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Family · Guide

Moroccan nationality: who has it, how to prove it

You are Moroccan if your father or your mother is. Taking another nationality does not end it.

Checked: October 2026

These pages describe the law in force in October 2026: the Family Code of 2004 and the Nationality Code. The reform of the Family Code announced in December 2024 has not been voted. They inform you. For your own case, see a lawyer, an adoul or a notary.

Key facts

  • You are Moroccan from birth if your father or your mother is Moroccan, wherever you were born and whatever the other parent's nationality (Nationality Code, article 6).
  • The mother's line was added in 2007. It also covers people born before that date to a Moroccan mother and a foreign father.
  • Morocco accepts dual nationality. You do not lose Moroccan nationality by taking another one.
  • Inside Morocco, a dual national is treated as Moroccan only. The other country's consulate can do little for you there.
  • Marriage changes nobody's nationality. A Moroccan who marries a foreigner stays Moroccan. Divorce changes nothing either.
  • You prove your nationality with a certificate of nationality. You ask the King's prosecutor at the court of first instance. From abroad, the consulate forwards the request.
  • For Moroccans born abroad, the guide of the Hassan II Foundation names the prosecutor at the Rabat court of first instance.
  • An online service for nationality certificate requests was launched in January 2024, and the Ministry of Justice published a simplified procedure in February 2026. We could not open either: ask the court or the consulate for the current address.
  • A Moroccan by birth can also prove it by any means, including the fact of having always been treated as Moroccan.
  • A child born in Morocco of unknown parents is Moroccan. Being born in Morocco to foreign parents gives no nationality by itself.
  • Kafala does not change a child's nationality. After five years, a Moroccan guardian can file a declaration so that a child born abroad of unknown parents becomes Moroccan.

Steps

  1. To get a certificate: collect a full copy of your birth certificate and proof that your parent is Moroccan.
  2. Hand the request to your consulate, or to the prosecutor's office at the court of first instance in Morocco.
  3. Through your mother, born abroad: the request goes to the prosecutor in Rabat. Then have your birth entered in Moroccan civil status.
  4. To give up Moroccan nationality: send a request to the Minister of Justice, through the consulate. You stay Moroccan until a decree is published.

What to bring

  • Proof of your identity if you are an adult: passport or residence card
  • A full copy of your birth certificate
  • Through your mother: a full copy of her birth certificate and a copy of her CNIE
  • Through your father: we found no official list. Expect your birth certificate and proof that he is Moroccan, and ask the prosecutor's office or the consulate.

Watch out

  • Enter and leave Morocco with your Moroccan passport or CNIE if you hold them. Dual nationals are regularly asked for the CNIE at Moroccan airports.
  • Becoming a citizen of another country, or handing in a Moroccan passport, does not end Moroccan nationality. Only a published decree does.
  • If you give up Moroccan nationality, your unmarried minor children who live with you lose it too.
  • Born before 2 April 2007 to a Moroccan mother: you could keep your family name and first name, under a joint circular quoted by the Foundation's guide.

Official sources

consulat.maconsulat.ma (2)fh2mre.majustice.gov.ma

Checked: October 2026. Independent guide, not a government site. Rules change: confirm on the official page before you act.

How Moroccan nationality is lost

By decree, at your request
An adult who has acquired a foreign nationality abroad, or a person who has had one since birth, can be authorised by decree to give up the Moroccan one. Nothing happens without the decree.
The choice between 18 and 20
A child of a mixed marriage who is Moroccan through the mother can declare, between 18 and 20, that he or she keeps only one parent's nationality.
Withdrawal
It can only hit a person who acquired Moroccan nationality, never a Moroccan by birth, for serious offences committed within ten years of the acquisition.
Getting it back
A person who was Moroccan by birth and lost that nationality can ask for it back. Reinstatement is granted by decree.
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Marriage, divorce and nationality: all the guides

Marrying abroad: town hall or adouls at the consulateMarrying in Morocco when you live abroadMarrying a foreignerThe marriage deed: conditions, property and polygamyDivorcing under Moroccan lawDivorce across two countriesChildren after a divorce: custody, guardianship and travelMoney after a divorceChildren of a Moroccan and a foreignerYour foreign husband or wife in Morocco: nationality, residence, workInheritance in a mixed couple

Services

Official online servicesFifty government websites and phone lines: what each one does, what you need to sign in, and whether it works from abroad.

Nationality, residence and inheritance

Children of a Moroccan and a foreignerYour child is Moroccan from birth through the Moroccan parent. The other nationality depends on the other country's law, sometimes on a short deadline.Your foreign husband or wife in Morocco: nationality, residence, workMarriage gives your foreign spouse no Moroccan nationality by itself. It does open the way to a residence card in Morocco and, for a wife, to a declaration after five years.Inheritance in a mixed coupleMoroccan law follows a Moroccan everywhere, and it bars inheritance between a Muslim and a non-Muslim. A will and a choice of law can prepare what the law does not give.