Categories
Kuwait Personal

Why dont I get KD200?

gulf war

Why is it nearly impossible for an expat to get the Kuwaiti citizenship? I am saying nearly impossible because I know of some Lebanese who were given the Kuwaiti nationality which means its not totally impossible.

I wasn’t born in Kuwait (my brother and sister were) but I did grow up here and my parents have been in Kuwait since the early 70s. So why is it I can’t become a Kuwaiti citizen? If I was living anywhere else for this long I would have already been a citizen of that country by now. Here on the other hand I still need a visa and a sponsor so I could just stay in Kuwait.

If today was July 24, 1990 and a week from now Iraq was going to invade I would stand ground and try to fight off the Iraqis alongside the Kuwaitis. I like Kuwait, I like NBK, I like KDD, I like oil, I like Entertainment City and I like Mama Aneesa, so why can’t I become a Kuwaiti? [Link]

update: There is now a further discussion taking place in the [Forum]

56 replies on “Why dont I get KD200?”

You can always hide your passport, claim your are bidoon, and then find some Kuwaiti to claim that you are his brother living in Saudi, then wait for the long process, then after a few years you can get the nationality. A lot of people got it that way.

“The two million foreign workers in the oil-rich emirate were not included.” – this is sad. especially how they emphasised on it.

well, i agree with you mark. my dad stepped in kuwait when he was really young; just for financial benifits. we all grew up in kuwait but were too attached with our roots, pakistan. my dad is living for more than 30+ years as well and he still fears from sending us outside home without our id card in wallets.

he’s been victims of kuwaiti racial police so many times. i won’t mention why did i call them racial because every expat would know it all well! i remember once in airport my dad headed to a water cooler to drink water and there were bunch of these ass holes standing and watching shitty clips on their mobile phones. one cop shouted at my dad like an illiterate ridiculous person and told my dad to not come to that area. when my father tried to explain him, he went even worse. me and my brother jumped in to stop that ass hole for disrespecting our father and i remember the crowd there watching the drama.

finally, my dad decided to send me to australia. so i would learn here and one day get citizenship and call my parents up. am proud of being a pakistani but i feel sad when my dad, despite living almost all of his life in country like kuwait, still have no identity.

aatif ::sorry for what happens for your father , we have a lot of ass holes here in kuwait who thinks they are so special but they got nothing , no brain , no nothing . specially in police , trust me most of them have low grades in school ( no brain as i said ) and can’t join a university or collage so they become police men’s ( NOT ALL OF THEM , I know some smart people there ).
Mark :: you deserve it I know , but if kuwait gives everybody who lives for a long time here a Kuwaiti citizenship it will be a disaster because all the maids here will be Kuwaiti lol , and they wont work anymore as maids , they want a better job, and most of the people in kuwait are not Kuwaiti citizenship so I guess the government can’t handle that .

I guess that is one of the marks of a great(er) nation- attract the best people and then embrace them as your own. Too bad Kuwait doesn’t see this.

My parents just left Kuwait permanently yesterday after 30 odd years. All this contribution to its economy and no form of recognition from the country. They plan to visit in about 3 months and I’m already concerned if I will be able to get their visit visas.

aatif: Well it was a happy ending if you want to call it that- they left of their own desire. I was only saying, as mark already pointed out that if anyone spent half that amount of time in any country they would have most likely been offered citizenship.

I was born here, lived here for most of my life, left for 10 years and now I’m back here again – ironic I think. But I’m not expecting citizenship. Not that I wouldn’t want it, but rather because I can understand why the state wouldn’t want to give it.

In a “welfare state” like Kuwait, it’ll be very difficult to distinguish between those people who truly deserve citizenship and freeloaders – people who come here, live for a few years and then expect citizenship to live off the state. I think they already give it to people who have been in service for more than 30 years or some other odd number, and a few of my father’s friends have been given Kuwaiti citizenship for “exceptional contribution.”

