The Kuwaiti nationality law is the legal pathway for non-nationals to become citizens of the State of Kuwait. The Kuwaiti nationality law is based on a wide range of decrees; first passed in 1920 and then in 1959 and 1960. A number of amendments have been made over the years. Since the 1960s, the implementation of the nationality law has been very arbitrary and lacks transparency. The lack of transparency prevents non-nationals from obtaining citizenship.

The State of Kuwait has an official Nationality Law which grants non-nationals a legal pathway to obtain citizenship. However, access to citizenship in Kuwait is autocratically controlled by the Al Sabah ruling family, it is not subject to any external regulatory supervision. The implementation of the Nationality Law is arbitrary and lacks transparency. The lack of transparency prevents non-nationals from receiving a fair opportunity to obtain citizenship. Consequently, the Al Sabah ruling family have been able to manipulate naturalization for politically-motivated reasons. In the three decades after independence in 1961, the Al Sabah ruling family naturalized hundreds of thousands of foreign Bedouin immigrants predominantly from Saudi Arabia. By the year 1980, as many as 200,000 immigrants were naturalized in Kuwait. Throughout the 1980s, the Al Sabah's politically-motivated naturalization policy continued. The naturalizations were not regulated nor sanctioned by Kuwaiti law. The exact number of naturalizations is unknown but it is estimated that up to 400,000 immigrants were unlawfully naturalized in Kuwait. The foreign Bedouin immigrants were mainly naturalized to alter the demographic makeup of the citizen population in a way that makes the power of the Al Sabah ruling family more secure. As a result of the politically-motivated naturalizations, the number of naturalized citizens exceeds the number of Bedoon in Kuwait. The Al Sabah ruling family actively encouraged foreign Bedouin immigrants to migrate to Kuwait, the Al Sabah ruling family favored naturalizing Bedouin immigrants because they were considered loyal to the ruling family unlike the politically active Palestinian, Lebanese and Syrian expats in Kuwait. The naturalized citizens were predominantly Sunni Saudi immigrants from southern tribes. Accordingly, there are no stateless Bedoon in Kuwait belonging to the Ajman tribe.

Kuwait has the largest number of stateless people in the entire region. Most stateless Bedoon belong to northern tribes (especially Al-Muntafiq). The northern tribes are predominantly Shia Muslims. A minority of stateless Bedoon in Kuwait belong to Kuwait's 'Ajam community. The Kuwaiti judicial system's lack of authority to rule on citizenship further complicates the Bedoon crisis, leaving Bedoon no access to the judiciary to present evidence and plead their case for citizenship. Although non-nationals constitute 70% of Kuwait's total population, the Al Sabah ruling family persistently denies citizenship to most non-nationals including those who fully satisfy the requirements for naturalization as stipulated in the state's official Nationality Law. The Kuwaiti authorities permit the forgeries of hundreds of thousands of politically-motivated naturalizations, while simultaneously denying citizenship to the Bedoon. The politically-motivated naturalizations were noted by the United Nations, political activists, scholars, researchers, and even members of the Al Sabah family. It is widely considered a form of deliberate demographic engineering. It has been likened to Bahrain's politically-motivated naturalization policy. Within the GCC countries, politically-motivated naturalization policies are referred to as "political naturalization" (التجنيس السياسي).

Kuwait has more than 300 non-Muslim citizens, mostly Christians and Bahais. In 1982, the parliament amended the constitution to bar non-Muslims from naturalization. There have been multiple proposals made to amend the nationality law to allow non-Muslims to become citizens, but in 2019 the government made clear that its policy was to keep "the current text."

The late Nabil Al Fadl submitted an inquiry to the Constitutional Court questioning the constitutionality of barring non-Muslims from obtaining the Kuwaiti nationality. The most recent proposal was made by Saleh Ashour who suggested the repeal of item 5 of article 4 of the nationality law.

Citizenship revocation is a contentious human rights issue in Kuwait. According to Carnegie Endowment, Kuwait has weaponized citizenship revocation as a tool for political control. The government has the authority to revoke Kuwaiti citizenship without a criminal conviction and Kuwait's courts are not allowed to handle appeals. The lack of judicial oversight means that citizenship revocation occurs without a court ruling.

Since March 2024, Kuwait has been revoking the citizenship of many citizens (by decree). In early December 2024, the Emir issued a decree to revoke the Kuwaiti citizenship of several high-profile individuals: Nawal Al-Kuwaitia, Noha Nabil, and Dawood Hussein including his children who were automatically granted Kuwaiti citizenship through paternal affiliation.

By March 2025, Kuwait revoked the citizenship of 42,000 people in just six months.