KATHMANDU:- There has been a significant increase in the number of people obtaining citizenship in their mother’s name following the Fourth Amendment of the Nepal Citizenship Regulations, 2082 (2025/2026).
According to the Joint Secretary Suresh Panthi, Chief of Policy, Plan, Monitoring and Evaluation Division under the Ministry of Home Affairs, 2,948 people have obtained citizenship in the name of their mother since the implementation of the fourth amendment of the Nepal Citizenship Regulation.
It came into effect after the endorsed regulation by a meeting of the Council of Ministers held on December 26, 2025, was published in the Nepal Gazette.
Rule 3 of the Nepal Citizenship Regulations, 2063 has been amended.
Similarly, rules 5, 7, 8 and 14 of the original regulations have been amended. Rule 16 (a) has been added to the original regulations while the schedule of the original regulations has been amended.
According to the new provisions, the Chief District Officer may provide naturalized Nepali citizenship after necessary investigation in cases where one parent has obtained Nepali citizenship by birth and the other parent has died without acquiring citizenship or the father’s address is unknown, and in cases of children born abroad to a Nepali mother whose father’s identity is not known but who reside permanently in Nepal.
As per the new provisions, in addition to the documents specified by the regulations, self-declaration will also be considered an important basis while issuing citizenship in the name of mother.