A Dutch resident of New York applied for a new Dutch passport in 2014. The Secretary of State did not process the application. She would have lost Dutch nationality because she had lived abroad for more than 10 years. She appealed against this to the Administrative Law Division. The Administrative Jurisdiction Division asked the Court of Justice in Luxembourg for a preliminary ruling on this matter. Following the answers of the European Court of Justice, the Administrative Law Division ruled in February 2020 that the Minister must assess the individual consequences of the loss of Dutch nationality on the basis of the principle of proportionality.
In doing so, the consequences of the loss of Dutch citizenship for the applicant are considered. A large part of the woman’s family lives in the Netherlands. With her Moroccan passport, it would be more difficult for her to come to the Netherlands to live and work here. According to the woman, it has always been clear that after gaining work experience in the US, she wanted to return to the Netherlands to work here as an ICU nurse. In addition, the Dutch embassy in the U.S. did not point out to her in time that her Dutch nationality would lapse after 10 years.
The Administrative Law Division ruled in favor of the woman. She must get her Dutch citizenship back with retroactive effect. The Minister must take a new decision on her application for a passport.
Source: Raad van State (article translated from Dutch)
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