UK's relinquishing British citizenship in Holland

[user87382294757]

I noticed this in BBC news today.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/world-europe-49695563/passports-and-nationality-the-brits-going-dutch-over-brexit

Passports and nationality: The Brits going Dutch over Brexit
Would you sacrifice your nationality to secure the rights guaranteed to EU citizens?
There's been a rapid rise in the number of British nationals living in the Netherlands applying to become Dutch since the UK voted in a referendum to leave the European Union.
Before Brexit, barely anyone made the switch.
In most cases, Dutch law requires people taking Dutch citizenship to renounce their previous nationality.

What would happen if they wanted to return? It seems the Netherlands would not be rejecting British citizens anyway, (I checked online) when if there was a no deal Brexit. Seems a bit drastic to me.

Any thoughts? We know a family in Holland don;t think they are considering this though, as they plan to return at some point.

Spain allows dual c/ship for certain categories but not for others, like the Netherlands.

Also echo other posters that I get the overwhelming feeling that I am no more than collateral damage to the UK government, and they don't care about me at all. The Dutch, however, could not have been more caring and proactive in reaching out with reassurances.

So true @Survivaltowel!

As the Dutch immigration department's website says (and in English no less!): Your situation remains a top priority for the Dutch government. ind.nl/en/Pages/Brexit.aspx

And we all know what the British government said about Brits living abroad .

I found the main attitude of officials in my EU country (Netherlands) towards me to be that of pity. Rather like the attitude I imagine they would have towards refugees from war torn countries. I was rather shocked at first, being 'British' and all, but I suppose they are right.

Behoorlijk hypocriet. It keeps annoying me. There are many categories that are more deserving of citizenship, than British people that just want to have the citizenship to use it as a tool (no offence). Compare with the attitude towards refugees (they don't get the 5 star treatment).

@Riverviews is right re Spain; you only need to sign some extra paperwork at the Consulate (Acta de Conservación de la Nacionalidad Española).

There’s a deadline, 3 years from the day you acquired the new nationality, but it is free of charge and easy peasy (once you have managed to get an appointment for it!).

The law has not changed, at least for the last few years. If is just that the article in the law (Civil Code, art. 24.1; last update in 2002) is strangely worded and there are plenty of internet pages interpreting it incorrectly, so people get confused about it.

What happens on top of this is that Spain does not recognise double / dual nationality. The Kingdom of Spain considers my nationality is Spanish only, but they don’t mind that I have acquired another nationality and use it. It is just that for them
I’m Spanish, not Spanish and British.

But this process and “results” are only applicable to people “born” Spanish.

For EU citizens (excluding Portugal), they would always need to renounce their current nationality in order to be granted Spanish nationality. There are no exceptions like the one (Spanish born) above.

it costs something in the region of 265 quid to relinquish British citizenship. At one point I was saying that they could come and prise that money out of my cold dead hands if i decided not to be British any more (I would rather just say it 3 times or something)

In Germany you can keep your British citizenship as long as you apply for German citizenship before actual Brexit (afaik). Mine was rushed through in March because I finally applied (and I'm still cross about having to do it) and I would be travelling outside the EU over the Brexit date. In fact they rushed through all British applications in our area at that time.

I'm another one who feels like an ignored piece of collateral damage that the UK government doesn't give a fig about. And I served in the forces so that stings a lot.

As for when you renounce - under EU law (or is it international law? or maybe it's just German law, i wasn't sufficiently interested to check at the time) a country isn't allowed to force a person to become stateless. So I'm guessing that after Brexit there will be a process for first getting the German then renouncing your other citizenship shortly afterwards.

@LaBrujaPiruja the people I was talking about (and me included) are British applying to obtain Spanish citizenship. They're far more clued up about it than me, but I'm sure I'll be applying soon. Especially as the system seems to have improved over the last year or two and you can now apply online and upload papers when you get them.

@nobeer
Yes, I know. My point was about the common misunderstanding re Spanish born people and double citizenship.
I have seen so many websites with misleading information that I wanted to clarify the situation.
And, btw, I think it is very unfair that they do not apply the basics of article 24.1 (possibility of keeping citizenship of birth) to you guys.

Brefugee- before you renounce your BC status you have to produce the docs to show you've acquired another one.

thanks - as I said I'm cosidering doing it, but I'm not going to pay. Most likely I'll just let my passport expire and ignore the fact that I'm actually British

To be more precise, what I should have said is that even if you renounce your British citizenship, the circumstances that made you eligible for that citizenship are unlikely to have changed eg if you are British by birth, renouncing your citizenship is not going to affect your eligibility for citizenship in the future unless Britain explicitly passes a law making renunciation of citizenship a once-only, no returns deal.