Can I get UAE citizenship?

Yes, there are several ways to get a United Arab Emirates passport.

On the one hand, those who say that a foreigner cannot become a citizen of the UAE are wrong. This statement is not true. On the other hand, unlike many other countries, in which, subject to a number of conditions, almost any person can apply for citizenship, in the United Arab Emirates everything is somewhat more complicated.

So who can get UAE citizenship? Here is the full list:

Children:

  • A child whose parents are citizens of the UAE receives citizenship automatically.
  • A child whose father is a citizen of the UAE receives citizenship automatically.
  • A child who was born in the UAE, who has no parents (an orphan), or whose parents are unknown, automatically receives UAE citizenship.
  • A child whose mother is a citizen of the UAE and the father is unknown, does not have citizenship, or is a citizen of another state, has the right to apply for UAE citizenship upon reaching the age of 18.

Women:

  • A woman who has married a citizen of the UAE and who has been married to him for at least five years has the right to apply for UAE citizenship. A number of sources indicate that this norm is constantly changing, and now the term has been increased to seven years and the condition has been added to give birth to two children in a marriage. Filing an application does not guarantee citizenship - someone gets it right away, someone waits for several years, someone is refused at all. Upon receiving UAE citizenship, a woman must renounce her previous citizenship, as well as obtain special permission from the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the United Arab Emirates. If the husband is a serviceman, you will also need permission (No Objection) from the Ministry of Defense of the UAE. From marriage to obtaining citizenship, the spouse lives in the UAE according to his old passport, in which a resident visa issued by the spouse (the so-called husband visa) is pasted.
  • A woman who wants to marry a Muslim, which is almost all male citizens of the UAE, can only be a Muslim, Jewish or Christian.
  • A woman may lose UAE citizenship acquired by marriage. Some sources argue that this can happen if a woman gets a divorce and marries again not a citizen of the UAE. Other sources claim that they can deprive citizenship if the husband succeeds in proving that the woman got married solely for the purpose of obtaining UAE citizenship.

Naturalization:

  • A citizen of any country can obtain UAE citizenship for outstanding services to the state. In this case, citizenship is granted personally by the ruler of one of the seven UAE emirates.
  • A citizen of any country in which the state is interested in issuing UAE citizenship Outstanding athletes often become citizens of the UAE, later on participating in international sports under the flag of the United Arab Emirates.
  • A citizen of any country who has lived legally on the territory of the United Arab Emirates for more than 30 years is entitled to apply for UAE citizenship. The applicant must have a good reputation and a constant source of income, have no criminal record and be fluent in Arabic. Citizens of Qatar, Bahrain and Oman receive this right after 7 years.
  • UAE citizens who have received citizenship through the naturalization procedure do not have the right to vote, and may also lose it at any time. You can lose citizenship if you serve in any foreign army, for unlawful and hostile acts against the state and government of the UAE, while obtaining other foreign citizenship, and also when working in government offices of a country at war with the United Arab Emirates.

Additionally, on the topic "UAE Citizenship":

Not all UAE passport holders are citizens of the United Arab Emirates. In some documents, the column “nationality” has a dash, and this means that its holder is not a citizen of the UAE. By "strength", their passport is comparable, for example, with the passports of "non-citizens" in the Baltic countries that were formerly part of the USSR, and is, in fact, just a travel document that allows you to permanently reside in the UAE and travel the world. Its owners do not have the right to vote and be elected; they are limited in a number of other rights and privileges.

In order to have all the rights of a citizen of the UAE, in addition to a passport, you need to have another important document - family book (Family bookalso known as Khulasat Al Qaid), in which the head of the family, as a rule - a man, enters his wife and children. If parents do not have such a document, then their children will not be able to become citizens of the UAE. By the way, the period of marriage for a foreigner who has married a citizen of the UAE is calculated not from the moment of marriage, but from the moment of making an entry in the spouse's family book. If the spouse is a foreigner, then an entry about her is made on the last page of the book, and for UAE citizens, there are special pages in the book.

Recently, the UAE press has increasingly raised the issue of equalizing the rights of women, UAE citizens, with the rights of men, UAE citizens. The fact is that after a certain time (and subject to a number of conditions) a foreign spouse of a UAE citizen can apply for citizenship, but a foreign spouse of a UAE citizen - no! Many young citizens of the United Arab Emirates, at an age favorable for creating a family, go to study in foreign countries, and there young men often find wives among foreign women. This leads to the fact that the Emirate girls, having thus lost the chance to find a groom of the same nationality, are also forced to seek happiness and create families with foreigners. This is what the UAE authorities draw the attention of human rights activists and some lawyers, calling for amendments to the law in order to give foreign husbands the right to apply for UAE citizenship.

Watch the video: How to get UAE citizenship. (March 2024).