A view shows vehicles driving on a street in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia February 16, 2021. File Photo: REUTERS/Ahmed Yosri
Doha: A royal decree in Saudi Arabia was recently approved with regard to the amendment of Article 8 of the Saudi nationality law, giving Crown Prince HRH Mohammed bin Salman, the prime minister of Saudi Arabia, the authority to grant citizenship.
According to Okaz newspaper, Article 8 of the Saudi law used to stipulate that Saudi nationality may be “granted by a decision of the minister of interior” before the amendment. The article now reads that the nationality may be given “by order of the prime minister based on a proposal from the minister of interior”.
Article 8, which concerns the offspring of a foreign father and a Saudi mother receiving the nationality, stipulated that the applicant must have attained permanent residence status in the Kingdom upon reaching the age of maturity, is of good conduct, had never been convicted of a moral crime or served a prison sentence for a period of more than six months.
The law also required the applicant to be a fluent Arabic speaker and to submit a request for a Saudi Arabian nationality within one year after “reaching the age of maturity".
