The Nepal Citizenship Act (First Amendment) Bill 2079 has been passed by both Houses of parliament.
The National Assembly meeting on Thursday passed the amendment bill by a majority. Home Minister Bal Krishna Khand had tabled the motion to pass the bill in the National Assembly.
The bill will come into effect after the president certifies it.
The House of Representatives (HoR) had passed the amendment bill by a majority last Friday.
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 are/were Nepali citizens.
