Who still wants to become a Belgian?
Harsher conditions introduced on acquiring Belgian nationality do seem to be having an impact. The flow of applications seems to have turned into a trickle.
As recently as 2013 18,732 people applied to get hold of Belgian nationality. The daily Het Laatste Nieuws reports that by last year this figure had fallen to 113. So far this year only 11 applications have been received.
Despite the big fall in applications foreigners wishing to be naturalised as Belgians may still find themselves in a lengthy queue. By the end of 2014 over 42,000 applications were still waiting to be processed. In the meantime over 2,100 applications have been approved. Just over 1,200 have been rejected, while a further investigation or delay affects over 8,000 dossiers. Today the overall backlog is still over 30,000.
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