Ideally, the welfare state ends, and then, citizenship becomes obtainable through residence or some other mechanism. As long as the state is able to sponsor Kuwaiti citizens “from the cradle to the grave” as the article points out, it will be financial insanity for it to start giving out citizenships.

aatif
sorry for what happened to your father .. well that is one of hundred dumb ass police mans

mark : if i’m the minister of interior you will be a Kuwaiti citizen by now with house in south surra.

i never knew u liked mama aneesa!
Mark they shouldn’t give citizenship. It would mess up their demographics. What they should do is permanent residencies.
I know I wouldn’t want non-Lebanese in Lebanon to get citiizenships… we’re less than 3 millions lebanese in lebanon, and 400 000 palestenians. If those 400 000 palestenians get citizenships, our demographics would mess up, our amount of representatives would change, etc.

Also, before giving expats citzenship, they should allow Kuwaiti women who are married to non-kuwaitis to pass on their citizenship to their own kids!

My 2 cents…

Its kind of like what Nothingologist said.. this is a welfare state, and its already not completely working 93% of the work force is in the government and are useless.. people pretty much see the government as a cash cow and dont really want to work.

And there are a lot of people who have been given citizenship because they are followers of this person or that person.. so they dont deserve as half as much as some of the people who have been working hard such as your parents and others.. but at least if they dont give citizenship they should give residency after 10 years giving them real rights instead of taking shit from half these dimwitted monkeys such as the kind ataif had the sorry experience of running into!

The ones that piss me off are the ones that tossed their kuwaiti passports during the war and ran to Saudi and Iran.. those people dont deserve to get a citizenship!

permenant residency with rights to buy property and that sort of thing would be very good! Im sorry that half the idiots in this country dont realise that would be good for the country! It would make people wake up and realise they do have to work to make money! it would make things worse for some people and they would really have to improve.. but the main problem here is the government! Its fucked up.. and shall remain that way for a little while!

You are joking, I trust. There are those who happen to be Kuwaitis by right, and those who have been privileged to become citizens. Explain again why you deserve the citizenship? Simply saying you’ve been a resident of Kuwait for so many years isn’t enough. Simply because you parents were employees in Kuwait doesn’t justify granting them – or you – the Kuwaiti citizenship. How did you enrich Kuwait and its culture? Some bedoon who trace their lineage to the 50s can’t get the citizenship. Children of Kuwaiti women who are married to non-Kuwaitis are not Kuwaitis.
You remind me of a joke my Lebanese friend told me once: its about a Syrian who was granted the Lebanese citizenship, and immediately started to bitch about the Syrians who clutter Lebanon.

Personally, I think people who have been here for say 30 years should be granted permanent residency, or at least the right to purchase and own property.

However, I can see why the government are doing that – it’s just to ensure a better standard of living for the existing Kuwaiti’s and future generations.

Kuwaiti Women’s Children (husband not Kuwaiti) should also 100% be entitled to a passport.

Me7tar: Children of Kuwaiti mothers and foreign fathers can get the citizenship, although it is a slow and arduous process.

The prerequisites for this is are:

a) the parents need to be divorced
b) the father needs to be deceased

in short, the parents should not be married any longer for the application process for the child’s citizenship to go through.

I spent the first 18 years of my life in Kuwait, while my dad worked there for more than 30 years. I know that he remains grateful to kuwait for the opportunity to earn a good living that his own country (India) could not have afforded him when he was just starting out on his own. But the fact is that the country and especially its public offices treated us like dirt the whole time we were there. I remember enough humiliating examples myself, I’ve never needed him to remind me of any. We were always fifth or sixth class residents (the first were kuwaitis, the second were other arabs, the third were caucasians who were there for the same reason as us, and the fourth were non-arab muslims). By the time he retired, his savings gave me (through an education) the opportunity to never have to consider Kuwait when it was time for me to earn for myself. Citizenship was never an option for us then, and it is obviously not an option even now for very good reasons, I am sure. Having said that, I would have to add that while I am grateful for the opportunities it gave my father and therefore myself, I would never want the citizenship of a country that clearly never wanted me.

