D66 leader Rob Jetten has criticised the caretaker government’s plans to extend the qualifying period for Dutch citizenship from five years to 10, arguing it could deter skilled workers from moving to the Netherlands.

In an interview with Dutch News, Jetten also argued that more changes to the migration rules would increase the burden on the immigration service IND, which warned last week that it was struggling to keep up with its caseload.

“We want newcomers in this country, whether they come here to study, for asylum or work, or for love, as in my own case, to know where they stand,” Jetten, whose partner is Argentinian men’s hockey player Nicolás Keenan, said. “So that they’ll do their best to integrate and take part in Dutch society.”

Junior justice minister Arno Rutte said extending the naturalisation term to 10 years would ensure Dutch citizenship would be reserved for people who had developed a “durable connection” with the Netherlands.

But Jetten said the measure would make it harder for people to put down permanent roots.

“All these new rules that just make things more complicated and difficult than they already are will lead to more delays in the migration system, but they also don’t give people the feeling that they’re welcome here and that we want them to be part of our society,” he said. “So I think it will have the opposite effect.”

The cabinet approved the plan last Friday and will now put it out for consultation before presenting a bill to the new parliament after the election on October 29.

IND director general Rhodia Maas said last week that new immigration rules such as creating a two-tier asylum system and restricting family reunions were adding to the time taken to consider each application, at a time when around 18,000 asylum seekers have been waiting 18 months or longer for a decision.

She said it was “not realistic to expect the IND to keep processing the same number of cases while extra work is falling on the IND and the average amount of work per case is increasing.”