The House of Representatives (HoR) has passed the amendment bill on Citizenship Act by majority on Friday.
Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand proposed the motion to pass the amendment bill. Speaking in the House during the clause-wise discussion on the bill before that, Khand informed that the government would accept some of the amendments registered by lawmakers.
The bill will also have to be passed by the National Assembly to come into effect.
The bill does not propose any restrictions on foreigners marrying Nepali citizens while acquiring naturalized citizenship.
It also has a provision to grant citizenship by descent to the children of those who received citizenship by birth through a one-time arrangement after the Janaandolan II in 2006.
Citizenship by birth was granted to persons born in Nepal before mid-April 1990, and having permanent domicile and been continuously resident in Nepal throughout their life through the one-time arrangement.
The bill passed Friday also allows citizenship to a person only through the name of mother but has put four conditions for that. The child should be born in Nepal, should be residing in Nepal, father should be unidentified and the person should make self-declaration that the father has not been identified for that.
The person taking the citizenship certificate can choose to take the surname and address of either the father or mother. The bill has also paved the way for non-resident citizenship to anyone living outside the SAARC countries if there is proof that the person's father/mother or grandfather/grandmother is/was a Nepali citizen.