Oh, and i forgot to mention to my previous comment, that children who, born of a Kuwaiti mother and Foreign father have acquired Kuwaiti citizenship, are a “daraja khamsa” (5th class citizen), which means that they are not allowed to vote, nor run for office.

Me7tar-Na7ees: Its not a matter of me wanting citizenship for my parents etc. In fact, I agree very much with what TippyToes has said, almost to the letter and share his/her experience too.

Neither do I have to explain to you how IMO 30 years of hard work towards the Kuwaiti economy is a worthy factor or not- apparently most countries of the civilized world think it is. I also agree with many people who mention that this amount of time in the very least should warrant a pemanent residency free of the sposorship issues and the right to purchase property. Nevertheless, I’m also pretty sure that this is not going to happen in the very near or distant future.

Me7tar-Na7ees said:
“Simply saying you’ve been a resident of Kuwait for so many years isn’t enough.”

Says who? Who makes up this criteria?

“Simply because you parents were employees in Kuwait doesn’t justify granting them – or you – the Kuwaiti citizenship.”

Why not?

“How did you enrich Kuwait and its culture?”

You’re trying to tell me that all Kuwaiti citizens have enriched Kuwait and its culture? Give me a break.

“Some bedoon who trace their lineage to the 50s can’t get the citizenship.”

And some can. Go figure….

“Children of Kuwaiti women who are married to non-Kuwaitis are not Kuwaitis.”

According to the letter of the law, right, but that’s not the point.

“You remind me of a joke my Lebanese friend told me once: its about a Syrian who was granted the Lebanese citizenship, and immediately started to bitch about the Syrians who clutter Lebanon.”

So what? You gotta be really weak not to take criticism. And hey, some of it may be deserved.

As for some for the expats who have been ill treated in Kuwait, I’d like to ask why do you put up with it? If you know somewhere better, than go and all the power to you. Is it just for the money? If it is, then that’s really cheap.

I agree with what diesel has said. Even with reference to his last point, if it really is all that bad then why stay at all?

The answer from my side is that, with all its issues, I am still grateful to Kuwait and what it has made possible for my family and myself. No, it is not just the money. It is the comfortable lifestyle, being closer to my home country, the money (which enables me to help others as well) and other positive things.

Every society and each country has its pros and cons and I don’t shy away from voicing them.

diesel, I don’t think its about being cheap, rather its about having to tolerate the harder side effects of economically-necessitated migration. After I left high school I’ve always lived and work in India, fyi, and am very happy to be in the position that I can make enough money right in my own country. But there are still many, many others who cannot make ends meet and so they have to find work elsewhere. Are they always treated well in other countries? Not always, but they are usually not in the fortunate position of being able to choose. The survival instinct, unfortunately, is not something that man cannot give up easily.

And by the way, I also think that the relationship between Kuwait and the expats is a symbiotic one. If some of them weren’t so “cheap” as to work in Kuwait despite some of the more undesirable side effects, who would do all the different types of work that Kuwait needs done? The country doesn’t have, and never previously had the levels of labour and skills that were needed to build it up to modernity. I can tell from these blogs that Kuwait now has many educated and skilled people among its own citizens, but this was not the case in the 1950’s when my dad went over there with little more than his bachelor’s degree. Anyway, I’ve digressed too much from Mark’s original point so that’s all from me.

Pardon me, I meant “The survival instinct, unfortunately, is not something that man CAN give up easily.” 🙂

I has this very same conversation today about the UAE. Most people who migrate to another country do it initially for economic reasons. The ones who find that the money or lifestyle etc. doesn’t compensate for being treated as a dispensible outsider eventually leave. And they leave having taken as much as they can and contributed as little as possible to their host country. Their attitude is – to hell with them, they treat us as commodities and have little respect or affection for us, so we’ll do likewise.

Those who embrace the culture and the people, and who through their hard work and effort contribute to the development and well-being of the society they live in are deserving of recognition for that. To my mind, the least of this recognition is the granting of citizenship and all that entails. That’s what the most 1st world countries do. That’s the right thing to do.

