Govt urged to speed up citizenship approvals for children born overseas to Malaysian women

PUTRAJAYA: The Association of Family Support and Welfare Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (Family Frontiers) has urged the National Registration Department (NRD) to speed up citizenship approvals for children born overseas to Malaysian women.

Family Frontiers spokesperson Bina Ramanand said some 70 Malaysian mothers had submitted citizenship documents for their overseas-born children using the Foreign Birth Registration form (Borang D).

They said with some were submitted in December 2021 but there were no updates about the matter.

"We are wondering why the processing should take so long. The mothers who checked (with the NRD) were told it would take six months to process," she told reporters after following up on the issue at the NRD's headquarters here on Friday (June 10).

On Sept 9 last year, the High Court declared that children born overseas to Malaysian mothers married to foreigners should be able to automatically pass on their Malaysian citizenship to their children.

As part of the decision, the High Court ordered the government to issue relevant documents such as identity cards to these children.

Ummal Remiza Khaja Mohideen, who is fighting for her eldest daughter's right to acquire Malaysian citizenship, said she had submitted relevant documents to the NRD last March and was still waiting for an answer.

Ummul Remiza is married to a Nigerian and has two other children who were born in Malaysia respectively.

To avoid problems as her eldest daughter goes through for the citizenship process, she flew from Qatar, where the couple is currently based, to Malaysia to give birth to her other two children. – Bernama