General Information

In 1921, when the Emirate of Trans Jordan was created, Prince Abdullah Bin Al Hussein started issuing one-year passports to the citizens of the Emirate, in order to facilitate their travelling outside the Emirate. Before the creation of the Emirate, passports were first issued in the name of the Arab Hashemite Government, and later in the name of the Arab Orient Government. The validity of the passport was for one year and the destination was indicated on the passport. In 1928, the first Citizenship Law for the Emirate of Trans Jordan was issued as a draft law published in the Official Gazette no. (191) dated 7/5/1922, and its implementation was declared in the Official Gazette no. (193) dated 1/6/1924. An additional law to the Citizenship Law no. (56) for the year 1949, was published in the Official Gazette no. (1004) dated 20/12/1949, by which all people regularly residing in the East Bank or the West Bank territories that are administered by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, who have the Palestinian citizenship and are not Jews, were granted the Jordanian citizenship. The Citizenship Law no. (6) for the year 1954 was published in the Official Gazette no. (1171) dated 16/2/1954. In 1927, the first Passport Law was issued, and in 1929, a law regulating the issuance of passports was issued. The Passport Department was dependent on the Command of the Arab Jordanian Army, and was headed by one of the army’s officers. On 8/9/1941, the Council of Ministers decision no. (51) was issued, and according to this decision, the Passport Department was no longer dependent upon the army, and became dependent on the Minister of Interior. This decision was published in the Official Gazette no. (720) dated 1/10/1941. In 1942, Law no. (5) for the year 1942 was issued. It was a temporary and unified law conceived as a modification of the Passport Law. It was published in the Official Gazette no. (134) dated 9/3/1942. In 1969, the Passport Law no. (2) for the year 1969 was issued, and according to this law, the issuance of all types of passports was regulated. In 1987, Law no. (22) for the year 1987 was issued, allowing double citizenship for Jordanians, in order to preserve their ties with their land.

Civil Status:

The government created the Civil Status Department in order to carry out the task of registering citizens, instead of delegating this duty to several ministries and official departments such as the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Interior, the Islamic Courts and the Statistics Department. Within this framework, Law no. (32) for the year 1966 was issued (this law was later cancelled by Law no. (34) for the year 1973). It was the first law that created the Civil Status Department, as an independent department, with the competence of applying the law. This Department was subordinated to the Minister of Interior. In 1968, following the 1967 war, the Civil Status Department started carrying out part of the competences that were limited to issuing family books and identification cards to citizens. The Civil Status Department and the Passport Department had one Director General. This was the case until 1977, when a Director General was appointed for the Civil Status Department, with the duty of applying the regulations of Law no. (34) for the year 1973.

The Department started its activities on 1/7/1977, and its offices were distributed all over the Kingdom. In 1989, the Department had 45 offices, and had grown to 73 offices in 1998.

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