Recent High Court rulings on regaining Dutch citizenship

Recently, the Administrative Law Division of the Council of State has issued new rulings in so-called ‘Tjebbes’ cases. These are cases in which it is assessed whether the loss of Dutch citizenship has entailed disproportionate consequences for a person from the perspective of EU law.

If the applicant can prove that the loss of his or her Dutch citizenship, and thus EU citizenship, entailed disproportionate consequences, the applicant should be able to regain his or her Dutch citizenship. In practice, however, such an application rarely leads to a positive decision. This is due to a very strict assessment by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the IND. In addition, there is still some uncertainty about which circumstances are relevant in the proportionality assessment and how they should be taken into account.

In three recent decisions, the Council of State has clarified how certain circumstances should be assessed in the proportionality test. Among other things, the Council of State explains that the circumstances under which someone loses Dutch citizenship must be included in the assessment. Even if this cannot be directly related to EU rights.

In addition, the Council of State explains what ‘particular difficulties’ may be in the context of the proportionality assessment. Indeed, to regain Dutch citizenship, the applicant must prove that he or she has faced particular difficulties in exercising his or her EU rights. It follows from the ruling that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs can no longer conclude that there cannot be particular difficulties because, for example, the applicant would also meet the conditions of a certain residence permit in the Netherlands.

Despite these rulings, it can still be challenging to regain Dutch citizenship based on the proportionality test.

Do you doubt whether you are eligible to regain Dutch citizenship?

Please feel free to contact us.