But the majority of the governments of the Gulf do not want outsiders to have a vested interest in their countries for a whole host of reasons, not least because they eventually establish a power base which gives them influence.

And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?

I think it’s a sad state of affairs. We are one of the few countries on the planet where somebody is born here, lives here, works here and in most cases harder than any national doing the same job and still not get a nationality.

It’s just fucked up how people think over here.

This is a rhetoric question, right?

Anyway, here’s what the nationality law says (in unofficial translation):

Article 4
Kuwaiti nationality may be granted by Decree upon the recommendation of the Minister of the Interior to any person of full age satisfying the following conditions:
1. that he has lawfully resided in Kuwait for at least 20 consecutive years or for at least 15 consecutive years if he is an Arab belonging to an Arab country. The requirement of consecutive residence shall not be affected if the applicant leaves Kuwait on official business. If he leaves for a reason other than that of official business, but retains the intention of returning, the period spent abroad shall be deducted from the total period of his residence in Kuwait;
2. that he has lawful means of earning his living, is of good character and has not been convicted of an honour-related crime or of an honesty-related crime;
3. that he has knowledge of the Arabic language;
4. that he possesses qualifications or renders services needed in Kuwait;
5. that he be an original Muslim by birth, or that he has converted to Islam according to the prescribed rules and procedures and that a period of at least 5 years has passed since he embraced Islam before the grant of naturalization. Nationality thus acquired is ipso facto lost and the Decree of naturalization rendered void ab initio if the naturalized person expressly renounces Islam or if he behaves in such a manner as clearly indicates his intention to abandon Islam. In any such case, the nationality of any dependant of the apostate who had acquired it upon the naturalization of the apostate is also rendered void.

A Committee of Kuwaiti nationals, appointed by the Minister of the Interior, shall select from those who apply for naturalization, the applicants whom it recommends for naturalization in accordance with the provisions of this Article.
The number of persons who may be naturalized in any one year in accordance with the provisions of this Article shall be decided by an Act.

Article 5
Notwithstanding the provisions of the immediately preceding Article, the following may be granted Kuwaiti nationality by Decree, upon the recommendation of the Minister of the Interior:
1. any person who has rendered valuable services to Kuwait;
…
[source: https://www.unhcr.org/cgi-bin/texis/vtx/rsd/print.html?CATEGORY=RSDLEGAL&id=3ae6b4ef1c%5D

lol @ Mark…MaMa Aneesa! ;P Cutee… Anyways no worries Mark, if you stay here the rest of your life you’ll eventually get it..if you live here for 50years you’ll get it.

And about the Religon part, baing Muslim at birth or converted..the palestinian family “Shahibar” the owner of English School Fahaheel has the Kuwaiti Nationality and he’s still Christian in Fact they’re the only Christian Kuwaitis in Kuwait.. he got hes nationality cause he used to privately teach the Al- Sabah kids english included some major kissing up too. I HATE HIM I HATE HIM I HATE HIM.

the nationality law has been amended a number of times. The having to be Muslim rule was not there from the beginning (im not sure when it was added)

I think Mr and Mrs Shuhaiber are really nice. I went to ESF for many years, and I think its an excellent school. But thats my personal opinion.

The idea of Freehold properties for expats thats emerged in Dubai ( and slowly in other neigbouring states) is something Kuwait can use to its advantage.As RamPurple said, it would only enhance the economy, and provide a surrogate solution for people who might want to live here by giving em green card/ immigrant status.

One thing i know for a fact is that you are at present allowed to buy property (strictly apartments)in Kuwait as an expat.If the goverment encouraged real estate builders with incentives to build high quality apartments, there would certainly be an increase in foreign investment.If they provided residence visas (as it already does for people taking up office space at shuwaikh free port), then everyones happy.

