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UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

PASSPORTS FOR AMERICAN CITIZENS IN FOREIGN COUNTRIES

1. A citizen of the United States who resides abroad and who desires to obtain an American passport should apply in person or in writing to an American consular officer for authentic information concerning the requirements for obtaining a passport. In view of the regulation requiring a citizen of the United States who is residing abroad and who desires to obtain a passport to make a formal application under oath before an American consular officer, relatives and friends in the United States desiring to assist American citizens residing abroad to obtain passports should advise such citizens to apply to the American consular officer nearest their place of residence abroad and should supply them, where necessary and possible, with documentary evidence of their citizenship. This evidence should not be submitted to the department for transmission to a consular officer, but should be transmitted direct to the applicant for submission with his application for a passport. The Department of State will not undertake to initiate correspondence with consular officers regarding the issue of passports in individual cases. The following subdivisions of this section contain examples of the kind of evidence of American citizenship which is usually required to be submitted with an application for a passport. Consular officers may, in their discretion, require additional evidence of citizenship.

(a) A native citizen born where official records of birth were kept at the time of his birth must submit with his application for a passport a birth certificate under the seal of the official custodian of birth records. A certificate to be acceptable must show the date and place of birth and that the record thereof was made at the time of birth or shortly thereafter. If it is not possible to obtain a satisfactory birth certificate and the reason why such a certificate can not be obtained is clearly established, a consular officer may accept in lieu thereof an affidavit executed by a parent or guardian or by the physician who attended the birth, or by two or more reputable persons who have knowledge of the facts which enable them to testify as to the date and place of birth. The persons testifying concerning the date and place of birth of an applicant for a passport should state briefly how and through what source the knowledge was acquired. A baptismal certificate or a certified copy of the record of baptism is acceptable evidence only when a proper birth certificate is unobtainable. A baptismal certificate should set forth

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the date and place of birth and the date of baptism. Unless the baptism occurred within a short time after birth the certificate will not

be accepted.

(b) A person who claims citizenship through naturalization must submit with his application for a passport a certificate of naturalization or a certified copy of the court record thereof.

(c) A person who claims citizenship through the naturalization of his parent must submit with his application for a passport the naturalization certificate of his parent or a certified copy of the court record thereof.

(d) A person who claims citizenship through birth abroad of a native or naturalized American father and who desires to obtain a passport should prove the latter's birth in the United States or naturalization as a citizen of this country by documentary evidence of the kind indicated in the foregoing paragraphs a, b, or c.

(e) A native-born American woman who married an American citizen prior to the passage of the act of Congress approved on September 22, 1922, must set forth in her application for a passport or in a supplemental affidavit the date and place of her marriage, and must submit as evidence of her American citizenship documentary proof of her husband's American citizenship of the nature set forth in paragraphs a, b, c, or d. However, if the marital relation was terminated prior to the passage of the act of September 22, 1922, a native-born American woman may submit evidence of her birth in the United States of the nature set forth in paragraph a. If the marital relation was terminated by death, a statement to that effect must be made in the application for a passport. If such relation was terminated by divorce, the decree of divorce or a certified copy of the court record of the decree should be submitted with the application for a passport.

(f) An alien woman who acquired American citizenship under the provisions of section 4 of the act of March 2, 1907, by marriage to an American citizen, or who acquired American citizenship under the provisions of section 1994 of the Revised Statutes of the United States through the naturalization of her husband, must state in her application for a passport or in a supplemental affidavit the date and place of her marriage and must submit as evidence of her Ameri can citizenship documentary proof of her husband's American citizenship of the nature set forth in paragraphs a, b, c, or d.

(g) An American woman who lost her citizenship under the provisions of section 3 of the act of March 2, 1907, by marrying an alien but who alleges that after the termination of the marital relation and prior to September 22, 1922—i. e., the date of the repeal of that section of law-she resumed American citizenship, must submit

documentary evidence showing that if abroad when the marital relation was terminated she registered as an American citizen within one year with a consular officer of the United States or returned to the United States to reside, or, if residing in the United States when the marital relation was terminated, that she continued to reside therein. If the resumption of citizenship was effected by registering as an American citizen within one year with a consular officer of the United States, a statement concerning the city in which such officer was stationed and the approximate date of the registration will suffice. If American citizenship was resumed by returning to the United States to reside, a statement, under oath, concerning the date of return to the United States should be submitted to the consular officer to whom application for a passport is made. The execution of an application for a passport within one year after the termination of the marital relation has been construed by the Department of State as being equivalent to registering as an American citizen before an American consular officer; consequently, if American citizenship was resumed after the termination of the marital relation by applying for a passport, a statement concerning the date and place of the execution of the application for a passport should be submitted to the consular officer before whom application for a passport is made.

