The Netherlands: British citizens in the Netherlands and Brexit: A quick update as to your status if Brexit happens

If you are a British expat or British national living in the Netherlands, the end of the uncertainty regarding your legal residence in the Netherlands post-Brexit is not yet in sight. The UK parliament voted down the Brexit Agreement and a No-Deal Brexit is closer than ever.

Brexit: If there is a deal

 

The right of residence for UK nationals living in the Netherlands or Dutch nationals living in the UK is no longer a topic of debate. If an agreement is reached in time, it is likely that the section on rights of residence will be taken from the voted down Agreement. You can find an overview of your rights in the case of an agreement here.

Brexit: if there is No-Deal 

The Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND) has made known what the rights of British citizens and their family members in the Netherlands are in case of a No-Deal.
During the transition period from March 29, 2019, until July 1, 2020, British citizens and their family members legally residing, working and / or studying in the Netherlands before March 29, 2019, will keep these rights of residence.

During the transitional period, you will need to apply for a Dutch residence permit. You will receive an invitation from the IND to apply for this permit. To obtain a Dutch residence permit, you need to comply with the requirements for residence laid down in EU Law:

• Employees or self-employed persons must continue to be employed or self-employed.
• Economically inactive residents must have sufficient resources not to become a burden on the social assistance system of the Netherlands and have comprehensive health insurance coverage.
• Students must be enrolled at a recognised private or public educational institution accredited or financed by the Dutch government, and have sufficient resources to not become a burden on the social assistance system of the Netherlands as well as have comprehensive health insurance coverage.

Once you have obtained a Dutch residence permit, you are not required to comply with any integration measures and you are entitled to work in the Netherlands without a work permit.

British students will retain their rights to statutory tuition fees and student finance if they meet the conditions applying to EU citizens.

After 5 years of legal residency in the Netherlands, you can apply for a Dutch permanent residence permit. If you already have a Dutch residence permit (temporary or permanent), nothing will change for you.

If you have an EU permanent residence permit, the IND will automatically change your permit to a Dutch permanent residence permit. IND will inform you as soon as your national permanent residence permit is ready for collection.

Do you hold another EU-nationality besides your UK nationality? You will keep your right of residence as an EU-citizen after Brexit if you continue to meet the requirements laid down in EU law.

You can find a complete No-Deal overview here.

Coming to the Netherlands post-Brexit

According to IND, you will need to fulfill the same conditions to obtain residency as any other non-EU citizen.

However, you will be exempt from the requirement to obtain a provisional residence permit (machtiging tot voorlopig verblijf or mvv) in order to travel to and enter the Netherlands for a potential long-term stay.

This means that you can first travel to the Netherlands and submit an application for residency after arrival.

Dual Citizenship

When it comes to Brexit, political initiatives have been tabled to allow British nationals living in the Netherlands to keep their UK nationality when obtaining Dutch nationality and vice versa. However, the outcome of these initiatives is most uncertain.

Luckily, the current Dutch Nationality Act already creates the possibility to obtain dual citizenship.

In case you have any further questions relating to Brexit or dual citizenship, you can contact  the Dutch Government IND office or a legal office specializing in Dutch immigration laws.

EU-Digest

The Netherlands: Britons in Netherlands take fight for their EU rights to Dutch court - by Daniel Boffey and Lisa O'Carroll

A group of UK nationals living in the Netherlands are going to court to challenge the right of the British government and the European commission to negotiate away their rights as EU citizens in the Brexit talks.

The claimants will argue that the rights of UK citizens are independent of the country’s EU membership, according to legal documents seen by the Guardian.

The case will be heard in Amsterdam on Wednesday, where a referral to the European court of justice will be sought, in what could be a major test of the treatment of UK nationals by the EU and UK in the Brexit talks, with potentially huge ramifications.

While the ECJ could find that only citizens who have exploited their right to free movement to live in the EU are being unlawfully treated, everyone in the UK could potentially benefit.

Five UK nationals along with the Commercial Anglo Dutch Society (Cads) and the lobby group Brexpats – Hear Our Voice are the named claimants. They are being assisted by Jolyon Maugham, the QC behind a series of recent Brexit legal challenges.

