Jordanian nationality law

Jordanian nationality is determined predominantly by paternity (father) (see Jus sanguinis). The place of birth is irrelevant,[2] and being born in Jordan does not grant a right to Jordanian nationality. That is, in most cases, individuals are deemed to be Jordanian nationals regardless of whether they are born inside or outside Jordan as long as their father holds Jordanian nationality.

Children born legitimately to a non-citizen father are deemed to have acquired the nationality of their father. This may result in cases where children born to legitimate Palestinian fathers, for instance, may be rendered stateless.[3]

Restricted maternal transmission of Jordanian citizenship may only occur if the Jordanian mother is not married, or the father is of unknown nationality or is stateless.[4]

Under the current law, children of a Jordanian woman and a foreign father are not entitled to Jordanian citizenship. Since 2010, there has been an increasing public demand for giving the opportunity for Jordanian women to transmit Jordanian nationality to their children.

A foreign woman who marries a Jordanian national can apply to acquire Jordanian citizenship:

• after three years of her marriage if she is an Arab,
• after five years of her marriage if she is not an Arab.[5]

A Jordanian woman who marries a non-Jordanian and acquires the nationality of her husband may retain her Jordanian nationality unless she renounces it.[6]

A foreign man married to a Jordanian national does not acquire Jordanian citizenship by virtue of being married to a Jordanian national.

Since 2010, there has been an increasing public demand for giving the opportunity for Jordanian women to be able to transmit Jordanian nationality to their husbands.

Article 4: Any Arab who has resided continuously in Jordan for not less than 15 years may acquire Jordanian nationality if he renounces his nationality of origin and the law of his country permits him to do so, provided that:

• he is of good conduct and has never been convicted of an offence involving his honour or morals;
• he has lawful means of livelihood;
• he is of sound mind and does not suffer from any impairment that would make him a burden on society;
• he takes an oath of allegiance and loyalty to his Majesty before a justice of the peace.

Article 12: Any person other than a Jordanian who is not incapable by law may apply to the Council of Ministers for grant of a certificate of Jordanian naturalization if:

• he has been regularly resident in Jordan for a period of four years preceding the date of his application;
• he intends to reside in Jordan.

According to the Jordanian government, there has not been any restrictions on multiple citizenship in Jordan since 1954. Thus, foreigners who acquire Jordanian citizenship and Jordanian citizens who voluntarily acquire another citizenship keep their previous citizenship (subject to the laws of the other country).

A Jordanian does not lose Jordanian citizenship nor acquire the nationality of another country without the consent of the Board of Ministers, unless that other country is an Arab state.

Since 2010, there has been an increasing public demand for Jordanian women to have the ability to transmit Jordanian nationality to their children and also to their husbands. In recent years, growing domestic pressures and foreign concerns have demanded the Jordanian government grant civil rights to the children of Jordanian women married to foreigners, including the right to receive treatment in hospitals affiliated with the Ministry of Health, the right to obtain residency permits and the right to education in public schools and universities. This is in addition to their right to work, obtain driver’s licenses and perhaps grant them ordinary passports (without a national number) to facilitate their travel outside the country.[7]

On 7 September 2014, amidst growing public outcry and pressures from foreign leaders such as the United States Secretary of State John Kerry, Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour announced the government's approval to grant children of Jordanian women married to foreigners certain privileges and facilities to ease their lives within Jordan.

Today we meet to fulfil our pledge to the children of our Jordanian daughters by accepting many of what the parliamentary committee suggested by facilitating numerous official matters for their children from a foreign marriage.

As of January 2015, there were 88,983 Jordanian women married to non-Jordanians and these families had 355,932 children registered with the CSPD.[8] The regulations were issued on 4 January 2015 and, by the end of the month, the Civil Status and Passports Department (CSPD) had received 9,741 applications to issue special identification cards for children of Jordanian women married to foreigners. Marwan Qteishat, director of the CSPD, told The Jordan Times near the end of January 2015 that they had issued 965 identification cards and processed 2,148 applications.[8]

Many Palestine refugees obtained Jordanian nationality on the basis of Law No 6 of 1954 on Nationality which classifies as Jordanian nationals “any person who, not being Jewish, possessed Palestinian nationality before 15 May 1948 and was a regular resident in [Jordan] between 20 December 1949 and 16 February 1954”.[9]

Jordan relinquished its claim to the West Bank in 1988, after which and especially in the 2000s, the Jordanian government has been arbitrarily and without notice withdrawing Jordanian nationality from Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origin, making them stateless.[10] As Human Rights Watch has stated, this is in direct violation of Jordan's nationality law, which provides that non-Jewish Palestinian residents in 1949 or thereafter received full Jordanian nationality following Jordan's incorporation of the West Bank in April 1950.

Palestinians who moved from the West Bank (whether refugees or not) to Jordan, are issued yellow-ID cards to distinguish them from the Palestinians of the "official 10 refugee camps" in Jordan. From 1988 to 2012, thousands of those yellow-ID card Palestinians had their Jordanian citizenship revoked.[11] Jordan's Interior Minister Nayef al-Kadi said:

"Our goal is to prevent Israel from emptying the Palestinian territories of their original inhabitants," the minister explained, confirming that the kingdom had begun revoking the citizenship of Palestinians. "We should be thanked for taking this measure," he said. "We are fulfilling our national duty because Israel wants to expel the Palestinians from their homeland."[12][13]

Human Rights Watch estimated that about 2,700 Palestinians were stripped of Jordanian nationality between 2004 and 2008.[14] It is estimated that over 40,000 Palestinians were affected by this policy.[15]

The Jordanian government has said that these actions are akin to those of other Arab nations with the intention of helping Jordanians of Palestinian descent by requiring those who fled the West Bank or Jerusalem after the war in 1967 to keep their Israeli documents valid since the Israeli government continues to shift further right-wing under the leadership of its conservative foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman. Nabil Sharif, the former minister of state for media affairs and Jordanian ambassador to Morocco, said:

It is no secret that some elements in Israel would like to see the Palestinian areas without the people. We do not want to be party to this.

In 2012, the Jordanian government promised to stop revoking the citizenship of Palestinians, and restored citizenship to 4,500 Palestinians who had previously lost it.[16]

However, many have criticized the actions of the Jordanian government as an underhanded move to preserve the government's own interest by trying to appease non-Palestinian Jordanians concerned about the growing economic and political influence of citizens of Palestinian descent, which Nabil Sharif had denied.

• Constitution of Jordan
• Driving licence in Jordan
• Foreign relations of Jordan
• History of Jordan
• Jordanian diaspora
• Jordanian identity card
• Jordanian passport
• Politics of Jordan
• Vehicle registration plates of Jordan
• Visa policy of Jordan
• Visa requirements for Jordanian citizens

• Law No. 6 of 1954 on Jordanian Nationality