Having said that, we have to understand that Kuwait,unlike the UAE does not depend on tourism/freezones/seaport to derive its majority income.This single statement makes everything else null and void and shifts the balance towards not giving citizenship status

As long as oil keeps burnin, this mindset is not likely to change.Kuwait does not want to be a Dubai (often called by Wolf Blitzer as the cross road between Riyadh and Vegas) for purely conservative reasons.They would rather be intelligent investors in other economies.What this ultimately means is that the Kuwaiti investors themself get richer, but the country’s infrastructure remains stagnant.Once in a while , you will hear of the Mall of Kuwait or Bubiyan Island Project.However the corruption that goes into these projects result in poorly constructed shoddy representations of what they could really stand for (I heard that the pipeline at Dar Al Awadi broke yesterday-case in point!)

Ive veered off from the subject too much. Heres my two cents, Kuwait may not be ready to provide Citizenship to everyone who loves Kuwait or is used to Kuwait more than their own nation. But it can atleast put steps in the direction of providing renewable residences to people based on criterias such years of employment, property acquisition etc.This will not tarnish the current demographics.

Afterall if youve lived here for 30+ years, thats more than half ur adult life and the place (for some -moi included,) does tends to grow on you.

limited_edition said
“the palestinian family “Shahibar” the owner of English School Fahaheel has the Kuwaiti Nationality and he’s still Christian in Fact they’re the only Christian Kuwaitis in Kuwait.. ”

This is not true. There are plently of Christian Kuwaiti families in Kuwait. For example, Shamas and the family of the Priest of the Anglican Church.

I think many people are missing the point – trying to say why you should get nationality, instead of understanding the reasons why the country can’t proceed with it (at this stage).

Countries that (almost) welcome “new citizens” (Canada, Australia, and even UK & US if you have family there already, Germany (Turks), etc.) all have something in common.

They have generally well-educated populations, high taxation to fund a proper welfare state (ok, so not the US but…) and pay for amenities suited to an enlarged population. Also in all of these countries a tiny tiny tiny % of the population gets anywhere because of who they know – they’re much more egalitarian societies.

Kuwait can – and maybe one day will (if the oil doesn’t run out first) – have an educated population, high taxation, and an egalitarian judicial and legal system. Then begin to accept citizenship more readily (as you can see from Q8Sultana’s post, it’s allowed now if you meet the criteria). But note, most countries accepting migrants for citizenship are still mostly doing it based on having (usually) lower level skills for jobs which the current populations don’t want to work in.

Meanwhile, to put a lighter note on the situation… I feel priviliged to be a UK citizen who has the opportunity to make and take a ton of money from Kuwait to have a better life at home when I finally leave this country. And don’t think I mean that I’ll actually move back to the UK… there are so many countries out there for ALL of us that will welcome us. I moved to Thailand in 2000 and now live there (except when I’m here working) and have a business there. There are permanent residence rules for all Southeast Asian countries, which are accomodating.

I realise that this doesn’t take into account the years you’ve lived here and the roots you feel you have but, it’s a very transient country anyway. Right? Don’t you get that feeling?

Kuwait is not a promised land for the expact, i mean would you still want to be Kuwaitis if the oil hasn’t been discovered yet? i doubt it, don’t get me wrong but you have to understand that the Kuwait society is close net, not like Canada or Australia where immigrants can join freely, I know its must be frustrating for people who work for a long time here, but always think of Kuwait as a step in the journey not the final destination 🙂
P.S; “we are not racists, if we were, we wouldn’t be a minority in our own country ,there is some asshole I agree ,but you can find them in almost every society

Mark.. Mama Aneesa alone should get you the nationality. And she has a lot of wasta too.. i personally cant stand her, but thats just me.. she scares me

Everyone else… excellent discussion. Citizenship is such a complicated issue, and as with everything else here is subject to whims and wastas… thats why even normal forward thinking Kuwaitis are wary of who gets it.

That said, permanent residencies and propert ownership are the way forward. God knows they would boost the economy.

As for the Muslim rule for citizenship… that’s just shameful!

Loo7a…the point is that someone who lives in any country for 10, 20 or 30 years, for whatever reason, should have the automatic right to citizenship of that country.

“we are not racists, if we were, we wouldn’t be a minority in our own country” …

Kuwaitis are not being accused of racism, but it’s a bit disingenuous to suggest that expats are welcomed to Kuwait for any other reason than they are needed to do a lot of the work that many Kuwaitis won’t do.

