The Bahamas

In The Bahamas, children born abroad and out of wedlock to a Bahamian man and foreign woman do not have equal rights to nationality. Upon their birth they cannot be registered as Bahamian citizens, having to wait until they turn 18 to apply for citizenship. When a child is born abroad and out of wedlock, nationality is passed down matrilineally. This leaves children stateless if they are born outside of wedlock to Bahamian men and stateless mothers or mothers whose countries do not allow them to transmit their nationality to their children. In May 2020 the Supreme Court decided to allow children of Bahamian men and foreign women born out of wedlock to acquire their Bahamian nationality at birth. While the ruling should be interpreted as meaning that all children born abroad to a Bahamian parent should automatically acquire nationality at birth, regardless of marital status of the parents, in practice it has not been implemented.