Путь долгосрочного резидента ЕС

Holding EU long-term resident status does not create a separate route to Dutch nationality and does not shorten the naturalisation clock. What it does is put you comfortably inside two of the conditions that trip other applicants up: your residence is lawful and indefinite, so there is no objection to your continued residence for an indefinite period (RWN art 8(1)(b); consolidated text in force since 1 October 2023), and the underlying five years of admission and principal residence are already documented.

The conditions you must still meet are the ordinary ones: five years of lawful admission and principal residence immediately before the application, counted across the European Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and the Caribbean public bodies (RWN art 8(1)(c)); the naturalisation test at CEFR A2; a conduct record free of relevant criminal sanctions over a five-year rehabilitation period; in principle the surrender of your existing nationality; and the declaration of solidarity made in person at a ceremony. Nationality is granted by Royal Decree on the Minister's proposal (RWN art 7(1)) and vests only when your personal extract is handed to you, backdated to the date of the decree.

Two points are worth checking before you file. If your admission and principal residence in these territories total at least ten years, RWN art 8(3) reduces the immediately preceding period from five years to two — long-settled long-term residents often qualify without realising it. And if your long-term residence permit carries the annotation that international protection was granted to you on a stated date by a stated member state, the relaxed document rules for asylum holders apply to you (Directive 2003/109/EC).

As of 25 July 2026, a proposal to extend the general five-year term to ten years exists but has not been submitted to parliament. It is not law.

Владельцы LTR, подающие заявку на натурализацию в Нидерландах, удовлетворяют тем же стандартным требованиям 5y RWN по статье 8 проживания + проживание в 2021 году + хороший характер + финансовая самодостаточность + требования по отказу по статье 9 (1) (b), как и любой гражданин третьей страны. Статус LTR не сокращает срок натурализации, но обеспечивает надежную гарантию статуса проживания + права на мобильность внутри ЕС (глава III Директивы о передвижении внутри ЕС).

Ключевые утверждения с тегами маршрутов:

• Директива ЕС о долгосрочном проживании 2003/109/EC разрешает 5-летнее непрерывное проживание в Нидерландах, ведущее к получению постоянного статуса; оттуда натурализация RWN…

As of 25 July 2026:

• Five years of lawful admission and principal residence immediately before the application, counted across the European Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and the Caribbean public bodies (RWN art 8(1)(c)). Reduced to two years where your admission and principal residence in those territories total at least ten years (RWN art 8(3)).
• No objection to your continued residence for an indefinite period (RWN art 8(1)(b)).
• The naturalisation test, which is the civic integration examination, at CEFR A2 in reading, listening, speaking and writing (Besluit naturalisatietoets arts 3(1)(h)(2) and 5(1); in force since 26 May 2022). B1 is sufficient but never required. Since 1 October 2017 the examination also covers the participation statement track and knowledge of Dutch society, which includes orientation on the labour market. Note that a person who was never subject to the civic integration obligation must in principle still sit it.
• Conduct: no serious suspicion, based on your conduct, that you present a danger to public order, good morals or the security of the Kingdom (RWN art 9(1)(a)). The rehabilitation period is five years, raised from four with effect from 1 May 2018. Only indictable offences count; minor offences and matters settled outside criminal law are disregarded, as are convictions where the court found guilt but imposed no penalty.
• Renunciation: you must do what you can to lose your other nationality unless that cannot reasonably be required (RWN art 9(1)(b)). Four statutory exemptions apply (RWN art 9(3)) and policy recognises eleven further categories.
• The declaration of solidarity, spoken in Dutch at a ceremony (RWN arts 8(1)(e) and 23(2)). Attendance is compulsory for everyone aged 16 or over.

A number of alternative diplomas exempt you from the naturalisation test outright. Among them: a Dutch-medium diploma issued on a statutory basis for university, higher, general secondary or vocational education; the NT2 state examination diploma, programme I or II; a comparable Dutch-medium diploma from Belgium or Suriname with a pass in Dutch; the European Baccalaureate including Dutch as first or second language; and an International Baccalaureate, IB Middle Years Certificate or IGCSE including the subject Dutch with a pass. There is also an exemption for anyone resident in the European part of the Netherlands for at least eight years during compulsory-school age — which need not be continuous and need not have been lawful residence.

The main rule for a holder of a regular residence permit is a legalised or apostilled foreign birth certificate together with a valid foreign passport (Handleiding Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 2003, art 7, in force since 1 July 2026). Departure is allowed only on evidentiary impossibility (bewijsnood) or where applying the rule would be disproportionate in your case.

The wider set: your own birth certificate; birth certificates of any children included, with adoption deed or judgment; a marriage certificate where the application rests on three years of marriage to a Dutch national or where marriage conferred majority; a divorce or repudiation deed; and a family booklet where your country of origin uses one. The divorce deed and family booklet exist to detect polygamy.

