KUWAIT CITY, July 20: Nearly 50,000 applications the GCC women married to Kuwaiti citizens have forwarded for the Kuwaiti citizenship are kept at the Public Administration for Nationality and Passports Affairs, without any decisions taken in that concern, reports Arrouiah daily.
The daily quoting reliable sources said all the applications meet the prerequisite for obtaining citizenship; however, they are held up at the Public Administration for Nationality and Passports.
According to sources from the Interior Ministry, those applications have been suspended, in order to preserve the country’s population structure, while the issue of dual-citizenship holders has also attributed to suspension of their naturalization process.
Similarly, parliamentary sources have stressed the likelihood that parliament will modify Article 2 of Law Number 5/1959 to grant non-Kuwaiti women who are married to Kuwaiti citizens the citizenship, if the woman officially states her wish to be naturalized-which should be at least 5 years after being married to the citizen, otherwise she could be granted the nationality if the marriage ends before five years due to death or divorce, and she has children with the citizen.
Sources stressed the need to grant non-Kuwaiti widows and divorcees who were married to Kuwaitis for at least 25 years and have children with those citizens the citizenship, even if they haven’t stated their wish to get it, once the marriage ended through death or divorce.
In the meantime, sources urged the Interior and Defense Committee at the National Assembly to press for the parliamentary approval of this issue, like the Bedoun case.