HM Passport Office — Kuwait: Knowledge Base profile (names, nationality, legitimacy and guardianship, Kuwaiti civil documents, the 'Article 17' passport)

The guidance is published on GOV.UK by HM Passport Office. The GOV.UK page records first publication on 1 May 2024, an update on 28 October 2025 (Kuwaiti naming conventions) and an update on 29 September 2026 (name alignment and parental responsibility). The document itself is version 4.0, "published for Home Office staff on 03 August 2026".

NAMES. A Kuwaiti name consists of a forename, middle names (father's, grandfather's and great-grandfather's names) and a family name. The additional names do not fit the Kuwaiti passport's bio-data page or machine-readable zone, so the Kuwaiti issuing authority abbreviates them but never the forename or surname. The guidance's example: Mohamed Khaled Khan MOHSIN appears as "Mohamed Kh K MOHSIN" ("Khaled will always be abbreviated as Kh and not just K"). Name changes are allowed. Women do not take the husband's name on marriage. A child's change of name requires a Kuwaiti birth certificate. HM Passport Office adds an observation to a British passport recording the name in the foreign passport where the applicant cannot align the Kuwaiti passport and can evidence this, or where "admin fairness" has been applied, unless an exception applies.

NATIONALITY. "Dual nationality is not recognised in Kuwait." Children with dual nationality have two years after reaching 18 to decide whether to keep Kuwaiti nationality or the other nationality.

LEGITIMACY AND GUARDIANSHIP. A child is legitimate if born to parents who married at least six months before the birth. A child born to unmarried parents, or to parents who married less than six months before the birth or after it, is treated as illegitimate. Fathers are their children's legal guardians, the equivalent of parental responsibility. An unmarried father must legally acknowledge the child to obtain guardianship. In the absence of a known or acknowledging father, the mother's closest male relative holds guardianship, or a court may award it to another named person. A mother obtains parental responsibility only if a court grants it. Custody alone "does not give her parental responsibility or any decision-making authority".

ADOPTION, SURROGACY, MARRIAGE. Adoption and surrogacy are illegal. Civil partnerships and same-sex relationships are not recognised. Both religious and civil marriages are legal. All marriages are registered at the Ministry of Justice marriages department, and the couple receive two marriage certificates in Arabic.

DOCUMENTS. Birth certificates are not issued for every child born in Kuwait. Where a parent is stateless, or the child is born less than six months after the parents' marriage, the only document issued is a hospital notification showing both parents' details. Births must be registered with the Central Record for Birth and Death (Ministry of Health) within 60 days, and late registration is allowed. The birth certificate has no middle-name column, and a corrected certificate is reissued if an error is found. Deaths are registered with the same office with no time limit. There are two identity cards, one for citizens and one for foreign nationals, and both must be applied for in person. "Kuwait issues an article 17 passport. The article 17 passport is issued to the Bedouin and it does not give them Kuwait nationality. An article 17 passport is valid for 5 years."

USE IN A REPORT: this is the UK Government's current operational description of Kuwaiti names and civil documents. It is useful where a case turns on how a Kuwaiti name is rendered or abbreviated in documents, on what a Kuwaiti birth record should look like, or on who holds guardianship of a child. It is guidance for passport staff, not a statement of Kuwaiti law. Cite it as HM Passport Office's understanding and, where a point is decisive, cite the Kuwaiti legislation itself.

Two points should be read with other Dossier material. First, the guidance says the Article 17 passport "is issued to the Bedouin". Amnesty International's 2023 report on Bidun education (on the Dossier) describes it as a travel document the government issues at its discretion, under Article 17 of Act No. 11 of 1962 on Passports, to those without Kuwaiti nationality, and documents its use by stateless Bidun. "Bidun" (bidun jinsiya, "without nationality") is a legal status and "Bedouin" a way of life. The two words are not interchangeable, and a report should use the one its source supports. Second, the statement that dual nationals have two years after 18 to choose should be checked against the Nationality Law as amended in 2024–2026 (see the update on the Dossier's nationality entry) before it is relied on. The hospital-notification rule for a child of a stateless parent is consistent with what Amnesty International documented in 2022–2023.