at the relevant moment. If that is what is in doubt -- because an earlier link in the family chain is unclear -- the question belongs to the determination procedure, not to a new application.

You acquired another nationality.

The acquisition was voluntary. This is the element that most often decides a case, because loss by operation of law is triggered by a voluntary act, not by a nationality conferred automatically by another state's law without any application on your part. Renunciation is treated differently again, as a voluntary loss rather than an automatic one.

Statutory exceptions exist under which acquiring another nationality does not cost you Dutch nationality. Their content is not established in this research, and no category, condition or date for them should be taken from anywhere but the statutory text as currently in force. How the rule applied to acquisitions predating the RWN is likewise not established here; the RWN's consolidated text has been in force since 1 October 2023 and is unamended since.

Two instruments exist for someone in this position. To establish whether you are a Dutch national, a petition under RWN art 17 lies to the rechtbank Den Haag, or to the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie if you live in Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten or the BES islands; anyone with an immediate interest may bring it, including for a deceased person, provided the point is not already live in other proceedings, and only cassation to the Hoge Raad lies from the decision.

To get nationality back, the restoration option under RWN art 6(1)(p) (inserted by Stb. 2021, 572, in force 1 April 2022) requires that the loss occurred by operation of law, that EU citizenship was lost with it, and that disproportionate consequences under EU law were reasonably foreseeable at that moment. There is no filing deadline. The date bar rules out most historic cases: EU citizenship was created on 1 November 1993, and anyone holding another EU member state's nationality at the moment of loss is outside the ground. Outcomes are poor -- of the advice requests the IND registered between February 2020 and July 2023 it found the loss not disproportionate in 90 per cent of cases and disproportionate in about 4 per cent. Reacquisition is retroactive to the moment of loss and no declaration of solidarity is required (RWN art 6(8)).

For this loss to have operated, three things have to be true, and each is a place where a case can be contested.

You held Dutch nationality at the relevant moment. If that is what is in doubt — for example because an earlier link in the family chain is unclear — the question is one for the determination procedure described under appeals, not for a new application.

You acquired another nationality. The loss provision engaged here is one of the automatic-loss grounds capable of opening the proportionality-based restoration option, and it accounted for 8% of the roughly 800 proportionality advice requests the IND handled between February 2020 and July 2023 — a small share compared with the 74% arising from long residence abroad.

The acquisition was voluntary. This is the element that most often decides a case, because loss by operation of law is triggered by a voluntary act, not by a nationality conferred automatically by another state's law without any application on your part. Renunciation is treated differently again: it is a voluntary loss rather than an automatic one, which matters for whether the restoration option is available.

Statutory exceptions exist. Their content is not established in the sources compiled for this route, and no number, category or date for them should be taken from anywhere but the statutory text as currently in force.

How the rule applied to acquisitions predating the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is likewise not established here. The RWN's consolidated text has been in force since 1 October 2023 and is unamended since; what governed an acquisition decades earlier is a separate question of intertemporal law.

The loss operates under article 15(1)(a) of the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap, consolidated text in force since 1 October 2023 and unamended in force. It is a cessation by operation of law, not a decision, which is why the Rijkswet's legal-protection provisions do not reach it. The statutory exceptions under which acquiring another nationality does not cost Dutch nationality were not decoded for this evidence base; they must be read from the article itself, and no category, condition or date should be taken from anywhere else.

The remedies have their own bases. Whether a person is or was a Dutch national is settled on petition under article 17, with the Minister an interested party under article 18(1), cassation only under article 18(2), and a final decision binding on every body executing a statutory scheme under article 19. Restoration runs through the option ground in article 6(1)(p), inserted by the Rijkswet of 17 November 2021, Staatsblad 2021, 572, in force 1 April 2022: the receiving authority must seek the Minister's advice under article 6(3), reacquisition is retroactive and requires no declaration of solidarity under article 6(8), and article 6(9) limits anyone who has previously optated to grounds (f) and (p). The proportionality standard applied inside that procedure derives from article 20 TFEU, and the burden of substantiating it rests on the individual (Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State, 12 February 2020, ECLI:NL:RVS:2020:423).

There is no administering body and no decision to attack. Loss of this kind takes effect by operation of law, so nothing is issued, nothing is served on you, and no objection deadline is running anywhere. In practice the first authority to act on it is the one you ask for a passport or a certificate of Dutch nationality - a Dutch municipality, or an embassy or consulate abroad - and its refusal is what makes the loss visible.

