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Hi!

Just wanted to know what is the status of a baby born in the UAE? Do they get UAE nationality straight away? I mean, is the UAE nationality by blood or by land? What if I DON'T want it for my babby, can I just give it a miss, do I have to formally renounce to it or is it complusory?

Please advise! We are British/Italian, we are having our baby in Duabi in JUly and need some peace of mind about this.

Thanks

J!

UAE nationality, other than in extreme cases, is passed down from father to child ONLY.

So this is a non-issue for you

Thanks Liban!

That's a big load off my mind!

Julieta wrote:Hi!

Just wanted to know what is the status of a baby born in the UAE? Do they get UAE nationality straight away? I mean, is the UAE nationality by blood or by land? What if I DON'T want it for my babby, can I just give it a miss, do I have to formally renounce to it or is it complusory?

Please advise! We are British/Italian, we are having our baby in Duabi in JUly and need some peace of mind about this.

Thanks

J!

uae nationality is by blood only! all children borne to expatriates in the uae have to register under one of the parents passorts (and assume thier nationality), they can never become uae nationals!
once they have their own passport they are then sponsored under your husbands visa (as you will have to be), and only have residency status in the uae.

this applies to adults as well, expatriats at present cannot become citizens of the uae, they are only granted 3 year (renewable) residency.

if you need to know more drop me a line

Thanks dbxsoul, very thorough reply!

Good to know...no offence, but not really interested in becoming an UAE citizen! Our children are already entitled to about 6 different passports between my husband and me, so that's more than enough!

Julieta wrote:Thanks Liban!

That's a big load off my mind!

lol r u afraid ur child will have an arab nationality and will be discriminated in Europe?

No, not at all. I am just concerned about what kind of "rights" the state might have on my child. I am just not familiar with arab customs. For instance, in Iran (and by no means I think that the UAE and Iran are similar regarding the application of Islamic law!) children born to an Iranian father, regardless of the mum's nationality or where they are born, are considered Iranian and foreign woman married to Iranians and living there are considered Iranians in spite of whatever their nationalities are (or so I read a few years ago, this might have changed, I am not pretending by no means to be an expert in this issue!)

So I must admit that I just don't have enough information about this kind of legal matters in the UAE. And it is such a different culture that I can't just take for granted things that seem normal in the West. And even in the west, as countries like Venezuela (South America) where a pseudo-democratic, rather totalitarian government is ruling, the leftist "president" Chavez is considering changing the law to have more control over chidlren (like in Cuba). So maybe there is where my paranoia is coming from about where my children are born and what implications this may have in our lives.

And regarding being afraid the are arabs, well, my husband is half lebanese, so too late for that!

Wish you a safe delivery of the multinational baby

Thanks maad. I'll let you know which nationalities she is going to have (we can pick and mix!)

Excellent reply to Hashmans post Julieta, you maintained decorum in answering a rather "taunting post".

Wishing you all the best Julieta - we had exactly the same questions. My wife is expecting our third child in May - and we fly into Dubai in just over 3 weeks time.

I'm assured that the facilities in Dubai are first class..

Cheers,
Shafique

Thanks Arniegang...I will forward your message to my mum, so she can be proud, ha,ha! And maybe she can finally be certain that all that money spent in my education was not lost after all

Safique,

Good to know that this info was of use to you too. I guess it's the whole point fo these forums, to learn from someone else's wisdom and to know you are not the only one going through a similar experience! Good luck on the birth of your new baby. have you chosen a hospital already? I think I'll opt for the American Hospital...hope I am making the right choice!

Julieta - no we haven't chosen the hospital yet - my wife hasn't yet visited Dubai and it will be all new to her. We have 9 year old and 2yr old - so we are going to have a busy first 2 months in Dubai - finding somewhere to stay, school for daughter no1, nursery for daughter no2 and ante-natal facilities for no3 (don't know whether boy or girl yet!)

Will decide when we get there - depending on where we eventually find somewhere to stay and what the company insurance will cover...


Cheers,
Shafique

In all Arab countries, the child assumes the nationality of the father regardless of the mother's nationality...

ie. Lebanese father and Tunisian mother, the child is Lebanese... Even if the child was born in Tunisia and doesn't speak the Lebanese dialect and has never been to Lebanon...

Great post and answer Julieta!

Julieta wrote:Thanks dbxsoul, very thorough reply!

Good to know...no offence, but not really interested in becoming an UAE citizen! Our children are already entitled to about 6 different passports between my husband and me, so that's more than enough!

Wow. Just out of interest, what 6 different passports nationalities are these?

I am Venezuelan/Italian, and my husband is British, but his mother is half German as well (so he could claim this nationality if he wanted...but he'll have to renounce to all his other nationalities, so not very keen about it), his father is Lebanese, but he was born in Jordan, so he also has a Jordanian passport.

So there you go the 6 nationalities! Although so far my son only has Italian and British citizenship (not very keen on the Venezuelan one, for the reasons explained in one of my earlier messages). So we have covered about 3 continents if we wanted to!