thomas said:
Perhaps Belgium is very liberal in this regard, however, regulations vary from country to country. In Austria foreigners can apply for citizenship after 10 years of permanent residence, foreign spouses can apply after 3 years of residence (provided that the marriage lasts for 2 years). The same stipulations go for Germany, except that unmarried foreigners can apply after 8 years of permanent residence (5 years in the Netherlands & the UK, 10 years in Italy, but also 5 years in Belgium for foreigners who have not been born there). Etc, etc...
It's true that requirements vary a lot from country to country. Belgium must be quite liberal, but Austria also stricter than average. There isn't even such a thing as a spouse or permanent visa in Belgium. Spouses of Belgian citizens can stay in Belgium without visa just by registering at the local town hall (but can't stay in the country if their spouse doesn't live there
). Citizenship can be granted after 6 months of marriage. I guess there is no permanent visa so that people who are not married to a Belgian, or not EU citizens (who don't need visas), should be naturalised if they really want to stay in Belgium for all their life. Belgium is also the only EU country with Denmark that does not allow dual nationality in
any cases (other Germanic countries normally don't allow it, but can make some exceptions).
In
France, it is from 2 to 5 years for non spouse (but can be waived for people coming from former French colonies, dependencies or protectorate, for minor children, refugees, or people who speak French as their mother-tongue). For
spouses, they only need to have been married for 1 year (no minimum residency). That's quite similar to Belgium.
For the
Netherlands, people must have lived for 5 years in the Netherlands, the Dutch Antilles or Aruba, or after 3 years of marriage or registered partnership and cohabitation with a Dutch national.
In the UK, spouses of British nationals can be naturalised after 3 years of residency. For others it's 5 years.
In
Australia, it is only 2 years for non-spouse (couldn't find a special treatment for spouses).
In
Canada, they say 3 or 4 years, but there is also no mention of spouses.
In
Spain, it is as much as 10 years, but only 1 year for spouses, children or grandchildren of Spanish citizens.
In
Italy, it is 6 months for spouses living in Italy or 3 years for spouses living outside Italy.
for others it is 10 years, but only 4 years for Eu citizens and 3 years for children and grandchildren of Italian citizens.
Summary of period of residency required
Spain => 10 years
Austria => 10 years
Germany => 8 years
Japan => 5 to 10 years (not clear)
USA => 5 years (as permanent resident)
UK => 5 years
Netherlands => 5 years
Belgium => 5 years
Italy => 4 to 10 years
Canada => 3 to 4 years
Australia => 2 years
France => 0 to 5 years
Summary of period of residency/marriage required for spouses
Japan => 4 to 5 years
Austria/Germany => 3 to 5 years
Canada => 3 to 4 years
USA => 3 years
UK => 3 years
Netherlands => 3 years
Australia => 2 years
Spain => 1 year
France => 1 year
Italy => 6 months to 3 years
Belgium => 6 months
In both cases Japan ranks at the top. Interestingly, the Latin countries (Belgium included) regard marriage as a more important factor to reduce the residency period (6 months or 1 year only, compared to 3 to 5 years in most other developed countries).
