There are many moving parts now that the UK has voted to leave the European Union, and many unanswered questions about what the future will hold. One group that is being proactive about their concerns are British expats who live in Belgium.
Belgium has experienced a surge in citizenship requests from British expats looking for ways to continue to live and work in Brussels after the referendum result. As RT reports, Belgium is home to around 24,000 British expats who primarily work for EU institutions and NATO, which are located in Brussels.
As RT explains, there are 1.3 million British citizens residing in other EU countries, and the volume of citizenship requests around the EU could be enormous.
Just to grasp the full extent of the possible hike in citizenship requests – there are a total of 1.3 million British citizens residing in other EU countries. Lines form early in the morning at information offices in Brussels, which is at the center of the surge, as Brits appear willing to wait to find out how to become Belgian citizens.
“It doesn't stop. Some have been queuing up for information since 7.30 this morning,” said the mayor of Brussels’ Ixelles district, Dominique Dufourny.
In the last few days, Ixelles alone has seen about 40 people show up to get the documents required to acquire Belgian citizenship.
Other districts in the city are reporting a similar trend. The suburbs of Uccle and Woluwe Saint Lambert both said they have had around 50 inquiries.
“Normally we rarely have anybody requesting information about citizenship,” said a spokeswoman for Woluwe Saint Lambert. “Since Friday there has been an explosion.”
Belgium requires people to have lived and worked in the country for over five years to be eligible for citizenship, and applicants must also be able to speak one of the state's official languages: Dutch, French, or German. Unemployed applicants need to have 10 years of Belgian residency and community ties according to RT.
Dennis Landsbert-Noon is in the process of applying, and hopes to remain employed in order to keep his wife and children in Belgium because he believes that Brexit will ruin the UK.
"I believe that the consequences of Brexit on Britain will be catastrophic in both the short and long term and I do not want to condemn my children to belong solely to a nation that is on the road to ruin. I've heard from a lot of people who say they are doing the same thing as well." Dennis said.
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It will be interesting to see how EU nations respond to the expected surge in requests. If people are looking to Jean-Claude Juncker as an example to follow, it's going to be a long and difficult process for all of the expats, as it's hard to reason with children.
The Waterloo commune house was full of people from the UK asking about acquiring Belgian citizenship today…
— Natalie Smith (@Natalie_M_Smith) June 24, 2016
@Nightingale_P I'm applying on Monday for Belgian citizenship suspect many UK citizens based in EU will do the same. UK itself is finished.
— Alasdair Reid (@thegreenplace) June 24, 2016
via http://ift.tt/29kJer3 Tyler Durden