The Bahamas

Under The Bahamas’ nationality law, women do not have equal rights to confer nationality to their spouses and children. As a result, if Bahamian women are married to a foreign or stateless man and give birth abroad, their children cannot be registered as Bahamian citizens at birth. To acquire Bahamian citizenship, the child must wait until they turn 18 and apply before they turn 21. Bahamian men who were born in the Bahamas and are married to foreign women can transmit their nationality to children born abroad. This discriminatory nationality law may lead to statelessness for children born abroad to Bahamian women married to a stateless man.