citizen (such as being sentenced to prison for 5 or more years). In these circumstances, the registrar issues a deprivation order (acte de déchéance / vervallensverklaring) through the Court of Appeal. Residence overseas A Belgian citizen born abroad on or after 1 January 1967 will lose their Belgian nationality upon turning 28 years old if the person: was resident abroad from the ages of 18 to 28 (i.e. they did not reside in Belgium during this period) AND; did not work for the Belgian government or a Belgian company or other Belgian organisation AND; did not make a declaration of conservation (déclaration de conservation / behoudsverklaring) at their local embassy between the ages of 18 and 28 AND; holds one or more other nationalities. Since 12 July 2018, a person in the above circumstances will no longer lose their Belgian nationality if they apply for and obtain a Belgian passport or identity card between the ages of 18 and 28. However, this provision does not apply retroactively; therefore the person had to have been under 28 years old on 12 July 2018 for it to apply. Historically, Belgian citizens in the above circumstances had to make further declarations of conservation every 10 years to avoid losing their Belgian nationality, but now the declaration must only be made once before the age of 28. A person who has lost their Belgian nationality in the above circumstances may request a letter from their local embassy confirming their loss of nationality. Cases applying to children A child under 18 years old loses Belgian nationality if: their parent loses Belgian nationality, but not where the loss is through deprivation, the other parent remains a Belgian citizen or the child would be left stateless OR; the child is adopted by a foreigner and the child acquires another nationality upon adoption, unless one of the adoptive parents is a Belgian citizen OR; the child acquired Belgian nationality on the grounds of being stateless, but goes on to acquire another nationality before turning 18 years old. Voluntary acquisition of another citizenship (historical) Historically, Belgium had provisions whereby a person at least 18 years old who voluntarily obtained another nationality would automatically lose their Belgian nationality. Before 9 June 2007, this applied in respect of voluntarily obtaining any other nationality. From 9 June 2007 to 28 April 2008, this only applied in respect of voluntarily obtaining the nationality