Thinking About Renouncing UK Nationality To Become Dutch

Hi and welcome to the Forum.

Don't know, I've pondered on the same thing many times over the years.  In reality, all the passport does is guarantee you unhindered access to the country of issue and to some extent, the right to live and work there.  We've lived and worked all over the world since we married over 30 years ago and the passport we held has never caused an issue.

Seamless travel between the Schengen countries already exists, I frequently travel between NL/D/B and since Schengen (1995), have never been stopped; the colour or source of my passport had nothing to do with that, just the fact that the border crossing points have gone.

The only thing that sticks in my mind was on our wedding day, the guy from the Gemeente who married us presented my wife with her new Dutch passport in her married name, as he handed it over he said "Meisje, meisje, meisje, geeft nooit je paspoort op", despite over the years having several times had the opportunity to do so in a couple of countries, she never has and has never regretted it (plus she's a very proud Dutch lady).

On the technical side; if you're married to a Dutch person, you don't have to give up your British nationality, you can hold 2 passports, my daughter holds both UK/NL passports; so, in reality, you're talking about which queue you stand in at passport control; if you go to a non-EU country (Turkey for example), you'll still be in the same queue and be paying the same entry tax.

So, I'm left pondering why that guy said what he did on our wedding day and I'm still not decided; we will move back to Holland for good in a few years, if at the time holding a Dutch passport gives me some advantage, then I will opt for it, until then, I shall sit and ponder.

Hope this helps.

Cynic
Expat Team

Thank you for the response.
Here's an issue I had internalizing it: I don't know what kind of passport you and your wife have, what your nationalities are, or whether or not you've ever changed them, so I don't know the context for these anecdotes.

For the future of travel for UK citizens, the only news I could find all says that you "can travel throughout the EU freely for now, but that could change".
It might be that there's no travel benefit to getting a Dutch passport over an English one, but I'm not 100% sure. So if anyone has any insight on what will change for UK citizens travelling around the EU in 2020 then please weigh in on that too.

If it helps - my wife is Dutch, nothing else.  I'm a dual national UK/US (from birth), I don't remember the last time I used my US passport.  We've lived/worked in Holland, Germany, US and Canada.

As for travelling freely, you said: "I'd like to have a passport with which I can seamlessly travel around the European Union."  If you go across the border from Enschede into Gronau this morning, there is no border crossing, if you drive down to the Aachen border crossing, you can cross from Germany into Belgium, again, no border crossing etc etc (you get my meaning), this seamless travel you've enjoyed has nothing to do with what passport you have, it's down to Schengen; the UK has never been a signatory to Schengen, so you are enjoying the benefits despite not having a signatory passport now; nothing will change post Brexit, neither will it if all you wish to do is what you said.  So what benefits are you looking to obtain by renouncing your UK passport that you don't get now?

Post-Brexit, assuming you've registered with IND, you'll get a Dutch residence card which assuming nothing changes (and I can't see them setting up another system just to be nasty to Brits), together with your UK passport, will get you into and out of Schengen countries - it already does now for those non-EU citizens living in a Schengen country.  It will be harder for Brits living in the UK as they may need a visa to visit some EU countries, but you won't, the UK/Dutch Governments have already agreed to visa-free travel between UK/NL.

My only comment on the rest of what you said is to not believe all you see and read in the Press (or the internet - even here).

Oh okay, then it sounds like I don't have much to worry about when it comes to travel.
That's good, thanks for the info. I might just stick with the nationality I have.

There are some borders, take Austria and Hungary, for instance, spot checks do occur.

I have just thought of a potentially good reason to take out Dutch nationality; if for example, you wanted to join the Dutch military (I'm thinking in particular of the Koninklijke Marechaussee), or perhaps some other branches of their Police, they may require that you have Dutch nationality.

The Dutch Government website (link) goes into some detail of the benefits of taking Dutch nationality.

SimCityAT wrote:

There are some borders, take Austria and Hungary, for instance, spot checks do occur.

I would still be able to visit Austria and Hungary with a UK passport just the same though, right?

Yes, you would still be able to visit Austria and Hungary; I think his comment is more about the enhanced immigration rules that are in place in Southern Europe, so spot-checks are more the norm.

Assuming you're married to a Dutch national, there is nothing stopping you having both UK and NL passports (apart from the extra costs I guess), but in those circumstances, you don't have to renounce your UK nationality.