Minister Donner expects to present his proposal for modifying the Dutch nationality law to parliament before Christmas.

In October we wrote about Minister Donner's plan to eliminate dual nationality for Dutch citizen. The proposal, which has not yet been officially presented to the Tweede Kamer (the Dutch House of Representatives), will be sent to parliament before the Christmas break. Minister Donner answered this in response to questions by House member Gerard Schouw of the D66 party.

Importance of Dutch expats

The minister estimates that there are about 850,000 Dutch passport holders living abroad, but it is not known how many of them hold dual nationality. The minister "acknowledges the importance of Dutch expats for the Dutch economy and Dutch diplomatic relations".

Position of the Tweede Kamer

The new law, which if it was accepted would have a significant negative effect on Dutch citizens living abroad, is controversial. A majority of parties in the Tweede Kamer has spoken in support of Dutch citizens abroad who could no longer maintain their Dutch nationality when applying for foreign citizenship.

On November 22nd a motion was brought forward to ask the minister to reconsider the aspects of the proposal that would impact Dutch citizens abroad. The motion did not get a majority in the Tweede Kamer though since the VVD did not support it, on technical grounds. Eelco Keij, who initiated the online petition against the proposal, remains optimistic: "This was just a procedural move by the VVD. When it comes to the content, they already publicly stated they are on our side."

The petition by Dutch citizens abroad has received almost 19,000 signatures and significant coverage in the Dutch media. More information in Dutch about the petition can be found on NederlanderBlijven.com.

It's been raining all day today. We had an early appointment in D.C so I took the metro from Foggy Bottom to my work. The moment I put down my umbrella on the floor, I saw an umbrella under another bench. A good reminder not to forget my own!

In the evening it was still pouring, and when I came home there was no power in the apartment building. However, one elevator was still working and there was partial lightning in the building hallways. Our apartment was pitch black, a strange experience. I went for a great run in the rain and took a shower by candle light. The power came back 30 minutes later.

We had a nice day in our new town, Arlington, today.

In the afternoon we walked to the library. They still had our information on file from 2005. Made me feel at home.

We had dinner in the Silver Diner and then did our grocery shopping for the week.

Our living room and kitchen are in good shape, and slowly but surely we're getting the rest of the apartment ready as well. Today we worked mainly on the guest bedroom.

After a visit to Home Depot I mounted the bookshelves against the wall and we opened the last boxes. We threw out a lot of old papers, which is a nice feeling.

Two weeks ago I replied to a small contest by the Dutch Embassy on Facebook, "tell us what your Dutch heritage means to you". I wrote: "Sharing stroopwafels with my colleagues today. And drinks tonight at Mackey's Pub in DC".

They awarded all participants with a price, so today I received a beautiful Dutch Design mug in the mail. Thank you, Dutch Embassy!

This afternoon I'm doing some work to assist another team. It's relaxed, working from home, and things are going smoothly so far.

I went for a long run this morning. Last Thursday I ran to DC from here for the first time, and on the way back to our house there's a 1 mile stretch that's entirely uphill. It's not a super steep incline, but it's hard at the end of a long run. Oh well, a good exercise.

The last two days we have been eating turkey sandwiches. The 10 lbs turkey would have been enough to feed 6 adults at least, so we'll continue to have turkey for a few more days. Real turkey breast is so much better than from a deli... so delicious.

We had a great Thanksgiving Day. In the morning we put some of our Haarlem and Amsterdam maps on the wall and the house is getting cozy.

We started cooking in the afternoon, and Pascal and his daughter Hanna joined us for dinner. A classic Thanksgiving meal, with a 10 lbs turkey as main course. Hanna enjoyed the home-made apple sauce. It was a great evening, topped off with a long walk through Arlington. Almost all stores and business were closed; some will open very early tomorrow for "Black Friday" shopping specials. Not for us!