Kuwait is moving in two directions at once. A 2024 residency law brought permits of up to 15 years. At the same time the state has been revoking citizenships on a scale no other Gulf country has matched.
The executive regulations (Ministerial Resolution 2249/2025) took effect around late December 2025.
| Standard permits | Up to 5 years. |
|---|---|
| Property owners | Up to 10 years. No minimum property value was stated. |
| Licensed investors | Up to 15 years. The investment authority (KDIPA) set the bar in June 2026 at KWD 5 million invested or KWD 1 million in capital, plus hiring Kuwaitis. |
| Language requirement | None found. |
| Residence | 20 years, or 15 for Arab nationals. |
|---|---|
| Conditions | Knowledge of the Arabic language, and the applicant must be Muslim. |
| Renunciation | A naturalised person must give up any other nationality within 3 months, or the grant is void (Article 11bis). |
| Political rights | No vote for 30 years after naturalisation (Article 6). |
| Numbers | The annual number of naturalisations is fixed by law. |
The English translation we used dates from around 2012. Decree-laws 116/2024 and 52/2026 have amended the law since; 116/2024, for example, ended automatic citizenship for foreign wives of Kuwaitis. Whether the articles above were also changed is not confirmed. check the current text
Context matters here. Since March 2024 Kuwait has revoked citizenship from tens of thousands of people. The official gazette total reported in November 2025 was about 32,500; other reporting put it near 50,000. For a newcomer, long-term residency is the path that actually exists.
Checked against the sources below in October 2026. Gulf rules change often — confirm the current figure with the official body before you act on it.
Indian citizens: taking any Gulf nationality ends your Indian citizenship automatically (Citizenship Act, Section 9). What that means, and what OCI does and doesn’t give you →