For those of you who have had children by your MENA spouse in the US, did the children automatically gain dual citizenship? That is, US citizenship and that of their father's country as well? Does the birth need to be registered with the father's home country's embassy? Any experience with this matter is greatly appreciated.

dont have experience with it YET, but my understanding from reading the consulate website is that the birth DOES need to be registered, we might even have to get one of those family books. I need to read up on it.

I was wondering about this too. But according to the website, to get a family book AND register birth of child, you must submit proof of Islamic/Moroccan Marriage. But according to the registering a marriage section, a marriage is considered valid as long as it is witnessed in the presence of two Muslims, which thankfully we did, but we don't have proof of this. Has anyone had experience with this? Because we want to register our marriage (which apparently we should have done months ago), get a family book, and eventually register our child.

ETA: My husband said that he thought there was a consulate/embassy or something in Houston. But from what I can see, it's just in NYC. Does anyone know of a Moroccan government office or representaive in Houston?

You can find some information/discussion about this here:
http://www.visajourney.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=65716

Check out that forum for citizenship questions/guides...

I have an 11 month old son and I have yet to read up on this...Do any of you know the benefits of having dual citizenship?

Well I can speak from experiance with Jordan. You don't automatically get citizenship. Jordan lets you have dual citizenship but not all countries do. You have to make sure that your S.O.'s country does. Then he can register the child (in Jordan they have something called a family book) and proceed to get the rest of the documents.

My hunny's aunt just did this for her daughters that were born in the US.

There is no consulate here in Houston, but the consulate was here in May doing consualte business for those that live in this are. I think they only come once a year. They do have other places they travel too, but I'm not sure if it would be anyplace close enough to make the trip.

ETA: There is the Moroccan society, but maybe a quick e-mailto them could give you some information?
www.moroccansociety.org

Thanks all Its important to Ahmed that the baby gets dual citizenship. From what I understood, all children born to Moroccan fathers automatically receive Moroccan citizenship. We didnt get to have an Islamic wedding ceremony yet, is that going to cause a stumbling block?

Gabi, It really varies country to country. You should look it up on the embassade www. But for most MENA countries, citizenship is based upon the father and births do need to be registered in the family books.
I know for Algerians any children born are automatically Algerian but retain their US national. But if the children was born in the UK to an Algerian father, then the child would not have British citizenship. only Algerian...regardless that the mother may be of British citizenship and the child British born. Best to check at your embassade. Bonne chance and congrats on the baby.

My sons have dual citizenship (US and Yemen). It wasn't automatic, their father had to apply for it in Yemen.