The group argue in their action against the Dutch government that after Brexit on 29 March 2019, anyone who had UK citizenship before that date should legally retain EU rights including freedom of movement and the right of residence.

They say the EU’s treaties are silent on what happens to citizens of a member state that leaves the union. But they claim the Lisbon treaty gives “real weight” to the rights of EU nationals, and that these are not coupled to the political fate of their home country.

The group’s lawyer, Christiaan Alberdingk Thijm, said he expected the court to take six weeks at most to decide whether to refer the case to the ECJ. “We are in a rush,” he said. “I’m convinced that the ECJ should assess these questions. Theresa May famously said ‘Brexit means Brexit’ but no one knows what that means.”

One of the claimants, Stephen Huyton, a director of a US firm headquartered in the Netherlands who has lived in the country for 23 years, said he was concerned about the right of his children, who have British passports and are studying in the UK, to return to the Netherlands to live and work.

“There are a number of points to this and one is emotional,” he said. “We have lived outside the UK for more than 15 years and so we were not allowed to vote in the referendum. That is the rule. So a lot of us really feel disenfranchised by the whole process. It was a raw nerve, and it remains a raw nerve.

“I did not make a lifestyle choice by moving here, I moved here for work. And when I came out I came out on a set of terms and conditions. The whole issue of the UK being able to leave the EU [through article 50 of the Lisbon treaty] wasn’t in the treaties at that point.

“In UK common law, we generally have a rule that we don’t apply law retrospectively, and in some ways that is what they are doing.”

Maugham, who is financially backing the legal action, said he was hopeful the case could have profound implications for UK citizens who want to retain their rights.

“Article 20 gives EU citizenship rights to nationals of member states but it is silent on the issue of what happens to those rights if a member state ceases to be a member state,” he said. “Previous ECJ cases have suggested that EU citizenship rights have an independent reality, not just as an adjunct to national citizenship rights.

“The question is: would anyone who is a citizen of the UK on 29 March 2019 benefit from EU citizenship rights after that date? Of course, we cannot know what the [ECJ] might say. But I can see it taking the opportunity to give meaning and resonance to those rights.”

Maugham conceded that a favourable ruling by the ECJ could throw up an “awkward asymmetry” between the way UK and EU citizens are treated on either side of the Channel.

“The question whether UK citizens can assert EU citizenship rights in the EU after Brexit is a question of EU law,” he said. “But the question whether non-UK EU citizens can assert EU citizenship rights in the UK after Brexit is a question of UK law.

“It may turn out that there is an awkward asymmetry: UK citizens enjoying generous EU rights but EU citizens suffering meagre UK rights.”

Debra Williams, 55, founder of Brexpats, one of the claimants, who has spent a decade moving between Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium for her husband’s work, said: “EU citizenship means the world to me.

“It’s not that I’m not proud to be Welsh and British; I am, but I’m also proud to be European. I’m doing this for the kids, and the grandkids, they should have what we have, to be able to travel and work freely in Europe. Otherwise it’s going to be work permits and visa, that will be a tragedy for them.”

Read more Britons in Netherlands take fight for their EU rights to Dutch court | Politics | The Guardian

The Netherlands: Brits in the Netherlands consider 'going Dutch' to beat a Brexit -

A number of worried British nationals in the Netherlands who fear losing pensions and residency rights if Britain votes to leave the European Union have told DutchNews.nl they are considering taking Dutch nationality.

 ‘We do not have Dutch nationality but are considering doing so, since the outcome of the forthcoming EU referendum in Britain is up in the air,’ David Hall, who has lived in the Netherlands for 46 years, told DutchNews.nl. ‘Our status in the Netherlands could become an issue.’

On Tuesday 06/06/2016 prime minister Mark Rutte said in an interview with the BBC that the Netherlands, and other European countries, would have to bring in restrictions for British nationals if Britain brought in immigration controls for EU citizens. ‘It would be unavoidable, inevitable, for us,’ Rutte said. Embarrassed

Read more: Brits in the Netherlands consider 'going Dutch' to beat a Brexit - DutchNews.nl