- Ways to apply
- Citizen by descent (Art. 6)
- Dual citizenship
- Kept, however you apply
Each answer assumes none of your ancestors became a citizen of another country before their child was born. Below is what changes each answer.
On this page›
- 01Who qualifies
- 02Dates that matter
- 03Through your mother
- 04Keeping your citizenship
- 05Ways to apply
- 06The documents
- 07What it takes
- 08Where the records live
- 09Law changes
- 10Other options
- 11Sources
Who qualifies, generation by generation
LIKELY
Can you claim Moroccan citizenship through a parent?
Citizen by descent
A child of a Moroccan parent is Moroccan. Children of a Moroccan parent, including mothers since 2007, are Moroccan.
POSSIBLE
Can you claim Moroccan citizenship through a grandparent?
Citizen by descent
A child of a Moroccan is Moroccan wherever born, so your parent is Moroccan through your grandparent and, once their birth is transcribed, you are Moroccan through your parent.
What would settle itWhether your parent’s birth has been transcribed in the Moroccan civil register; if not, it is done first.
POSSIBLE
Can you claim Moroccan citizenship through a great-grandparent?
Citizen by descent
A child of a Moroccan is Moroccan wherever born, so your parent is Moroccan through your grandparent and, once their birth is transcribed, you are Moroccan through your parent.
What would settle itWhether your parent’s birth has been transcribed in the Moroccan civil register; if not, it is done first.
The dates that matter
- 2007
Claiming through your mother or grandmother
Morocco’s rule gives the same answer whether the line runs through a mother or a father. Where its reasons speak of mothers or fathers, they say:
Dual citizenship with your home country
You keep your citizenship.
On every open route, the rule lets a citizen of the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Argentina or South Africa keep that citizenship.
Every way to apply, and the law behind it
- LIKELY
Through a parent
- POSSIBLE
Through a grandparent
The law
What would settle an unsure case
- Whether your parent’s birth has been transcribed in the Moroccan civil register; if not, it is done first.
The documents, as the rule lists them
Citizen by descent
Through a parent
- Your parent’s Moroccan birth certificate or identity document
- Your birth certificate, transcribed into the Moroccan civil register at the consulate
Through a grandparent or great-grandparent
- Your Moroccan ancestor’s civil status record
- Birth and marriage records for each generation, transcribed at the consulate in turn
Most countries also want proof that your ancestor didn’t become a citizen somewhere else before their child was born: the naturalization record with its date, or a letter saying there isn’t one.
What it takes: time, cost, the hard part, who decides
Citizen by descent
- Time
- 4–12 months to transcribe your birth into the Moroccan civil register and issue a first passport; consulates with a backlog run toward the long end.
- Cost
- About $250–500: certified copies, apostilles, translations and the passport fee.
- The hard part
- Getting your Moroccan parent’s birth or identity record transcribed correctly; consulates want it before they’ll register your own birth.
- Who decides
- The Moroccan consulate for your address, which forwards the transcription to the civil registry.
- The first record
- Your Moroccan parent’s birth certificate or national ID (CIN), from The civil registry (état civil) of the commune where they were born. Write to or visit the commune’s civil registry with the parent’s name, date and place of birth; a family member in Morocco can usually get this in a few weeks. consulat.ma ↗
How it’s filed
- Where
- The Moroccan consulate where the parents are registered: the Consulate General in New York, the Embassy’s consular section in Washington, or the Consulate General in Miami, which covers about twenty southern and western states from Florida to California (the embassy names Oklahoma, Georgia, South Carolina and Utah). The declarant is the father or mother (or guardian, brother or a mandated person). office list ↗
- How
- In person; you appear in person
- Fee
- About $3
- Decision
- 1–12 months
What goes in the file (6)›
- Proof that the Moroccan parent(s) are consularly registered with the consulate (register first if not)
- The family record book (livret de famille) or the Moroccan identity and civil status booklet, or a written undertaking to produce it
- A complete (long-form) copy of the child’s birth certificate issued by the local authority
- An extract of the mother’s birth certificate, or her CNIE
- A copy of the father’s CNIE
- A copy of the parents’ marriage certificate
What goes wrong (7)›
- Filed by the parent, not the child: for an adult applicant, the Moroccan parent (or a mandated person) declares. A consulate transcribes a foreign birth directly only within one year of the birth (Law 36-21 on civil status and its decree 2-22-04 of 2023). Past that, the birth is entered on the register by a declaratory judgment (jugement déclaratif de naissance) from the court of first instance in Morocco.
