The primary law governing nationality of Jordan is the Jordanian Nationality Law, which came into force on 16 February 1954.
Any person born to a Jordanian father is a Jordanian national at birth, regardless of the place of birth. Jordanian nationality is not transferrable to children of Jordanian mothers unless the fathers are stateless or their nationalities are unknown. Foreigners may become Jordanian nationals by naturalization after meeting a minimum residence requirement (usually four years) and demonstrating knowledge in the Arabic language. Individuals who make a substantial financial investment in the state are eligible for a facilitated naturalization process.
Jordan was formerly administered as a British protectorate as part of a League of Nations mandate for Palestine and Transjordan and local residents were British protected persons. Jordan gained independence in 1946 but the dissolution of the mandate for Palestine in 1948 and ensuing conflict led to the Jordanian annexation of the West Bank. Following its loss of the West Bank in 1967, Jordan severed all legal and administrative ties with that region in 1988, creating a set of complex nationality circumstances for the Palestinian inhabitants of both the West Bank and Jordan proper.
Terminology The distinction between the meaning of the terms citizenship and nationality is not always clear in the English language and differs by country. Generally, nationality refers a person's legal belonging to a state and is the common term used in international treaties when referring to members of a state; citizenship refers to the set of rights and duties a person has in that nation.
In the Jordanian context, the term "nationality" (, jinsiyya) is used to refer to legal state membership, while "citizenship" (, muwaatina) describes the relationship a person has with the state. Citizenship includes nationality but also involves other legal statues, civil rights, or political affiliations an individual might have.
History National status under British mandate The region of Transjordan was conquered by the Ottoman Empire in 1517. Accordingly, Ottoman nationality law applied to the area. Transjordan was governed by the Ottomans for four centuries until the 1916–1918 Arab Revolt during the First World War. The area nominally remained an Ottoman territory following the conclusion of the war until 1922, when the United Kingdom obtained a League of Nations mandate for Palestine, which included Transjordan. Similarly, local residents ostensibly continued their status as Ottoman subjects. The terms of the mandate allowed Britain to exclude its application on certain parts of the region; this exclusion was exercised on the territory east of the Jordan River, where the Emirate of Transjordan was established.
The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne established the basis for separate nationalities in Transjordan and all other territories ceded by the Ottoman Empire. The 1928 Transjordanian Nationality Law confirmed the transition from Ottoman/Turkish to Transjordanian nationality in local legislation; all Ottoman/Turkish subjects who had been resident for at least 12 months in Transjordan on 6 August 1924 became Transjordanian nationals on 1 May 1928. Ottoman subjects born in Transjordan who had submitted applications to become Transjordanian before 6 August 1926 could acquire that nationality subject to discretionary approval of a designated "head supervisor". Foreigners could naturalize as Transjordanian nationals after residing in the territory for at least two years preceding an application, demonstrating proficiency in Arabic, affirming their intention to permanently reside in Transjordan, and satisfying a good character requirement.
Individuals who acquired foreign citizenship automatically lost Transjordanian nationality after receiving Cabinet approval, as well as any person who joined a foreign military without government approval. Children of a Transjordanian father automatically held Transjordanian nationality, and minor children likewise lost that nationality if their fathers ceased to hold that status. At age 18, they had the option of resuming Transjordanian nationality within two years. Any person who acquired Transjordanian nationality by birth could also voluntarily relinquish that status within one year of reaching the age of majority.
Standard regulations in the British Empire at the time strictly complied with the doctrine of coverture, where a woman's consent to marry a foreigner was also assumed to be intent to denaturalize. The 1928 Nationality Law mirrored this in Transjordanian nationality law; Transjordanian women who married foreign men automatically lost their Transjordanian nationality and foreign women who married Transjordanian men automatically became Transjordanian nationals. However, wives who had acquired or lost Transjordanian nationality through their marriage could elect to relinquish or reacquire that status within two years of their husbands' deaths or if they had ceased to be married.
Despite Britain's role in representing Transjordan internationally and its responsibility for territorial defense, domestic law treated the protectorate as foreign territory. Transjordanian nationals were treated as British protected persons, rather than British subjects, meaning that they were aliens in the United Kingdom. Protected persons could not travel to the UK without first requesting permission, but were afforded the same consular protection as British subjects when travelling outside of the British Empire. This arrangement continued until Transjordan gained independence in 1946 and the Emirate became the Hashemite Kingdom of Transjordan.
