Jordan: Information on the right to Jordanian citizenship of a minor born outside Jordan to a Jordanian mother and a Yemeni father, and who has never lived in Jordan
| Publisher | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada |
| Author | Research Directorate, Immigration and Refugee Board, Canada |
| Publication Date | 1 October 1996 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | JOR24656.E |
| Cite as | Canada: Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Jordan: Information on the right to Jordanian citizenship of a minor born outside Jordan to a Jordanian mother and a Yemeni father, and who has never lived in Jordan, 1 October 1996, JOR24656.E, available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6aac060.html [accessed 13 October 2022] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
The following information was obtained during a 3 October 1996 telephone interview with a Jordanian lawyer in Amman who handles nationality cases.
The source stated that according to the Jordanian nationality law, children can receive Jordanian citizenship only through a Jordanian father, not a Jordanian mother. Children born of a Jordanian mother and a foreign national would receive a temporary residence status.
This information was corroborated during a 4 October 1996 telephone interview with a researcher at the Centre d'études et de recherches sur le Moyen-Orient contemporain (CERMOC) in Amman.
In a 8 March 1996 article in the Jordan Times, journalist Alia Toukan states:
The Ministry of Interior is looking at ways to ease the problems that foreign men married to Jordanians and their children face, however the government is unlikely to amend the citizenship law relating to the issue.
Pertinent articles in the law that grants passports to foreign women married to Jordanians and their children, but denies the same right to foreign men married to Jordanians has become a source of controversy. Many women and human rights activists are angered by the failure of successive governments at amending the law.
According to the citizenship law, a Jordanian citizen is one whose father is Jordanian, or one who was born in the country from a Jordanian mother and either an unknown father or one without a nationality, or a child born in the Kingdom whose parents are unknown. The law also stipulates that the children of a Jordanian man are considered citizens regardless of their place of birth.
Foreign women married to Jordanian men are entitled to citizenship after three years of marriage if the woman was an Arab, or five years if she was non-Arab. No such article extends the same rights to foreign men married to Jordanian women.
There is one article, though, that grants non-Jordanians, whether male or female, citizenship after having lived in Jordan for five consecutive years if the person was non-Arab. and 15 years if she/he was an Arab.
For additional information on Jordanian citizenship, please consult the attached copies of an article by Uri Davis entitled "Jinsiyya Versus Muwatana: The Question of Citizenship and the State in the Middle East: The Cases of Israel, Jordan and Palestine." and published in Winter 1995 in the Arab Studies Quarterly.
This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum.
References
Jordan Times [Amman]. 8 March 1996. Alia Toukan. "Ministry to Ease Problems Facing Foreign Men Married to Jordanians."
Lawyer in Amman, Jordan. 3 October 1996. Telephone interview.
Researcher, Centre d'études et de recherches sur le Moyen-Orient contemporain (CERMOC), Amman, Jordan. 4 October 1996. Telephone interview.
Attachment
Arab Studies Quarterly [Washington]. Winter-Spring 1995. Uri Davis. "Jinsiyya Versus Muwatana: The Question of Citizenship and the State in the Middle East: The Cases of Israel, Jordan and Palestine." Vol. 17, No. 1-2, pp. 19-37.