The long-term residence point that matters. Where your EU long-term residence permit bears the annotation that international protection was granted to you on a stated date by a stated member state (Directive 2003/109/EC), you are treated like an asylum holder for document purposes: you may produce a Dutch refugee passport or Dutch alien's passport instead of a foreign travel document, and you are not expected to approach the authorities of the country you fled. Two conditions attach. You must prove the asylum permit in that other member state yourself. And the documents you rely on must be legalised or apostilled so far as possible, with a sworn translation where they are not in Dutch, English, German or French.

Without that annotation, the ordinary rules apply in full and a valid foreign passport is expected.

Legalisation and translation. You bear the cost and effort of obtaining, legalising and translating. In the European Netherlands a sworn translation is required only where the document is in a language other than Dutch, English, German or French; in the Caribbean Netherlands the trigger is narrower, anything other than Dutch or English. The translation must be physically attached to the original or certified copy and should preferably be into Dutch. In the Netherlands an apostille is a sticker issued by the courts; digital apostilles issued abroad are accepted, but the Netherlands issues paper ones only. Documents already legalised or apostilled and processed into the population register or a Dutch civil-status deed need not be produced again unless there is well-founded doubt.

On conduct you sign a declaration on residence and conduct (model 2.3). The immigration service obtains a judicial-records extract and a police-systems check. There is no Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag in this procedure.

Long-term residence status does not change the tariff. The standard naturalisation fees apply unless you are stateless or hold an asylum residence permit under Vw 2000 art 28 or 33, or a comparable Caribbean permit, in which case the reduced tariff under BON 2002 art 3(2) applies. A long-term residence permit annotated for international protection is worth raising at intake for exactly this reason.

In force 1 January 2026, per constituency. Each column is a separately fixed amount, not a currency conversion of another.

• European Netherlands (WBN 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31825): single EUR 1,139; two applicants filing together EUR 1,454; reduced single EUR 847; reduced joint EUR 1,163; each co-naturalising child EUR 168.
• Aruba (WBN-A 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31841): single Afl. 2,368; joint Afl. 3,023; reduced single Afl. 1,761; reduced joint Afl. 2,418; per child Afl. 349.
• Curacao and Sint Maarten (WBN-CM 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31847): single Cg 2,373; joint Cg 3,029; reduced single Cg 1,765; reduced joint Cg 2,423; per child Cg 350.
• Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba (WBN-BES 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31842): single USD 1,331; joint USD 1,699; reduced single USD 989; reduced joint USD 1,359; per child USD 196.

The 2026 uplift was 4.4 per cent in euro. The Caribbean uplifts were far larger — 13.9 per cent for Aruba and the Caribbean Netherlands, 13.8 per cent for Curacao and Sint Maarten — because the non-euro amounts are recalculated at the exchange rate of the preceding 1 July.

Payment rules. One instalment, paid to the burgemeester in the European Netherlands, the Governor in Aruba, Curacao or Sint Maarten, the Minister for the Caribbean Netherlands, or the head of the diplomatic or consular post abroad. If payment does not arrive within six weeks of receipt of the application, the application is set aside without being handled (BON 2002 arts 5 and 6). The one-year decision period does not start until the fee is paid or fully waived (RWN art 9(4)).

No separate statutory charge exists for the ceremony. Whether individual Dutch municipalities levy a local charge around it is not established.

Dutch nationality is a Kingdom affair, governed by the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap (RWN), whose consolidated text has been in force since 1 October 2023 with no amendment since. Admission and residence, by contrast, are per-constituency matters, which is why the long-term residence status that founds this route is a Netherlands immigration instrument while the nationality conditions are uniform across the Kingdom.

The grant is in RWN art 7(1): the King grants Dutch nationality on the Minister's proposal. Where the applicant's principal residence is in Aruba, Curacao or Sint Maarten, RWN art 7(2) inserts that country's Minister of Justice into the advisory chain.

The conditions are in RWN art 8(1). Art 8(1)(b) requires that no objection exist to continued residence for an indefinite period — the condition that long-term residence status most directly satisfies. Art 8(1)(c) sets the five-year period of admission and principal residence, expressed disjunctively across the European Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and the Caribbean public bodies, so residence in any of them counts. Art 8(1)(d) sets the integration condition, and where the applicant's principal residence is in the Caribbean it requires Dutch and the language current on the island of residence, cumulatively. Art 8(1)(e) requires willingness to make the declaration of solidarity, whose fixed wording is in art 23(2).

Reduced terms sit in art 8(3), which lowers the immediately preceding period to two years where admission and principal residence in those territories total at least ten years, and in art 8(4), which gives three years to stateless applicants and to durable unmarried partners of Dutch nationals. Art 8(2) disapplies the residence condition altogether for former Dutch nationals, for a person who has been the spouse of and cohabits with a Dutch national for at least three years, and for a person adopted as an adult in the Kingdom.

Refusal grounds are in RWN art 9: art 9(1)(a) for public order, good morals or the security of the Kingdom, and art 9(1)(b) for failure to give up another nationality, subject to the four statutory exemptions in art 9(3)(a)-(d). The decision period is in art 9(4).