(h) An American woman who was married to an American citizen or to an alien eligible to citizenship on or after September 22, 1922, should state the facts in her case in her application for a passport or in a supplemental affidavit, and must submit documentary evidence of her American citizenship of the nature set forth in paragraphs a, b, c, or d. The citizenship status of an American woman married after the passage of the act of Congress approved September 22, 1922, is not affected by reason of her marriage to an alien provided such alien is eligible to become naturalized as a citizen of the United States.

2. An applicant for a new passport who holds an expired or unexpired passport issued on or after January 3, 1918, should submit the old passport for cancellation to the consular officer to whom he applies for a new passport. Such a document will, as a rule, be considered satisfactory evidence of the citizenship of the person to whom it was issued. In the event of the loss or destruction of a passport issued on or after January 3, 1918, a report must be submitted to the consular officer explaining in exact and circumstantial detail the loss or destruction of the passport and giving the approximate date of the issue of the passport.

3. All documents such as birth certificates, baptismal certificates, certified copies of records, affidavits, etc., which are submitted to

consular officers in connection with an application for a passport must bear the seal of the officer by whom the document was issued or before whom the document was executed.

4. The applications for passports executed abroad by persons who neither have had nor have been included in passports and by persons who have become subject to the presumption of having ceased to be American citizens (see Appendix D) are usually referred to the department for decision. Consequently, some delay in such cases is to be anticipated. If it is so desired in any particular case, the department will communicate its decision by telegraph to the consular officer before whom the application was executed. In such case the applicant should deposit with the consular officer an amount sufficient to cover the cost of the telegram.

5. Fees. Section 1 of the act of June 4, 1920 (41 Stat. 750), provides in part as follows:

From and after the 1st of July, 1920, there shall be collected and paid into the Treasury of the United States quarterly a fee of $1 for executing each application for a passport and $9 for each passport issued to a citizen or person owing allegiance to or entitled to the protection of the United States: * * * that no fee shall be collected for passports issued to officers or employees of the United States proceeding abroad in the discharge of their official duties, or to members of their immediate families, or to seamen, or to widows, children, parents, brothers, and sisters of American soldiers, sailors, or marines buried abroad whose journey is undertaken for the purpose and with the intent of visiting the graves of such soldiers, sailors, or marines, which fact shall be made a part of the application for the passport.

APPENDIX A

BIRTH IN THE UNITED STATES

Fourteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States: All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.

Section 1992, Revised Statutes: All persons born in the United States and not subject to any foreign power * * are declared to be citizens of the United States.

BIRTH OUTSIDE THE UNITED STATES

Section 1993, Revised Statutes: All children heretofore born or hereafter born out of the limits and jurisdiction of the United States, whose fathers were or may be at the time of their birth citizens thereof, are declared to be citizens of the United States; but the rights of citizenship shall not descend to children whose fathers never resided in the United States.

Act of March 2, 1907, section 6: * * * all children born outside the limits of the United States who are citizens thereof in accordance with the provisions of section nineteen hundred and ninety-three of the Revised Statutes of the United States and who continue to reside outside the United States. shall, in order to receive the protection of this Government, be required upon reaching the age of eighteen years to record at an American consulate their intention to become residents and remain citizens of the United States, and shall be further required to take the oath of allegiance to the United States upon attaining their majority.

APPENDIX B

NATURALIZATION

Act of June 29, 1906, section 15: * * * If any alien who shall have secured a certificate of citizenship under the provisions of this act shall, within five years after the issuance of such certificate, return to the country of his nativity, or go to any other foreign country, and take permanent residence therein, it shall be considered prima facie evidence of a lack of intention on the part of such alien to become a permanent citizen of the United States at the time of filing his application for citizenship, and, in the absence of countervailing evidence, it shall be sufficient in the proper proceeding to authorize the cancellation of his certificate of citizenship as fraudulent, and the diplomatic and consular officers of the United States in foreign countries shall from time to time, through the Department of State, furnish the Department of Justice with the names of those within their respective jurisdictions who have such certificates of citizenship and who have taken permanent residence in the country of their nativity, or in any other foreign country, and such statements, duly certified, shall be admissible in evidence in all courts in proceedings to cancel certificates of citizenship.

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