Would our child have four nationalities?

Question

I (f) am a dual citizen of Netherlands and Belgium, born in Netherlands. I only hold a Dutch passport but I have all rights to apply for a Belgian passport. My husband is a UK citizen. We are considering moving to the USA. What would the nationality of a child born there be?

I assume he or she would have all four nationalities at least till the age of 26, where the child would lose Dutch and/or Belgian nationality if they haven't lived there or applied for a passport. Is my assumption true or am I missing any rules? Does the fact that I don't hold a Belgian passport make a difference?

Answer 1

They would have three citizenships automatically, although you would need to do the paperwork to register them in all the countries. More specifically, all children born in the US are Americans (with some rare exceptions for diplomats etc), and all children born to Dutch or UK nationals inherit those citizenships as well.

Belgium would be the exception here, since they do not grant citizenship automatically to children both outside Belgium. Their nationality law is convoluted, and we'd need to know your place and date of birth to give an accurate answer, but as you yourself were borrn outside Belgium, most likely you would have to apply to register your child within 5 years of birth. This in turn would require some clear evidence that you're a Belgian citizen: not necessarily a passport, mind you, but that would likely be the easiest option.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_nationality_law