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My husband's grand parents from both sides were born in The Netherlands.

His parents were also born in The Netherlands.

They immigrated to South Africa just after WWII and started a family in South Africa.

They kept their Netherlands citizenship till all 4 children were born. Then they both naturalised. So after that came my husband.

As a surprise though.. and we want to know if he can claim NL citizenship after his parents both naturalised.

Both of his parents have passed away.

We want to know even though they naturalised if we can claim Dutch citizenship for him.

Maybe through his grand parents?

My husband is born in 1969.

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    Generally when a Dutch citizen naturalizes in another country, Dutch citizenship is lost, and the loss typically extends to any minor children. There are some exceptions, the details having changed over the years. To see if there might be any reason to believe that your inlaws did not lose Dutch nationality when they naturalized, we'd need to know when that happened so we could see what exceptions existed at that time. There is no way to get Dutch nationality directly from grandparents.
    – phoog
    Commented Feb 16, 2020 at 23:41
  • Thank you for your answer. My in-laws naturalised in 1966 and my husband was horn in 1969.
    – Allicat
    Commented Feb 17, 2020 at 12:35
  • Born not horn 🙈🤣
    – Allicat
    Commented Feb 18, 2020 at 2:06
  • Your inlaws might not have lost their Dutch nationality when they naturalized, but this is very unlikely: if your father in law was a minor in Dutch law, the naturalization would not have led to the loss of Dutch nationality. The age of majority at the time was 21 (though he might have been emancipated before that age by getting married; I am not certain about that). How old was your father-in-law when he naturalized?
    – phoog
    Commented Mar 22, 2020 at 16:31

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This states: https://ind.nl/en/dutch-citizenship/Pages/Loss-and-the-revoking-of-Dutch-nationality.aspx

You lose the Dutch nationality in the following situations:

  • You voluntarily take another nationality. By voluntarily taking another nationality you will automatically lose your Dutch nationality.

This applies to your in-laws, as they voluntarily took South African nationality in 1966.

As such then they were no longer Dutch citizens when your husband was born in 1969. Therefore he does not qualify for NL citizenship. He can not qualify via Grandparents, only parents. (And if born before 1985 only via the father).

See also: https://ind.nl/en/dutch-citizenship/Pages/by-birth-or-acknowledgement.aspx

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  • The statement on the IND site concerns the state of Dutch nationality law today. The law that matters is the Dutch nationality law in effect in 1966 and 1969 (and after 1987 when the husband reached his 18th birthday). In fact, there are circumstances under which they may have retained Dutch nationality when naturalizing in 1966, though those circumstances seem unlikely to apply in this case.
    – phoog
    Commented Mar 22, 2020 at 16:27

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