Kuwait has made changes to its citizenship law with a new rule, which is one of the biggest changes to its nationality rules in a long time. The new law was published in the Gazette called Al-Kuwait Al-Youm and it changes some important parts of the original law from 1959 making the rules for getting, losing and controlling citizenship stricter.
The new law wants to make the government stronger while also thinking about what’s good for the country and its people. It gets rid of rules fixes rules that did not agree with each other and uses the same words throughout the law.
One big change is that it is clearer who can be called Kuwaiti by birth. The new law says that people born to a Kuwaiti father no matter where they were born are citizens of Kuwait. It also changes the rules for becoming a citizen for children of people who became citizens of Kuwait. These children will usually be considered citizens by choice, not by birth. However when these children grow up they can choose which nationality they want.
The new law also makes it harder for people to lose their Kuwaiti citizenship. If someone gets citizenship of another country on purpose they might lose their Kuwaiti citizenship. There are protections for spouses and children. The law also says how someone can get their Kuwaiti citizenship back if they meet requirements.
The Interior Ministry now has power to make decisions about citizenship including cases where children are born to Kuwaiti mothers. The government can also use methods like DNA testing and special identification techniques to make sure everything is correct.
If someone gives information they can get in big trouble with prison time of up to seven years and big fines if they do it on purpose.
What is really important is that decisions about citizenship are now considered to be made by the government and no one can question them in court. The new law is in effect now. The Prime Minister and other important people are in charge of making it work which shows that Kuwait wants to have more control, over who can be a citizen of Kuwait.
