The spouses of nationals are eligible for Dutch nationality sooner than partners/co-habitees or other first-generation migrants. To naturalise, applicants go through the same stringent integration conditions as longterm residents. However, citizenship is not restricted to only those who can prove a sufficient income. Applicants can be refused nationality for not attending the new mandatory Naturalisation Day ceremony, first celebrated on 24 August 2006. Naturalised Dutch citizens are then the 3rd most secure of the 28, after SE and CZ. They only lose their citizenship if it was acquired fraudulently, and such a judgment can be contested through appeal and representation in court. The Netherlands accepts dual nationality for children born in the country to foreign parents. Although in general naturalising citizens must renounce their original nationality, important exceptions are allowed.
