Syria's new authorities have launched a long-awaited process allowing approximately 150,000 stateless Kurds to apply for Syrian nationality, with applicants now lining up at the civil affairs directorate in Damascus. The initiative, formalised in a decree published in January, reverses a disputed 1962 census that classified Kurds as foreigners — a policy the Assad regime later reinforced and reportedly exploited as a political tool, with some individuals forced to pay up to $20,000 to obtain papers illegally. For those affected, the change is transformative: without nationality, they were unable to obtain identity documents, register marriages or children, or even hold a mobile phone contract in their own name.