# Applying for Belgian citizenship



## retracingmyroots (Jun 24, 2016)

Forgive me if I'm posting in the wrong section of this forum but I wanted to know whether someone else has come across further information on whether I'm eligible for Belgian citizenship based on the following information:

1. I was born there

2. I live there just under 5 years

3. I'm an EU citizen

4. Unfortunately my parents aren't Belgian

Any information will be warmly received! :fingerscrossed:

Cheers,


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## Bevdeforges (Nov 16, 2007)

It has been a while since I was researching this stuff for Belgium, but as I recall, being born in Belgium doesn't make you eligible for citizenship unless both your parents at the time of your birth had nationalities that could not be transmitted to you at birth (i.e. if you would otherwise be born "stateless").

The law has changed a couple of times in the last 10 or 15 years, so you may want to take a look at the Wikipedia explanation, which includes the relevant dates: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgian_nationality_law
Cheers,
Bev


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## retracingmyroots (Jun 24, 2016)

Thanks for your reply! Hm, it seems like you're right and it looks like I'm not eligible based on birth and the length of my stay. That's a damn shame....


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## Claudinchen (Jul 1, 2016)

Being born in Belgium and no parent is Belgium makes you have the nationality of your father. You can apply for belgian citizenship as a EU citizen once you have lived here for 5 years in a row minimum.

We were just thinking about applying, after 9 years of living, when hubby was offered in job in the US


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