Africa-Press – Malawi. The Department of Immigration and Citizenship Services has disclosed that it will start receiving and processing applications for dual citizenship from this month, January 2022.
The department’s National Public Relations Officer, Wellington Chiponde, revealed on Tuesday that the department has finalized developing guidelines of the dual citizenship law.
Issues of dual citizenship in Malawi are governed by the 1966 Citizenship Act of the Laws of Malawi. “The law permitted Malawians under the age of 22 years to maintain dual citizenship, but it limited persons of full age and capacity to be dual citizens,” he said
According to him, on 12th December, 2018, the Malawi National Assembly passed the Malawi Citizenship Amendment Bill to amend the 1966 Citizenship Act, allowing persons of full age and capacity to hold citizenship of another country in addition to their Malawi citizenship.
Chiponde said the dual citizenship bill was assented into law in March 2019 and dual citizenship regulations were gazetted in November 2021 In Malawi, he said, dual citizenship is the status whereby a person is concurrently regarded as a citizen of two countries.
Only Malawians by birth or descent are eligible to acquire dual citizenship, he said. Chiponde said persons who were naturalized, registered or conferred the citizenship of Malawi are not eligible for the Malawi dual citizenship.
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