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You are here: Home Life in News Focus Travelling the rocky road to naturalisation

28/08/2006Travelling the rocky road to naturalisation

Sueli Brodin's tale of her quest to obtain Dutch citizenship.

Sueli Brodin - her application was almost rejected

In December 2003, the town hall officer phoned me to inform me that my file was in order. She had checked with the IND if my Dutch language credentials were acceptable and the answer had been positive. As I paid the application fees of EUR 330, I was warned not to expect any decision before about a year, because there was a long backlog at the IND.

Dealing with the IND

A year and a half later, in May 2005, as policy towards foreigners had become even harsher, I had still not received any news about my application, so my husband called the IND to enquire about my case.

The answer came as a great shock: “Most regrettably, your spouse’s application has been lying on the desk of an officer who is away on a long-term sick leave and the file has not been reviewed yet”. Fortunately, the IND officer added: “We will now put her application on a priority list”.

Just before the summer, I received a worrisome telephone call from my local town hall officer: "The IND is now examining your case and it appears that the documents you have submitted are not valid. This could even mean that your application will be rejected."

This conversation marked the beginning of a frustrating and unpleasant period during which my husband and I tried to understand why exactly my application was being questioned.

It took us many phone calls to the IND, including to the complaint desk, and a letter of protest to Rita Verdonk herself at the Ministry of Justice to finally obtain an answer that enlightened us on the matter: "Ms Brodin's Dutch language titles are not valid documents for the naturalisation procedure. They are certificates, and we need the word 'diploma'. Furthermore, Ms Brodin's residence permit is a labour-based residence permit, it is not a valid residence permit for a non-active person. She should have changed her permit when she stopped working".

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