The integration level is fixed at CEFR A2 by the Besluit naturalisatietoets, arts 3(1)(h)(2) and 5(1), in force since 26 May 2022. Procedure and handover are in the Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap, in force since 1 March 2017. Fees derive from the Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002 as annually indexed. The Handleiding Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 2003, in force since 1 July 2026, is the binding policy manual. Directive 2003/109/EC is relevant only for the treatment of a long-term residence permit annotated for international protection.

Идентификатор источника	Цитирование
НЛ-SRC-024	—
НЛ-SRC-069	—

Количество контактов: 2.

Ten years of Kingdom residence changes the arithmetic. RWN art 8(3) reduces the immediately preceding period from five years to two where admission and principal residence in the European Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten or the Caribbean public bodies total at least ten years. Long-term residents who have moved between territories, or who had earlier permits before acquiring long-term status, frequently meet this and file on the five-year assumption anyway.

Residence gaps reset the clock rather than pausing it. A gap in lawful admission interrupts the required period and the term starts again from zero. There is no gap where you applied for extension in time and met the conditions at that moment, or where the new permit is granted immediately consecutive to the old one after a late application that was not your fault.

Time abroad is where long-term residents are most exposed, because the status itself tolerates absences that the nationality rules do not. Relocation abroad is assumed where you have stayed outside the country for more than six consecutive months, rebuttable only by showing the overrun was beyond your fault. It is also assumed where, for the third consecutive year, you have stayed outside for more than four consecutive months, rebuttable by showing your centre of activities did not move. Notifying the police in advance of an intended absence of no more than six months counts in your favour. Protected categories exist for students temporarily studying abroad to complete a Dutch programme, for permit holders whose work is performed wholly or partly abroad, and for the spouse or partner of a posted Dutch diplomat.

Registration as a non-resident works against you. Registration in the population register as a non-resident is expressly listed as an indication that your principal residence has moved abroad. So are deregistration with the tax authority for departure, redirecting periodic benefits abroad, vacating and letting out your home, and using a remigration scheme.

Civic integration exemptions do not carry over. An exemption granted by a municipality or by DUO under the civic integration legislation does not automatically apply in the naturalisation procedure; it must be independently valid under the Besluit naturalisatietoets.

On renunciation, the treaty-based exemption is not what it looks like. The exemption for nationals of a State party to the Second Protocol of 2 February 1993 has been close to a dead letter since 4 June 2010, when the Netherlands became the only remaining party, and policy records that its provisions are consequently not applied in practice. The practical relief survives instead through the target groups the Protocol addressed — mixed-nationality spouses, their children, and second-generation migrants — to whom RWN art 9(3) has extended the exemption since 1 April 2003 regardless of whether the person's state is a party. Secondary sources routinely get this backwards.

Missing the ceremony ends the grant. If your extract is not handed to you within one year of the date the Royal Decree bears, it lapses by operation of law and you are not Dutch. No objection or appeal lies against that lapse.

Verified as in force on 25 July 2026:

• Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap (RWN), in force since 1 October 2023 — art 7(1) grant by Royal Decree, art 8(1)(b)-(e) conditions, art 8(3) two-year term on ten years of Kingdom residence, art 9 refusal grounds and renunciation exemptions, art 9(4) decision period, art 23(2) the declaration of solidarity. https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0003738/2023-10-01
• Besluit verkrijging en verlies Nederlanderschap (BVVN), in force since 1 March 2017 — filing authorities, the advisory chain and the handover regime. https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013605
• Besluit naturalisatietoets, in force since 26 May 2022 — the CEFR A2 level in arts 3(1)(h)(2) and 5(1), the alternative-diploma exemptions in art 3, the waiver grounds in art 4, and the territorial limits on Caribbean certificates in art 5(3). https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013604
• Besluit optie- en naturalisatiegelden 2002 — art 3(2) reduced tariff, art 4 waivers, arts 5-6 payment and the six-week rule, art 9 the annual indexation mechanism. The consolidated text prints 2011 amounts and must never be cited for a current fee. https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBR0013782
• Besluit WBN 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31825 of 19 September 2025 (European Netherlands); WBN-A 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31841 (Aruba); WBN-CM 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31847 (Curacao and Sint Maarten); WBN-BES 2025/3, Stcrt. 2025, 31842 (Caribbean Netherlands) — all in force 1 January 2026.
• Handleiding Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap 2003, in force since 1 July 2026 — the residence and absence rules, the treatment of a long-term residence permit annotated for international protection, the conduct evidence and the five-year rehabilitation period, and the fifteen renunciation exemption categories. https://wetten.overheid.nl/BWBW33099
• Directive 2003/109/EC, for the international-protection annotation on an EU long-term residence permit.

Statistics on processing: IND, Monitor Naturalisatie en Optie 2018-2024, June 2025. https://ind.nl/nl/documenten/07-2025/monitor-naturalisatie-en-optie-2018-2024.pdf