Although Jordan historically nationalized many Palestinian refugees, those displaced from the Gaza Strip after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War remain a stark exception. Since 1967, the Gaza refugees’ inability to obtain Jordanian nationality has rendered their lives more precarious and difficult, including through more expensive access to education, healthcare, and identity documents, limited property ownership, and restricted access to work. In addition, the rights that Gaza refugees do have, including access to “temporary” Jordanian passports, are located only in executive decisions and regulations, with no protections in law, thereby inhibiting their access to judicial redress and legal mobilization. Why are Gaza refugee rights governed only in the “shadow of the law” today, and how does this “temporary” citizenship materialize? This paper addresses these questions by tracing Jordan’s policies toward Gaza refugees over time, drawing from thousands of British and U.S. archival files describing Jordan’s internal politics from 1946–1993 and 240 interviews with ministers, lawyers, Gaza refugees, and others I conducted during 16 months of fieldwork in Jordan from 2016–2023. The paper finds that contradictory pressures on executive leaders at key policymaking junctures have circumscribed Gaza refugee rights to executive rules, rendering them indefinite temporary citizens, whose citizenship primarily manifests beyond the law and legal status. Overall, their temporary status and rights impedes their legal consciousness and advocacy as well as renders their access to work, identity documents, ownership, healthcare, and education always subject to change.