On the other hand, one of my closest friends is Kuwaiti, and I know that there are a lot of Kuwaitis who are frustrated at not being given a chance to do jobs that they are well capable of doing but won’t be given them because employers want to pay lower salaries to expats than they would have to pay a Kuwaiti.

Another point…If I were to marry a Kuwaiti woman, and have children with her, as far as I know, I’d have no automatic right to stay in the country with my children if she divorced me.

Now, there’s something wrong there.

In kuwait we have freedom of religion which is law. if the law of naturlisation stipulates that the naturalsed citizen becomes kuwaiti, he/she should stay muslim if not, will be stripped of citizenship, then this is a CLEAR violation of not only law, but in violation of kuwait’s constitution, inwhich it stipulates that all kuwaitis are equal (not all muslim kuwaitis).

So when you hear or have heard enyone say,”oh look how advance such and such countries are so advance”, and how equal every citizen is, then you should come to realise that state and religion should be always seperate. This way, and only in this way is every citizen’s rights protected.
Look at our parliament now, its like a bloody religous meeting with all these beards everywhere. what next, taliban style law?
These religious rightious idiots, and the ignorant people who vote for them think sharia law is perfect, yet not one would want to live in a place like afganistan. If sharia law was layed down in it’s intirety, people would be stoned to death, hands cut off etc. IS this the kind of place you want to live in?? what tickles my bones is the fact that if a muslim abandons his religion for another, by sharia he/she must die. this fact cannot be argued, it’s in the koran, like the fact that ‘magic’ really exsists. now tell me, how medevil can one get??

Sorry who couldn’t get a cetizenship of kuwait. It’s not that you guys helped kuwait economy! it’s you came originaly because you have never found a place of freedom compared like Kuwait with high pay that many other places. Instead of this document of citezenship you collected money for more than what you can imagine if you remain working in your own country!
Another thing, if you want to change your citezenship I really recommend having Canadian or US once. at least you will treated every where in the world like human being, not like a rich man came from rich country where everyone is watching you pocket!! Sorry guys but you have to accept the other side of the story.
Moreover, due to so many political problems Kuwait is been challeged by its location and it was an threatend area by so many greedy neighbours and the world’s superpower forces. So save your life and think 100 times before u wish to swtich to Kuwaiti’s nationality!.

I stick to what Ibrahim said ” U DON’T NEED IT”!! if there is something that needs to be done to ease ur accommodation here in q8, its is the STUPID laws not the nationality!
and “twaif”, what u said about the maids, seriously! Take it back! i think its about time for q80s not to look down on ppl since we r heading to globalization!! I AM A Q80 TO THE CORE, but i am REALLY ashamed of the q80 mentality!!! it kills me every time i explain their stupid acts to a foreigner living here in q8 every single time they mess up !!! I’m not saying that all q80s r bad, but lets face it, the majority’s mentality simply sucks !
“aatif” I am terribly sorry !, if that would make a difference ! :/
And about the nationality, I think it is only that the q80s r a minority here in their country! And it won’t be logical when foreigners out number the locals and yet give the them citizenship!, its totally POLITICAL! Nothing RACIAL!! (relating to the nationality ONLY).
Heheheh if the q80s were 5 million and the foreigners were even 3 million, oh believe me no one would care about the citizenship!, coz the government wont have enough money to pay every Kuwaiti kid 50kd nor would they dream about the annual (lets say!)200kd ! AND ALL THE PRIVILEGES WILL SIMPLY VANISH TOO! No educational, nor medical! This way I don’t think a local will differ much from a foreigner i.e. nationality won’t matter! God, they might give it to u a year later!
I hope I made my point! 🙂

why do you want to become Kuwaiti? is it better than your nationality? i think if you were living here for long and didn’t get a citizenship get the message and go back to your country , hopefully they will give you th 200 there

my grandfathers been here since 1948 .. my family started here… and still nothing happens.. my moms kuwaiti..my dads not… so why should i get it?

Leave a Reply to holla Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *