Surrogate-born children to gain Georgian citizenship
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New Georgian Citizenship laws have been updated to include rules surrounding children born by a surrogate mother.
According to the Bill, children delivered by means of a surrogate pregnancy will be granted Georgian citizenship if its parents’ countries do not consider the parents as citizens. This law amendment would prevent the child to remain without citizenship.
The Bill was prepared by the Ministry of Justice and will be critically discussed in Parliament. Issues relating to the issue and cancellation of Georgian citizenship status will be discussed by the country's leaders.
The new law states the child's citizenship is depended on its bloodline. When a child is born in another country, it will automatically gain Georgian citizenship if one of its parents is a Georgian citizen.
Similarly, if a child was born in Georgia and it had one parent without a clearly defined citizenship and the other parent was not a Georgian citizen, then the child can be granted Georgian citizenship.
The Bill also stated a child will be granted citizenship if they have lived in Georgia for five years.
Recent changes made by the Georgian Justice Minister Tea Tsulukiani to the rules on surrogacy have caused public outcry as many find the changes ‘discriminatory’.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili on Monday said surrogacy would only be permitted for those with a citizen status, citing foreign nationals “turning this issue into a business” on the backdrop of a lack of regulation.
The Georgian Parliament has approved amendments to the law on Citizenship that further simplify procedures for obtaining it for stateless individuals who have spent time in residence in the country.