Finally granted citizenship, young Clara en route to achieving her dreams

Teenager Clara Sonia Joseph came one step closer to achieving her dreams today after receiving word that her application for citizenship had been approved by the home ministry, weeks after her plight was highlighted by MalaysiaNow. 

Clara had been waiting for years for a decision on her application. 

Her adoptive mother Shamini Gopal Krishnan said they received a letter today, signed by Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution Ismail. 

"Now that the home ministry has approved her application, I will take this letter and bring it to the National Registration Department to make her IC," she added in a message to MalaysiaNow. 

"Thank you to your team, and thank you to whoever was involved in this." 

Clara was abandoned by her birth mother in 2013 when she was just three years old. 

She was adopted by Shamini and her husband, Charles Joseph, but categorised as a non-citizen on her birth certificate, all but dashing her hopes of becoming a doctor one day. 

Shamini said she was told that the application was approved on April 7. 

"The ministry rang us and asked us to come in. So we went," she said. 

"We were wondering what the reason was, but they just said come, so we went early in the morning.

"The minister was not there, but they told us that he signed the letter on April 7." 

Clara meanwhile said she was grateful for the decision and thanked everyone who had expressed concern about her situation. 

"I finally got my letter today," she said. "Thank you."