Journey to Dutch Citizenship: Determination and New Beginnings.
We moved from Israel to the Netherlands at the end of 1995 – me in September to start my four-year therapist training at the Humaniversity (Egmond aan Zee) and to get a house ready before Vered arrived in November.
Vered managed to secure a job in the Dutch branch of her Israeli employer, thus obtaining a work and residence permit.
It took me years to get my temporary resident permit and later my permanent one.
By the time our daughter Thom was born on May 1, 1997, I was still not registered as a resident, which meant I couldn’t be listed as her father on her birth certificate – a bureaucratic issue we fixed years later.
Despite these challenges, we both eventually obtained permanent residence permits, ran our own companies, and paid taxes in the Netherlands.
However, when we bought our house in Tenerife in 2014, we realized our Israeli passports wouldn’t suffice for our move to Spain.
We needed (and wanted) EU passports – meaning Dutch passports.
For Thom, it was straightforward.
Born and raised in the Netherlands, she received her Dutch passport upon turning 18 in 2015.
For Vered and me, it was more complicated.
At least one of us had to undergo the naturalization process, after which the other could obtain a Dutch passport automatically as a spouse.
Since my Dutch was better, I became the “designated driver” for the naturalization process.
This involved several exams in Dutch language, history, and culture, and relinquishing my Israeli passport.
It was a quiet process, but when I passed all my exams, I was invited to declare my solidarity at the naturalization ceremony.
In the photo, I’m happily holding my hard-earned Dutch passport for the first time.
Vered received hers a few months later and was able to keep her Israeli passport, just like Thom.