KUWAIT: Key amendments to the Nationality Law of 1959 were published on Monday in the official gazette Kuwait Al-Youm in an Amiri decree, which means they are effective. The amendments almost entirely abolish the right of foreign women to get Kuwaiti citizenship after getting married to Kuwaiti men. Under the previous law, such women had the right to apply for citizenship after five years of marriage, provided they have children. In the past several months, the government has revoked the citizenship of more than 10,000 naturalized wives of Kuwaitis.

The amendments also allow revoking the citizenship of Kuwaitis who obtained it through forgery or cheating. All relatives who had obtained citizenship through that person will also lose it. The amendments allow revoking the citizenship of any naturalized Kuwaiti convicted in a final verdict of crimes related to honor or state security crimes or for abusing the Almighty, prophets and HH the Amir.

The amendments allow revoking the citizenship of naturalized Kuwaitis if they were dismissed from government jobs over honesty or honor reasons within 10 years of obtaining the citizenship. The amendments also allow authorities to revoke citizenship for national interests and the state’s external security, and also for carrying out anti-state activities. The state can use modern technology in granting citizenship or revoking it, the amendments state.

The amendments treat children of Kuwaiti women married to foreigners as Kuwaitis if they maintain their stay in the country and their fathers are held by the enemy, die or divorce their mothers. As per the decree, a foreign male obtaining Kuwaiti citizenship does not entitle his foreign wife to the citizenship. However, their underage children would be treated as Kuwaitis, and they can choose their preferred nationality one year after reaching the legal age.

The amendments also abolished allowing authorities to naturalize foreigners including stateless people or bedoons who or their ancestors lived in the country since 1965 and before, and maintained their stay in Kuwait. In the explanatory note, the government says it has become very difficult to trace this category of people.

First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense and Interior and Chairman of the Supreme Nationality Committee Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousef Al-Sabah will hold a meeting on Wednesday with editors-in-chief of daily newspapers and heads of public welfare societies at 10:30 am at Seif Palace. The interior ministry said in a statement on Monday that the meeting aims to clarify the most prominent features of the new Kuwaiti nationality law amendments and discuss the files of dual nationals and those who acquired nationality based on fraud, false statements or incorrect certificates according to article 21, and the files of article 8 (wives of Kuwaitis).

Meanwhile, the new residency law which contains tough penalties and high fines of up to five years in jail and KD 10,000 in fines is likely to be implemented in March, a top interior ministry official was quoted as saying. The new residency law was issued by an Amiri decree earlier this month, but it does not become effective until the interior ministry completes the bylaws necessary to apply the law.

The new law considers trading in visas or selling residency for money as a felony instead of a misdemeanor in the previous law, director of the residency affairs detectives department Brig Mishaal Al-Shanafa told a local newspaper. The penalty for this crime has been toughened to up to five years in jail and a fine that could reach KD 10,000, said Shanafa, adding that the penalty will be added for each case.

Expat workers who pay money to obtain residency are also penalized under the new law, he said. Previously, the penalty was deportation, but under the new law, they will be fined and jailed and then deported, he said. He said that during the first eight months of this year, the department has sent 26,000 expats to the deportation department. Shanafa said the new law stipulates that expat visitors can stay for three months and violators are liable for a one-year jail term and a fine between KD 1,000 and KD 2,000.