KUWAIT: Director of the Citizenship Department at the Interior Ministry Col Abdulrahman Al-Othman explained that the recent amendments to the Kuwaiti nationality law is aimed at reinforcing national identity and principles. The changes include revising the first two paragraphs of Provision 7, specifying that a foreign wife of a man who acquires Kuwaiti citizenship will not be recognized as a Kuwaiti citizen, although his children will be considered Kuwaitis with the option to retain their original nationality upon reaching adulthood. Article 8 states that a foreign woman married to a Kuwaiti man cannot obtain Kuwaiti citizenship.

Jurist Col Mohammad Al-Mazyad elaborated that citizenship can be revoked for individuals who obtained it through fraud, committed crimes against state security, breached trust or engaged in behavior damaging to Kuwait’s social and economic systems. This revocation applies to naturalized relatives as well. Article 13 concerns naturalized citizens rather than those of Kuwaiti lineage, and the law no longer allows Kuwaiti women to automatically pass citizenship to their children. However, children of Kuwaiti mothers will be granted residency benefits until they reach adulthood. — KUNA (See Page 3)

Additionally, all citizenship applications from the 1965 census have been canceled, and individuals stripped of Kuwaiti citizenship will revert to their original nationality or be referred to the Central Apparatus for Illegal Residents if their nationality is unknown. – KUNA (See Page 3)