I want to be Dutch.

I am sure this already exists: A blog about someone’s journey to become a citizen of another country, and probably even specifically- becoming a Dutch citizen. While I think part of my own such journey will be to dig pretty deep for just these kinds of blogs, I haven’t dug deep yet, so I apologize to the entire ‘blogosphere’ if this seems redundant to anyone.

There is a huge back-story behind why I’m planning on becoming Dutch, but to keep it simple for an intro, let me just give you the technical reason- it’s what’s known as Partner Reuinification. My love lives there, and I live on the west coast in the US. I’m keeping things kind of anonymous for starters (I will refer mostly to my love as “Dutch Boy”), because it’s kind of a complicated time for me and I feel that this blog will not really benefit toward its purpose with specifics of who I am and how I got where I am at this point in my life. Don’t take that as a vow to be impersonal and boring! Far from it, I have so much to say about why a person’s heart might decide it wants to be able to claim citizenship in a country like the Netherlands. I think it’ll be an enjoyable read, so I hope you’ll stick around.

This will be a long journey, possibly up to 7 years long. Someone in my circumstance cannot obtain citizenship in less than 3 years, and from what I’ve read, it could take up to 5- and that’s from within a living situation where you and your Dutch partner are under the same roof for at least 6 months out of the year. Mine and I will not be in that situation for at least another year, probably a year and a half. For once, I had the foresight to consider starting to detail the long journey from the beginning of it instead of trying to recollect it after the fact.

So, stay tuned for tales of learning the Dutch language, fun trips to Holland, and eventually- details of what a move overseas looks like, and the naturalization process!