Burmese nationality law currently recognizes three categories of citizens, namely citizen, associate citizen and naturalized citizen, according to the 1982 Citizenship Law.[1][2] Citizens, as defined by the 1947 Constitution, are persons who belong to an "indigenous race", have a grandparent from an "indigenous race", are children of citizens, or lived in British Burma prior to 1942. Under this law, citizens are required to obtain a National Registration Card (နိုင်ငံသားစိစစ်ရေးကတ်ပြား, NRC), while non-citizens are given a Foreign Registration Card (နိုင်ငံခြားသားစိစစ်ရေးကတ်ပြား, FRC). Citizens whose parents hold FRCs are not allowed to run for public office.[3]
Burma has a stratified citizenship system (from the 1982 Citizenship Law), based on how one's forebears obtained it:
Dual citizenship is not recognized by Burma. Naturalization in another country immediately voids Burmese citizenship.
Foreigners cannot become naturalized citizens of Burma, unless they can prove a close familial connection to the country.[4]