Citizenship by paternal descent (jus sanguinis)

AE-BTH-01 is the United Arab Emirates' dominant operative citizenship route: paternal jus sanguinis (citizenship by descent through a national father). Federal Law No. 17 of 1972 Concerning Nationality and Passports, Article 2(b), provides that 'Anyone born in the State or abroad to a father who is a national of the State by operation of law' is himself or herself 'a national who shall be deemed to have acquired nationality by operation of law' (Art 2 chapeau). The acquisition is automatic and unconditional: it requires no application, residence period, age threshold, language test, oath, or discretionary grant. The trigger is a single status fact — that the child's father is, at the relevant time, a UAE national by operation of law (bi quwwat al-qanun). Because the UAE has no general jus soli (Constitution Art 120(16) makes nationality an exclusive federal matter; Evidence confirms birth on UAE soil alone confers nothing), descent is the overwhelmingly normal way a UAE citizen is born. Article 2(b) sits first among the descent limbs (b)-(d) of the closed Art 2 list, ahead of the narrower maternal limbs and the foundling rule (Art 2(e)). Pinned to Evidence and, this route is the spine of the entire UAE nationality regime — every other acquisition mechanism (naturalization, marriage, nomination) is measured against the unconditional, patrilineal, territory-indifferent grant that Art 2(b) confers.

Eligibility under Art 2(b) reduces to a single load-bearing fact pattern, established at the moment of birth: the child's FATHER must be a UAE national BY OPERATION OF LAW at the relevant time. Note the precise statutory wording — 'a father who is a national of the State by operation of law' (Art 2(b)). This phrasing has consequences explored in the tiers below: on a strict reading it points to fathers who themselves hold nationality bi quwwat al-qanun (the Art 2 category), as distinct from fathers who hold nationality by naturalization (Arts 5-9) or citizenship-grant (Art 3). What is NOT required is striking: no minimum residence, no birth on UAE territory ('born in the State OR abroad' — Evidence), no age of the child, no language proficiency, no good-conduct screening, no renunciation of any other nationality the child may hold jure soli or through a foreign mother, and no application to perfect the status (documentation merely evidences a nationality already held). The mother's nationality is legally irrelevant to the Art 2(b) limb — a UAE father transmits 'unconditionally and patrilineally regardless of the mother's nationality' (Evidence ). The only genuinely contestable input is paternity itself: Art 2(b) presupposes a legally-established father-child relationship (filiation/nasab). Where paternity is legally established to a UAE national father, nationality follows automatically; where it is not, the case falls out of Art 2(b) and into the narrower maternal limbs Art 2(c)/(d) or the discretionary Art 10 Bis grant.

The evidentiary core of an Art 2(b) claim is proof of (1) the father's UAE nationality by operation of law and (2) legally-established paternity (nasab) linking the child to that father. For the father's status, the standard proof is his own UAE nationality documentation — family book (khulasat al-qaid), Emirates ID, and passport — which themselves trace to his Art 2 by-operation-of-law nationality (e.g. as a descendant within the Art 2(a) pre-1925 original-population cohort, or as a child of an earlier Art 2(b) national). For paternity, the relevant proof is the marriage contract of the parents and the birth certificate naming the father, establishing nasab under the applicable personal-status framework. Article 22 of Law 17/1972 confirms documentary entitlement: 'Every national having acquired the nationality by operation of law.. may obtain a passport.' Where paternity is contested or unestablished, the case does NOT proceed under Art 2(b): the statute itself routes an unsubstantiated-filiation child to the maternal limb Art 2(c) ('a mother who is a national by operation of law, whose filiation to his/her father is not substantiated' — Evidence ). The decoded primary corpus does not enumerate a specific documentary checklist (delegated to the Executive Regulation under Art 19); accordingly this section states the evidentiary LOGIC dictated by the statute (father's by-operation-of-law nationality + nasab) rather than a gazetted document list, which remains undetermined in the primary record (positive disconfirmation per Art 19/45 delegation).

The operative provision is Federal Law No. 17 of 1972, Article 2(b): 'Anyone born in the State or abroad to a father who is a national of the State by operation of law.' Three statutory hooks frame it. First, Article 1: 'Nationality shall be acquired by operation of law, through citizenship and by naturalization in accordance with the provisions of the following articles' — establishing 'by operation of law' (Art 2) as a category distinct from discretionary citizenship (Art 3) and naturalization (Arts 5-9). Second, the Article 2 chapeau: 'A national who shall be deemed to have acquired nationality by operation of law is:' — making the limbs (a)-(e) a closed, self-executing list rather than eligibility criteria for a grant. Third, Article 1 Bis (inserted by Decree-Law 16/2017) defines 'National' as 'Any person who holds citizenship of the State in accordance with the provisions of this Decree-law and its Executive Regulations.' Constitutionally, Art 8 provides 'The citizens of the UAE shall have a single nationality specified by law,' and Art 120(16) assigns 'the federal nationality, passports, residence and immigration' to exclusive federal jurisdiction (Evidence). Critically, Art 2(b) was NOT altered by the Decree-Law 16/2017 'Bis' reform: the paternal-descent limb is part of the original 1972 base text and has operated continuously since the statute entered into force on 28/12/1972. The temporal qualifier across the evidence base is uniform: 'in force since 28/12/1972 (Art 2 base, unamended as to (b)); as of 2026-06.'

The practical risks attaching to an Art 2(b) claim cluster around proof and the surrounding loss architecture, not the substantive entitlement (which is unconditional once established). (1) Paternity-establishment risk: Art 2(b) presupposes legally-recognised nasab to a UAE national father; where paternity is contested, undocumented, or arises outside a recognised marriage, the case can fall out of Art 2(b) entirely and into the narrower Art 2(c) (unsubstantiated filiation) maternal limb — a materially weaker position if the mother is herself non-national. (2) Documentation/proof-of-father's-status risk: the claim is only as strong as the father's own nationality documentation; gaps in the father's chain of by-operation-of-law nationality (e.g. unresolved original-population or Bidoon-adjacent status) can stall the child's documentation. (3) Dual-nationality deprivation risk downstream: an Art 2(b) national who voluntarily naturalizes elsewhere faces deprivation under Art 15(c) (state-imposed, by non-contestable Federal decree under Art 20) — a real risk for descent-nationals living abroad who acquire a host-state nationality (Evidence). (4) Security-deprivation exposure: even by-operation-of-law nationals are reachable by the Arts 14 Bis/15 Bis terrorism/security-conviction deprivation inserted in 2017 (Evidence ), the one judicialised loss route (Abu Dhabi Federal Court of Appeal -> Federal Supreme Court). (5) Evidence-discipline risk for advisers: because fees/timelines/checklists are delegated and ungazetted in the decoded corpus, any operational figure must be re-sourced before reliance; asserting an unverified figure would breach the Art 45/Art 19 disconfirmation. Standard disclaimer: this is legal research, not legal advice; verify against current Executive Regulations and consult a licensed UAE practitioner.