A binding answer comes only from a court. Anyone with an immediate interest may petition for a declaration that they do or do not hold Dutch nationality under the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap, in force unchanged since 1 October 2023: to the rechtbank Den Haag, or to the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie if you live in Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten or the BES islands. The forum follows residence. The Minister is an interested party, the State is heard in Den Haag and the public prosecutor before the Hof, only cassation lies against the outcome, and once irrevocable it binds every public body charged with applying any statutory rule - which is why it is worth pursuing rather than re-arguing the point with each authority in turn.

There is no decision to object to, so the ordinary objection and appeal chain does not apply. Two distinct instruments do.

To establish whether you are a Dutch national. A petition under RWN art 17 to the rechtbank Den Haag, or to the Gemeenschappelijk Hof van Justitie if you live in Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten or the BES islands. Anyone with an immediate interest may bring it, including in respect of a deceased person, provided the point is not already live in other proceedings. The Minister is a party and the State is heard. Only cassation to the Hoge Raad lies from the decision, and once it is final every body charged with implementing any statutory rule is bound by it. In 2026 the court fee is the ordinary civil tariff for a petition of unspecified value: EUR 341 for an individual, EUR 93 for a person of limited means (Stcrt. 2025, 39855, in force 1 January 2026). No source expressly classifies this petition, so confirm the figure with the registry before filing.

To get nationality back where the loss was disproportionate. A restoration option under RWN art 6(1)(p), in force since 1 April 2022. It requires that the loss occurred by operation of law, that EU citizenship was lost with it, and that disproportionate consequences under EU law were reasonably foreseeable at that moment. It is a fresh declaration, not an appeal; there is no filing deadline; the deciding authority must seek the IND's advice, which is not binding; and the decision period is 13 weeks, extendable once by 13.

If that restoration declaration is refused, the ordinary chain then applies: objection, then appeal to the rechtbank, then further appeal to the Council of State, six weeks at each step, with 2026 court fees of EUR 200 and EUR 297 for an individual. On the EU-law proportionality question the courts review intensively rather than deferentially (5 February 2025, ECLI:NL:RVS:2025:421).

The date bar rules out most historic cases. The restoration option needs EU citizenship to have been lost together with Dutch nationality. EU citizenship was created on 1 November 1993, so anyone who lost Dutch nationality before that date never held it and is outside the ground entirely. So is anyone who held another EU member state's nationality at the moment of loss, because EU citizenship survived through that.

The success rate is low and worth knowing before spending money. Of the advice requests the IND registered between February 2020 and July 2023, it advised that the loss was not disproportionate in 90% of cases and that it was disproportionate in about 4%. Most failures occur at the first step of the IND's two-part test: the person had not been exercising EU rights at the moment of loss and it was not reasonably foreseeable that they would. A common disqualifier is being able to travel visa-free in the EU or to obtain a visa or residence permit easily. The pattern that succeeds is concrete: a job interview in the EU at the time of loss, plus a statement from the employer afterwards that it could not or would not sponsor a residence permit.

The assessment is made as things stood at the moment of loss, not today. It covers consequences that had already materialised then and those that were reasonably foreseeable then, and the circumstances in which the loss occurred are also weighed. The burden is on you to substantiate it with evidence, and evidence from official government bodies carries more weight.

Budget for paying twice. The IND recorded that people typically discover the loss through a rejected passport application, so they pay for the passport and then for the restoration procedure — around EUR 100 to 150 and then around EUR 200 on 2023 consular figures.

Reacquisition under the restoration option is retroactive to the moment nationality was lost, and no declaration of solidarity is required for it.

All instruments were retrieved and read on 25 July 2026.

• Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap (RWN), consolidated text in force since 1 October 2023, unamended since — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0003738/2023-10-01 (art 6(1)(p) restoration option; art 6(3) mandatory IND advice; art 6(5) decision period; art 6(8) retroactivity and no declaration of solidarity; art 6(9) one-shot bar; art 17 determination of nationality; arts 18-19 cassation only, and binding effect)
• Rijkswet of 17 November 2021 inserting the proportionality option, 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
• Handleiding Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 2003, version in force since 1 July 2026 — https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBW33099
• 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, Invoeringstoets evenredigheidstoets bij automatisch verlies Nederlanderschap, July 2023 — https://ind.nl/nl/documenten/04-2025/onderzoeksrapport-invoeringstoets-evenredigheidstoets-bij-automatisch-verlies-nederlanderschap.pdf
• Afdeling bestuursrechtspraak van de Raad van State, 12 February 2020, ECLI:NL:RVS:2020:423; 5 February 2025, ECLI:NL:RVS:2025:421