Can anyone help me find out if I can obtain dual citizenship please? This info doesn't seem easy to come by! So I was born in Australia in 1970. I am an Australian citizen. My father born in Australia, my mother born in the Netherlands 1943, immigrated to Australia 1956, died in Australia 2006. God bless her, she always told me I could obtain dual citizenship but I'm not sure how to do so.
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Did she naturalize in Australia? At what age? Was she married to an Australian at the time? These questions can help determine whether you were born with Dutch citizenship, but even if you were, you likely lost it on your 28th birthday because of the ten-year rule affecting dual citizens.– phoogCommented May 28, 2018 at 22:32
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1 Answer
According to Dutch law, you were never Dutch as you were born before 1985 and your father was not Dutch: https://ind.nl/Nederlanderschap/Paginas/Nederlander-door-geboorte-of-erkenning.aspx
There is an "Option Procedure" that would allow you to become a Dutch citizen (and retain your Australian citizenship) through an accelerated naturalization process. You would qualify for this if your mother was still a Dutch citizen at the time of your birth since you would then be born before 1985 to a Dutch mother and a non-Dutch father.
There are many ways though that your mother could have lost her Dutch citizenship prior to your birth. It's possible that on marrying your father, she lost her citizenship as at one point a Dutch woman's citizenship was tied her husband's citizenship. Also, if she naturalized before you were born, she would have lost her Dutch citizenship.
If your mother did lose her Dutch citizenship before your birth, then you would not be eligible for a Dutch passport without naturalizing through the more traditional immigration routes or through marriage to a Dutch citizen.
If you do qualify for the Option Procedure on the basis of your mother being a Dutch citizen when you were born, you can follow the instructions here, which could be done from abroad as you were never a Dutch citizen but are eligible to become one: https://www.netherlandsworldwide.nl/living-working/becoming-a-dutch-citizen/option-procedure
