Family · Guide
Your foreign husband or wife in Morocco: nationality, residence, work
Marriage 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.
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
- Marrying a Moroccan does not make anyone Moroccan automatically.
- Foreign wife of a Moroccan man: she can acquire nationality by a declaration to the Minister of Justice, if the couple has lived habitually and lawfully in Morocco for at least five years and the marriage is still in force when she signs (Nationality Code, article 10).
- The five years are lived in Morocco. As the article is written, years abroad do not count, so a couple settled abroad does not meet the condition.
- The Minister has one year to answer. Silence for a year counts as a refusal. If he accepts, she is Moroccan from the date she filed.
- A divorce, or the husband's death, after the filing does not cancel the declaration.
- Foreign husband of a Moroccan woman: the law gives him no such declaration. His only route is ordinary naturalisation, in which marriage is not a condition and gives no shortcut.
- Naturalisation asks for five years of lawful residence in Morocco before the request, adulthood, good health, good conduct with no serious conviction, knowledge of Arabic or Amazigh, and sufficient means. It is a decision, not a right, and is granted by decree.
- Residence: the law on foreigners gives the residence card to the foreign spouse of a Moroccan, husband or wife, if entry and stay were lawful. It sets no minimum length of marriage.
- A foreigner married to a Moroccan for at least one year cannot be expelled, apart from cases of State security.
- Work: press articles and NGO guides list the spouses of Moroccans among the foreigners exempt from the ANAPEC certificate. A residence document is needed in every case to sign a work contract.
- Your children together are Moroccan through you, whatever your spouse's status.
Steps
- Enter Morocco lawfully and keep the proof: passport stamp or visa.
- Before 90 days have passed, apply for the card at the foreigners' office of the police prefecture of your town, or at the Royal Gendarmerie in the countryside.
- Hand in the form and the papers in two certified copies, and keep the receipt: it serves as a temporary residence document.
- Renew before the card expires, and report any change of address.
- Wife, after five years in Morocco: send the declaration to the Minister of Justice with proof of the marriage, of your husband's nationality and of the five years. Keep proof of the filing date.
What to bring
- For the card, the police give the exact list. The usual base: the form, a certified copy of the passport, photos, proof of address, a criminal record extract, a medical certificate, a tax stamp, and the marriage certificate.
- To take a job: a legalised copy of the marriage certificate and a recent copy of the Moroccan spouse's CNIE, according to the press. Confirm with the employer.
- For the wife's declaration: the Code gives no list. Expect to prove the marriage, your husband's Moroccan nationality and five years of lawful residence of the couple in Morocco.
Watch out
- Proposal, not law: bill 019.13, announced in 2023, would open the declaration to the foreign husbands of Moroccan women. We found no trace of its adoption up to October 2026. Websites that announce it describe the bill.
- Living in Morocco without a card is an offence: a fine of 5,000 to 30,000 dirhams and one month to one year in prison, or one of the two.
- A residence card lapses after more than two years outside Morocco. This matters for couples who move back abroad.
- The law says nothing on the card when the marriage ends, by divorce or death. Ask the foreigners' office well before the next renewal.
- Practice can differ from the text: the French consulates say the card is renewed every year until a ten-year card is obtained.
- Our sources do not agree on whether the spouse of a Moroccan still needs the Ministry of Labour's approval of the work contract. Ask the ministry before you sign.
- An unmarried partner cannot rely on the relationship: cohabitation is not recognised in Morocco.
- The other direction is decided by your country of residence. Marrying a German national, for example, gives no right of residence in Germany by itself.
Official sources
Checked: October 2026. Independent guide, not a government site. Rules change: confirm on the official page before you act.