Country Update 2024: THE NETHERLANDS

Contributed by: Muhyadin Mohamud, Marloes van Zantvoort, Thomas van Houwelingen-Boer

May 2024

1. Legislative Changes

The most notable (proposed) changes to Dutch legislation relevant to immigration law are as follows:

• 17 April 2024: following a 2023 ruling from the Dutch Council of State, a provision in the Dutch immigration laws has been implemented allowing the Dutch Secretary of State for Justice and Safety to conduct further investigation if there is reason to suspect fraud or a sham marriage/relationship in applications for family reunification. Previously, the Secretary of State did not have the legal authority to conduct such checks according to the Council of State, as Article 16(4) of Directive 2003/86/EC was not implemented in Dutch legislation.

2. Business Immigration

The new EU Blue Card directive had to be implemented by the participating member states in their national laws by 18 November 2023. In The Netherlands, implementing legislation is still under preparation. In anticipation of this new legislation, the Articles of the new directive that have direct effect are already being applied by the Dutch authorities.

The immigration category for foreign investors has been abolished in April 2024. The rights of foreign investors who applied for a residence permit or received one in this category prior to the abolition are not affected, as transitional law has been put in place.

3. Family based immigration

A very significant ruling in the Netherlands was a recent one regarding the obligation to pass a Dutch language test prior to coming to the Netherlands, as partner or spouse of a Dutch citizen or permanent resident. Third country nationals from countries like US, Canada, UK, Australia, Japan, Korea are exempt from that integration test. All other nationalities do have to pass the test. The District Court of Amsterdam has now ruled that this difference in treatment is discriminatory but is also used as a means to “select” migrants based on their national and ethnic origin, making it contrary to the European Convention on Human Rights and even contrary to the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, since there is no justification. It is yet to be determined what this will mean for the Netherlands’ practice regarding the integration test.

4. Asylum

The Netherlands hosted around 140.000 displaced from Ukraine since the start of the war (this is lower than the EU average). A small part of that group was given temporary protection even though they were non-Ukrainians with temporary residence permits in Ukraine, a group for which Temporary Protection is not obligatory. In July 2022, The State secretary tried to retroactively exclude this group from Temporary protection. This has led to numerous cases, a pilot procedure and now 2(!) prejudicial procedures that would not have been necessary if the State Secretary had simply decided to only stop granting Temporary Protection to newly arriving non-EU nationals with temporary Ukrainian permits…

Article 15c 2011/95/EU is applicable for Syria and Yemen. In 2024 the government ceased its application to Yemen. For Syria it is still applicable. Due to the situation in Sudan no decisions are taken and no one is deported. Same for people from Gaza, however Dutch court ruled in 2024 that this decision is not valid and that the Dutch immigration services should decide on cases from Gaza again. Concerning Afghanistan the vulnerable groups were limited. Only journalists, human rights activists, people who are not muslim and LHBTIQ+ are seen as a vulnerable group.

There is a new policy coming up concerning vulnerable groups. The immigration office does not want to specify specific groups anymore, but wants to work with personal criteria that can make someone vulnerable.

There is also a new policy coming up about the credibility assessment. It seems that original documents will become more important and that the absence of documents can be used (or misused) to make a story not credible.

The Dutch Immigration office does still not manage to handle asylum applications within 6 months, therefore the law that made it possible to extend the period with another 9 months was extended. At this moment they do not in all cases make it within 15 months, and unfortunately the 21 months is not always met.

Concerning Dublin refugees are not sent back to Greece, Malta and Hungary. There is also case law that refugees cannot be sent back to Belgium due to problems with housing in Belgium Concerning Bulgaria, there was a court ruling stating that it is safe to send people back under Dublin. The same applied for Croatia. We are waiting for  a decision of the highest court on Poland. The Dutch Council of state ruled on the 26^th of April 2023 that concerning Italy we can no longer count on the interstate trust principle, since they cannot take the responsibility on the Dublin regulation.

5. Deportation

Nothing changed on the merits when appealing a detention decision. Refugees can be sent back to Algeria again and to Morocco, while last year the highest court did not see options. Concerning Somalia refugees are not sent back to areas under control of Al Shabaab.      

6. Citizenship

1 October 2023: Dutch Act on Determination of Statelessness entered into force. Before this Act, the Netherlands did not have a procedure in place to determine statelessness. As a result, around 5000 people were formally registered as ‘stateless’ in the Dutch Population Registry, while 26000 people were registered with the indication ‘nationality unknown’. Based on this Act, a request for determination of statelessness can be submitted at the civil court in The Hague. In addition to this new petition procedure, someone who is ‘obviously’ stateless can have statelessness determined by the IND or local municipality. Minors and young adults who are registered in the Netherlands as stateless may obtain Dutch citizenship through naturalisation by option.

24 October 2023: publication of a draft legislative proposal amending the Dutch Citizenship Act (RWN). This proposal seeks major modernization of the RWN. It would become a lot easier for Dutch citizens abroad to obtain and keep dual citizenship, and for future Dutch citizens to keep their original nationality and become dual nationals.