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Is there a difference between applying for Belgian citizenship or Belgian nationality?
On our form of application for acquiring Belgian citizenship, it states ‘la demande de changement de Nationalité ( article 12bis§ 1-4º)’
I was not aware this meant ‘change’ of nationality, as certain countries permit dual nationality and one can hold 2 passports.
Surely we are not changing nationality?
I am very interested to hear opinions.
I filled in no forms.
What nationality are you? If American, they have a different view on the meaning of nationality and citizenship, but anyone working in a legal capacity will tell you that these 2 words mean the same thing.
There are 2 ways of obtaining Belgian nationality / citizenship
1) naturalization - no-one does it this way any more other than a handful of people
2) declaration
The latter procedure does not require any application forms I am aware of, it simply requires
1) proving your identity normally though a recently issued copy of birth certificate or birth extract in French/Dutch/German translated and legalized where necessary
2) proving the necessary documents to qualify, such as in the case of 5 years uninterrupted work category, you need 5 years of income summaries without gaps
3) proving you are a permanent resident of Belgium / will be for EU when you take up nationality, usually submission of e+ card, f+ card, PR card
Whether you keep your current nationality depends entirely on the laws of the country of your current nationality.
Belgium allows 2+ nationalities, yours may not.
If you acquire Belgian nationality, you will appear on the national register as Belgian and will be considered by Belgium as Belgian, so for the rest of your life, you should vote, for the rest of your life, if you move abroad, you should register your presence with the nearest Belgian consulate, in order to avoid declaring taxes in Belgium.
Citizenship and nationality are effectively the same thing. 'Citizenship' is the word most commonly used in the US and 'nationality' in the UK.
You are not going to CHANGE your nationality, simply going to get a second one and you can have two passports if you choose.
The US used not to accept dual-nationality but that changed some years ago when it was realised that, if a US national takes a second nationality, no-one is going to report that fact to the US authorities. There are still countries which do not accept that their citizens can take a second nationality, for example if they marry someone from another country and move to live there and take their spouse's nationality.
> you're changing nationality and becoming Belgian.
Err - No. Belgian nationality/citizenship is something you acquire, not something you change into.
In fact, for the overwhelming majority of people who do it, they simply declare that they are Belgian and support that declaration with the correct evidence.