- Transcription costs 30 dirhams (about $3). Consular registration, required first, costs 70 dirhams ($7.30 at the New York consulate), and a family record book 170 dirhams. The U.S. posts charge in dollars at their posted rate.
- For a child of a Moroccan mother and a foreign father born before 2 April 2007, the embassy’s checklist asks for a certificate of Moroccan nationality. The consulate takes the request and sends it to the King’s Attorney at the competent court of first instance in Morocco, which issues it. A passport is not a nationality certificate (Nationality Code Art. 33).
- Consulates with a backlog take up to a year.
- Morocco has permitted dual nationality without a renunciation requirement since the original 1958 Nationality Code, so no proof that the Moroccan parent did or didn’t naturalize abroad is asked for on this filing.
- Addresses: Consular Section of the Embassy, 1601 21st Street NW, Washington, DC 20009, +1 202-499-1050, sc-washington@maec.gov.ma (not the chancery at 3508 International Drive NW). Consulate General, 55 Broadway, New York, NY 10006, +1 212-758-2625, sec.cny@maec.gov.ma; civil status desk +1 929-989-4661. Consulate General, 1101 Brickell Avenue, Suite N-500 (5th floor), Miami, FL 33131, +1 786-279-8787 (civil status ext. 4), cgmiami@maec.gov.ma. All open Monday–Friday, 9 a.m.–3 p.m.
- From CA, GB, AU, NZ, ZA, BR, AR: the Moroccan consulate where the parents are registered; the same transcription.
source ↗
Fees are each office’s published fee, converted to U.S. dollars.
Where each record lives, and how to ask for it
birth
The bureau d’état civil of the commune where the Moroccan parent was born (Ministry of the Interior civil status system)
The parent’s birth record, by name, date and commune of birth; the parent’s CNIE number helps. The consulate asks for an extract of the mother’s birth certificate or her CNIE and a copy of the father’s CNIE.
- Takes
- 1–13 weeks
Good to know (3)›
- The extract or full copy goes to the holder, a parent or grandparent (ascendant), a spouse, a guardian or anyone the holder authorizes. Give the commune, the act number and the year, or bring the family record book or an old copy.
- Online: watiqa.ma takes orders from abroad for records held by a Moroccan-born parent’s commune, paid by international card and sent by registered post (about 48 hours at the commune plus up to 5 days in the post) where the commune offers the service. Through a U.S. consulate: the consulate requests the copy from Morocco; each extract or full copy costs 30 dirhams (about $3).
- The family record book (livret de famille) of the Moroccan father is the central document. The consulate issues one to a registered father for 170 dirhams (about $18).
source ↗
Translations
- Into
- Arabic
- Who may translate
- A sworn translator in the country
- About
- $30–$80 a page
Moroccan civil status is kept in Arabic (with French). For a birth transcription the consulate works from the U.S. birth certificate itself: the embassy’s checklist asks for the American birth certificate and no translation. Arabic translations are asked for marriage filings (the U.S. marriage certificate for a marriage validation). Morocco has been party to the Apostille Convention since 2016, so a U.S. apostille is the authentication where one is needed.
source ↗
The passport
- Where
- The Moroccan consulate for the applicant’s residence (after the CNIE), by appointment at rdv.consulat.ma: consular registration, a valid CNIE, proof of U.S. residence and two photos on a white or light-blue background. The fee abroad is 860 dirhams: 800 dirhams passport duty plus a 60-dirham service fee, charged in dollars at the consulate’s posted rate (about $90). Under 18 it is 60 dirhams (about $6): Moroccans abroad pay no passport duty for their minor children (General Tax Code Art. 250). The passport is valid five years.
- Fee
- About $90
- Time
- 4–17 weeks
- The consular fee is higher than the 500-dirham duty paid inside Morocco (General Tax Code Art. 252-II-B); the foreign ministry’s consular tariff sets 800 dirhams for issue or renewal abroad and 1,000 dirhams (1,080 with the service fee) to replace a lost passport.
source ↗
Recent and pending changes
We know of no pending bill or recent court ruling for Morocco.
We re-read the official pages behind this guide every day. When one changes, a person checks the rule before we update anything here.
If descent doesn’t reach you
One residence program leads to Morocco without an ancestor, each with its own law and road to citizenship.