Dutch naturalization impossible without documents

The topic of this headline received renewed attention from the public and politicians in recent weeks, since Ethiopian born, but Dutch raised, Yosef Tekeste-Yamane made his appearance in the media. 

For instance, Dutch newspaper Trouw published an article on January 8, 2021, followed by a television broadcast on talkshow Op1 of January 11, 2021.

This media attention has led to parliamentary questions being raised; a reply is expected towards the end of January 2021.

Without documents (passport, birth certificate), it is currently not possible to obtain Dutch citizenship, not even if you, like Yosef Tekeste-Yamane, live in the Netherlands since you were two years old and you are in possession of a Ranov (or ‘pardon’) permit since 2007.

Around 11,000 people in the Netherlands are in the same spot. Because they cannot become Dutch, their opportunities in our society are limited. At the beginning of 2020, Everaert Advocaten Immigration Lawyers started a procedure for these so called ‘pardonners’.

Dutch radio show Reporter Radio reported already in May 2020 about our firm’s efforts to get the subject on the political agenda. Then too, parliamentary questions were posed. The replies to those questions can be consulted here (pdf, in Dutch only).

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Naturalization without documents – procedure