Menu Sapkota of Nagarkot in Bhaktapur had got married with an Indian national Sauav Goyal in Delhi two years ago. 

“I gave up Nepali citizenship to be an Indian citizen immediately after our marriage,” said Sapkota. However, she has to wait for seven years to get a naturalised citizenship certificate in India. 

Sapkota has no citizenship now. She went to Nepali Embassy and explained her problems to the officials there. But the embassy officials could not answer her as she had already renounced Nepali citizenship. 

The officials of the Ministry of Home Affairs in India informed them to wait for seven years to get a naturalised citizenship certificate according to their rules. 

According to India’s Citizenship Act (1955), the foreign women married to Indian men will have to wait at least seven years to get an Indian citizenship. They have to prove that they stayed in India for seven years. Second Secretary of Nepali Embassy in India Srijana Adhikari said the foreign women married to Indian men will have to follow Indian rules and regulations. “We cannot say anything about the process,” said Adhikari. 

However, in Nepal, foreign women married to Nepali men have been receiving naturalised citizenship certificates within a week. Joint Secretary at Home Ministry’s Citizenship Section in Kathmandu Binod KC informed the Post over the phone that they have started distributing naturalised citizenship certificates to the women married to Nepali men according to the new constitution. 

“There are rumours that foreign women married to Nepali men will not receive Nepali citizenship certificates. But that’s not true,” said KC.