Kuala lumpur: The Home Ministry (KDN) will announce the effective date of amendments to citizenship provisions for children born overseas to Malaysian women once all preparations for their implementation have been completed. Home Minister Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail stated that preparations include essential documentation, citizenship regulations, and an online application system involving Malaysian representative offices worldwide.

According to BERNAMA News Agency, the effective date has been determined by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, and KDN will make the announcement once several administrative matters have been finalized. Saifuddin noted that preparations at the ministry level are complete, with relevant documents and citizenship regulations ready and confirmation obtained from the Attorney General's Chambers. The setup of the online application system is also part of the preparations to facilitate international implementation.

The implementation of the amendments is expected to provide relief to Malaysian women or mothers awaiting the citizenship process for their children born overseas. Saifuddin revealed that out of approximately 50,000 outstanding citizenship applications, around 7,000 involve children born overseas to Malaysian mothers. He mentioned that only a few hundred applications remain undecided as they continue processing older applications while waiting for the amendments to take effect.

Saifuddin further explained that once the amendments come into force and new applications are opened, applications in this category will be processed under the new provisions. Additionally, KDN is making efforts to resolve the remaining 4,121 citizenship applications out of the initial 50,000 outstanding applications, aiming to decide on all of them within the year. The four main categories with the highest number of applications are under Article 15A, Article 15(2), Article 19(1), and Article 30(1) of the Federal Constitution.