Post-independence policies and West Bank incorporation
Following the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, Transjordan annexed the West Bank and the country was renamed as the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. Palestinian residents of the West Bank were granted Jordanian nationality through a supplementary nationality law enacted in December 1949 and participated in their first elections to the Jordanian parliament in 1950. This expansion of Jordanian territory greatly increased the country's population; compared to Transjordan's 1945 population of 476,000, the West Bank had 433,000 residents in 1947. Over 531,000 more people, displaced as a result of the war, entered Jordan by 1949. King Abdullah I's objective in quickly incorporating the Palestinian population into Jordanian institutions was to secure a vote in parliament calling for the unification of the East and West Banks. No actual vote on unification was ever voted on by the legislature; a failed parliamentary proposal to postpone immediate unification was instead interpreted by the government to be a vote for union. Palestinian dissatisfaction at the outcome and a perception that the King collaborated with Israel to fulfill his territorial ambitions led to his assassination in 1951.
The 1954 Nationality Law, which replaced the earlier 1928 legislation, clarified nationality eligibility for affected Palestinians. Every non-Jewish person who held Palestinian citizenship before termination of the British mandate for Palestine on 14 May 1948 who was ordinarily resident in Jordanian territory between 20 December 1949 and 16 February 1954 became Jordanian nationals under this legislation. This provision explicitly excluded any Jewish person who might have otherwise qualified to become Jordanian under the 1949 grant of nationality to Palestinians and served as a rejection of Revisionist Zionist claims to both sides of the Jordan River. The residence requirement for foreign nationals to naturalize was increased to four years and conviction of a crime violating "honor and morals" became a disqualifying factor, though Cabinet could waive the residence requirement (required royal approval from 1956) if the applicant was Arab or in special discretionary circumstances. Married women became eligible for naturalization separately from their husbands. Jordanian nationality could be stripped from any individual who entered government service of a foreign or enemy country and from naturalized persons (expanded to all Jordanians in 1958) who willfully acted against the national interest. The Ministry of Interior became the responsible agency for administering nationality, as opposed to the "head supervisor" specified in the 1928 law.
Non-Jordanian Arabs (defined as any national of an Arab League member state with an Arab father) faced greatly heightened residence requirements for naturalization, being required to live in the country for 15 years rather than four years for other foreign nationals. After receiving approval from the Minister of Interior, they were required to renounce their previous nationality and swear an oath of allegiance to the Jordanian monarch. However, Jordanians who intended to naturalize in another Arab country became able to do so without Cabinet approval while those who wished to in a non-Arab state were still required to obtain permission. A further definition for an "expatriate" was also detailed in this legislation to mean any Arab born in Jordan or the "usurped part of Palestine" who left the country, as well as their descendants. An expatriate could be granted Jordanian nationality after renouncing any other nationalities, subject to cabinet and royal approval. No elaboration is provided on the meaning of the "usurped part of Palestine" but left open the possibility of making residents of the Gaza Strip Jordanian nationals.
Regulations enforcing coverture were slightly relaxed in 1961. Jordanian women who married foreign men retain Jordanian nationality until they acquire the foreign citizenship of their husbands. Foreign women who married Jordanian men were allowed to remain foreign citizens instead of becoming Jordanian, provided that they made a written declaration to the Ministry of Interior within one year of marriage. Children continued to generally be assumed to have the same nationality as their father but certain exceptions were created in 1963 to prevent child statelessness. Minor children of Jordanian fathers who naturalized as foreign citizens but did not also acquire the citizenships of their fathers no longer lost Jordanian nationality. Instead, they became required to formally elect which nationality they would retain within two years of reaching age 18.
Territorial loss and subsequent reforms Jordan lost control of the West Bank to Israel following the 1967 Six-Day War. Subsequently, 261,000 displaced Palestinians entered Jordan. Refugees who came from the West Bank remained Jordanian nationals but those who arrived from Gaza were treated as foreigners. Growing domestic support among Palestinians resident in Jordan for the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and the persistence of a Palestinian national identity led to open rebellion against the monarchy in the 1970 Black September conflict. Despite government victory and King Hussein's attempts to mend ties between Transjordanians and Palestinians, the conflict led to an eventual permanent fracture between the two groups and failure of a pan-Jordanian identity.