New legislation passed by the Iranian Parliament grants permanent residency to children to born to Iranian mothers and foreign fathers.
The Khaneh Mellat website reports that the legislation gives such children a citizen’s rights to education, health insurance, social security and government cash benefits, but they will not be given automatic Iranian citizenship.
According to previous laws, children born to Iranian women and foreign men could apply for Iranian citizenship after they reached the age of 18, but prior to that they were denied residency and all citizenship rights.
The new legislation was widely expected to also grant citizenship to such children but it does not.
Until now, children born to Iranian mothers and foreign national fathers had to acquire a visa to travel to Iran and faced residency permit problems if they wanted to live there permanently with their mothers.
Children born to Iranian fathers and foreign national women do not face such restrictions.
