CChapter 3: Comparative analysis of nationality laws onset of the Syrian crisis – as well as reports that the success of an application could be dependent on your “wasta” (i.e. personal influence or connections), as much as whether you were eligible.208 In Kuwait, thousands of stateless Bidoon have had naturalisation requests “pending” for years, or even longer, without a definitive response from the authorities.209 The naturalization process in Saudi Arabia is based on a points system: the minimum points are 23 that should be met by the Saudi nationality applicant. Thus, for instance, an applicant who holds an academic degree is given 8 points, a Masters 9 points and PhD 10 points (or 13 if the PhD is in medicine or engineering). It the applicant’s mother is a Saudi national, the award is 3 points, the same if mother and grandfather of the mother are Saudi nationals. After collecting the minimum of 23 points, the competent committee examines the application and decides either to grant or reject the Saudi nationality. Although offering a greater measure of clarity about what is expected, in practice the points system is such that it is almost impossible for a stateless person (Bidoon) in Saudi 208 - According to interviews conducted during a field mission that was undertaken by one of the project consultants in the Kurdistan Region (KR) of Northern Iraq during the summer of 2012. 209 - One report mentions that “Over the last 12 years more than 80,000 applications for nationality have sat before the Kuwait government’s ‘Bidoon Committee’.” Refugees International, Kuwait: Bidoon nationality demands can’t be silenced, 6 March 2012, available at: http://www.refintl.org/sites/default/ files/030512_Kuwait_Bidoun_Nationality%20with%20letterhead.pdf. 157