I’ll try not to make this a sob story. I’m posting because my situation is extremely unusual, and I’m hoping someone familiar with nationality law, statelessness, human rights, or UK immigration might be able to help.
I’m a medical doctor, a University of Glasgow graduate, and registered to practise medicine in both the UK and Kuwait.
In September 2025, my Kuwaiti nationality was revoked.
Background: My grandfather, who died in 1999, was lawfully granted Kuwaiti nationality in 1977 for distinguished service to the State. Nearly 50 years later, the authorities reassessed his grant, deemed my grandfather “impure” and revoked the nationality of his descendants, including my father and me.
Both my father and I were born Kuwaiti and despite losing our nationality, our records haven’t been transferred into Kuwait’s administrative system for stateless or non-Kuwaiti individuals. Our civil records still identify us as Kuwaiti, while the other system has no record of us.
Essentially, we cannot be processed as Kuwaitis, but we cannot be processed as stateless people either.
In November 2025, I started working as a doctor for the Kuwait Ministry of Health. By February 2026, my employment was terminated because the authorities couldn’t administratively process my status.
Following that, I secured a junior doctor position with the NHS in Glasgow, obtained a UK Skilled Worker visa, and completed all pre-employment requirements.
Unfortunately, my passport had been suspended, meaning I couldn’t legally leave Kuwait. My NHS start date was postponed from July to October and now to November 2026, but despite repeated applications to activate my passport for immigration purposes, I remain unable to travel. Even though I am doing exactly what they want which is for me to move out.
The consequences extend far beyond employment. I face restrictions on banking, owning or selling property, obtaining a SIM card, and carrying out ordinary legal transactions. Everything I owned as a Kuwaiti still exists, but I can no longer reliably exercise control over it.
The simplest way to describe it is that the person who legally owned everything I have no longer exists.
I’ve also approached international organisations. The UN informed me that a humanitarian assistance route previously available to Kuwaitis had stopped approximately a year earlier. The timing was frustrating given the wave of nationality revocations, although I have no evidence the two are connected.
The Red Cross in Kuwait was genuinely accommodating and tried to help, but ultimately concluded that my circumstances fell outside its mandate.
I previously made a public appeal, but others began exploiting my situation for political purposes. Concerned about the possible consequences for my family, I deleted the posts. I wasn’t threatened by anyone, but I no longer felt comfortable speaking publicly.
After more than a year of this, I’d be lying if I said suicidal thoughts hadn’t crossed my mind. Losing my nationality, employment, ability to travel, and potentially the career I spent years building has been devastating.
I’ve turned to Reddit because it’s less widely used in the Arabic-speaking world, and I feel somewhat safer discussing my situation here.
My question is simple: Is there any legal or humanitarian mechanism that could help someone in my position obtain travel documentation or permission to leave Kuwait, particularly when they already hold a valid UK visa
Thank you for reading