Statelessness Working Paper Series No. 2015/01 may be difficult to obtain all the necessary paperwork to complete an application for governmental approval prior to marriage. Some couples may not even be aware of the restrictions and may marry without government approval. Some couples may decide to defy a rejected application and marry despite the regulation. In any of these cases, children resulting from an unrecognized union are likely to be treated as non-marital children. As outlined above, non-marital children may not receive nationality or may face significant obstacles to register. While Bahrain has considered imposing restrictions on the rights of its nationals to marry foreigners, at present Bahrain is the only GCC state that does not impose marriage restrictions based on nationality.39 Kuwait requires men in its armed forces to obtain prior approval before marrying foreigners. This restriction does not appear to limit many unions: “In practice the government offered only non-binding advice in such matters and did not prevent any such marriages.”40 However, Kuwaiti men who marry non-Kuwaiti women post-January 2010 must receive approval from a government committee for the non-Kuwaiti wife to be able to live in Kuwait. Qatar requires its citizens to obtain approval prior to marrying non-Qataris. The United States Department of State reported in 2013 that government permission “was generally granted.”41 Prior to registering the birth of a child to a Qatari father and a non-GCC national mother, however, the father must present documentation of his permission to marry the child’s mother as part of the birth registration process.42 Oman limits the rights of its citizens to marry individuals who are not Omani or GCC nationals. Marrying “without ministry approval may result in denial of entry for the foreign spouse at the border and preclude children from claiming citizenship rights. It also may result in a bar from government employment and a fine of 2,000 rials ($5,200).”43 Saudi has long imposed restrictions that require prior approval for a Saudi man to marry a woman from outside the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The Saudi government recently enacted further regulations as well as total prohibitions on marriages between Saudi men and women of four nationalities. These new restrictions, if left in place, can only increase the risk of statelessness for children born to Saudi men. The Saudi Gazette summarizes both the prior restrictions and the recent prohibition: Applicants should be over 25 and attach identification documents signed by his local district mayor as well as all other identity papers, including a copy of his family card. If the applicant is already married, he should attach a report from a hospital proving that his wife is either disabled, suffering from a chronic disease or is sterile. . . . Saudi men have been prohibited from marrying expatriate women from Pakistan, Bangladesh, Chad and Myanmar. According to unofficial statistics, there are about 500,000 women from these four countries currently residing in the Kingdom.44 Assuming that a Saudi man may at some point break this law, his children will be at a severe risk of statelessness. Because Saudi Arabia does not recognize foreign marriage certificates, it seems that the child of an unapproved union would be treated the same as a non-marital child (i.e., unable to be registered).45 Of more than 1,800 cases filed in Saudi Arabia in 2014 seeking to establish paternity or 39 Gulf Daily News, “Marriage Bill Shelved,” (June 21, 2006), http://www.gulfdailynews.com/NewsDetails.aspx?storyid=146895 40 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT KUWAIT (2013), http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/220573.pdf 41 U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE, COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES FOR 2010: QATAR (2010), http://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2010/nea/154471.htm 42 QATARI GOVERNMENT, ISSUING THE BIRTH CERTIFICATE [AR], http://tinyurl.com/mf6e4gy 43 UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF STATE, COUNTRY REPORTS ON HUMAN RIGHTS PRACTICES FOR 2013: OMAN (2013), http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/220581.pdf 44 Saudi Gazette, Rules for Saudi Men Marrying Foreign Women Made Tougher, (Aug. 4, 2014), http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentid=20140805213657 (internal quotations omitted) 45 S. Abdullah, Children of Saudi Fathers Cry for Help, ARAB NEWS, (June 2, 2012), http://www.arabnews.com/children-saudifathers-cry-help 6