Five Years, and Whether You Keep Your Old Passport Depends on a 1993 Protocol
Answer
The general rule applies to you
No exception is recorded for citizens of Uruguay on this topic. That is the answer, not a gap - everything below is the rule you get, unchanged.
116 exceptions recorded across 45 countries · none match Uruguay to Netherlands · Becoming a citizen
Naturalisation in the Netherlands asks for five years of admission and principal residence immediately before the request, knowledge of Dutch and of the country's institutions, and a declaration of solidarity. Two things make it unusual. The five years may be spent anywhere in the Kingdom - the European Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten or the Caribbean public bodies - and the period falls away entirely for someone who has been the spouse of and lived with a Dutch national for three years. And the Act requires you to give up the nationality you hold, with four exceptions, the first of which is not about you at all: it is about whether your state signed the Second Protocol of 1993.
At a glance
- Residence required
- Five years immediately before the request
Article 8(1)(c) of the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap.
- Where those years may be spent
- Anywhere in the Kingdom, including Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten and the Caribbean public bodies
- If you are married to a Dutch national
- No residence period at all, after three years of marriage and living together
Article 8(2).
- If you have ten years in the Kingdom in total
- Two years
Article 8(3).
- Renunciation of your existing nationality
- Required, unless it cannot reasonably be demanded of you or one of four exceptions applies
Article 9(1)(b) and 9(3) of the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap.
- The first of those exceptions
- Being a national of a State party to the Second Protocol of 2 February 1993
Which states are party to it is a fact about the treaty and is not in this Act. We have not read the party list, so no country is named here.
Requirements
- Majority, and no objection to indefinite residence
- Five years of admission and principal residence in the Kingdom immediately before the request
- Knowledge of Dutch and of the institutions and society
- A declaration of solidarity on acquisition
- Everything possible to lose your current nationality, unless an exception applies
What applies to you
Nothing changes for a citizen of Uruguay
We have no rule recorded that treats your citizenship differently here, so the general rule above is the one that applies to you. That is an answer, not a gap.
What the law says
«c. die tenminste sedert vijf jaren onmiddellijk voorafgaande aan het verzoek in het Europese deel van Nederland, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten of de openbare lichamen Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba, toelating en hoofdverblijf heeft;»Our translation - not official
Admission and principal residence for at least five years immediately preceding the request, in the European part of the Netherlands, Aruba, Curacao, Sint Maarten or the public bodies Bonaire, Sint Eustatius and Saba.
The years are counted across the whole Kingdom, which is the part no summary of Dutch naturalisation mentions.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«2 Het eerste lid, onder c, geldt niet met betrekking tot de verzoeker die hetzij te eniger tijd het Nederlanderschap of de staat van Nederlands onderdaan-niet-Nederlander heeft bezeten, hetzij sedert tenminste drie jaren de echtgenoot is van en samenwoont met een Nederlander, hetzij tijdens zijn meerderjarigheid in Nederland, Aruba, Curaçao of Sint Maarten is geadopteerd door ouders van wie in elk geval één het Nederlanderschap bezit.»Three ways the period disappears: having once held Dutch nationality, three years of marriage to and cohabitation with a Dutch national, or adult adoption by parents of whom at least one is Dutch.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«3 De termijn bedoeld in het eerste lid, onder c, wordt op twee jaren gesteld voor degene die in totaal ten minste tien jaren in het Europese deel van Nederland, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten of de openbare lichamen Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba toelating en hoofdverblijf heeft gehad.»Ten years in the Kingdom in total cuts the immediately preceding period to two.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«d. die in het Koninkrijk en het land van ingezetenschap als ingeburgerd kan worden beschouwd op grond van het feit dat hij beschikt over een bij algemene maatregel van rijksbestuur te bepalen mate van kennis van de Nederlandse taal en – indien hij in Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten of de openbare lichamen Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba hoofdverblijf heeft – de taal die op het eiland van het hoofdverblijf gangbaar is, alsmede van de staatsinrichting en maatschappij van het Europese deel van Nederland, Aruba, Curaçao, Sint Maarten of de openbare lichamen Bonaire, Sint Eustatius en Saba, en hij zich ook overigens in een van deze samenlevingen heeft doen opnemen; en»The integration condition. The degree of knowledge of Dutch is left to a general measure of Kingdom administration rather than stated here.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«b. de verzoeker die een andere nationaliteit bezit, niet het mogelijke heeft gedaan om die nationaliteit te verliezen dan wel niet bereid is het mogelijke te zullen doen om, na de totstandkoming van de naturalisatie, die nationaliteit te verliezen, tenzij dit redelijkerwijs niet kan worden verlangd;»Our translation - not official
The request of an alien who meets articles 7 and 8 is nevertheless refused if the applicant who holds another nationality has not done what is possible to lose that nationality, or is not willing to do what is possible to lose it after naturalisation, unless this cannot reasonably be demanded.
The escape clause at the end is where most of the real variation lives, and what makes it reasonable or not is each origin state's own law on giving up its nationality. Nothing in this Act says which states those are.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
«3 Het eerste lid, aanhef en onder b, is niet van toepassing op - a. de verzoeker die onderdaan is van een Staat die Partij is bij het op 2 februari 1993 te Straatsburg tot stand gekomen Tweede Protocol tot wijziging van het Verdrag betreffende de beperking van gevallen van meervoudige nationaliteit en betreffende militaire verplichtingen in geval van meervoudige nationaliteit (Trb. 1994, 265); - b. de verzoeker die in Nederland, Aruba, Curaçao of Sint Maarten is geboren en daar ten tijde van het verzoek zijn hoofdverblijf heeft; - c. de verzoeker die gehuwd is met een Nederlander; - d. de verzoeker die in Nederland, Aruba, Curaçao of Sint Maarten erkend is als vluchteling.»Four exceptions and only one of them is about conduct. The others are a treaty your state signed, a birthplace, and a marriage.
Read it at the sourceAbout this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source
Practical notes
The renunciation duty and its exceptions are the reason two people with identical residence histories get different answers. Which of them keeps a second passport turns on their nationality, their birthplace or their spouse, not on anything they did while living here.
This record quotes the Act. The degree of language knowledge, and when giving up a nationality counts as unreasonable, are set by instruments made under it that have not been read.
- consolidatesRijkswet op het Nederlanderschap
Overheid.nl, Wettenbank
About this source
The consolidated text of every Dutch regulation, each at a stable BWBR identifier and served whole as HTML. A date may be appended to the address to ask for the text as it stood on that day, and the page states the period the version it serves was in force.
Standing: Maintains the text in force
Cannot be cited for: The authentic text is Dutch. The English renderings that exist elsewhere are translations and may not be quoted as the instrument. Much of what decides a Dutch application is not here as law: the Vreemdelingencirculaire 2000 is a policy circular of the State Secretary, and the IND's own pages are an agency describing the law it applies. The reach of each instrument also differs inside the Kingdom - the Vreemdelingenwet 2000 governs the European Netherlands, the Caribbean Netherlands has its own admission Act, and Aruba, Curacao and Sint Maarten legislate their own admission entirely, while the Rijkswet op het Nederlanderschap is a Kingdom Act and applies across all of it.
We re-read it every 60 days. More about this source