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Section 3 prevents the automatic loss of an American woman's citizenship by her marriage to an alien, which is the condition under existing law. Under the pending bill her American citizenship is not terminated by her marriage with an alien unless she makes a formal renunciation in court or unless she resides continuously during her marital status for two years in a foreign State of which her husband is a citizen or subject, or for five years continuously abroad. Under either of these conditions of residence she shall be subject to the same presumptions as to loss of citizenship as apply to naturalized aliens. This section is particularly designed to give to the citizenship of the American woman the dignity and individuality which has heretofore been the exclusive attribute of the male citizen. The section, however, provides that in case of the marriage of an American woman to a man who is ineligible to citizenship she shall herself cease to be an American citizen.

In furtherance of the foregoing purpose, section 4 provides for the naturalization, by the shortened process above referred to, of a woman who has heretofore lost her citizenship by marriage to an alien who was eligible for citizenship.

This bill in nowise affects the status of children. Those born here are citizens of the United States, under the Constitution, regardless of the allegiance of their parents. Those born abroad will, as heretofore, take the nationality of their fathers.

Sections 5 and 6 are repealing sections made necessary in order to carry out the proposed policy. The repealed sections are as follows:

"Section 1994, Revised Statutes: 'Any woman who is now or may hereafter be married to a citizen of the United States, and who might herself be lawfully naturalized, shall be deemed a citizen.'

"Section 4 of the expatriation act of 1907: 'That any foreign woman who acquires American citizenship by marriage to an American shall be assumed to retain the same after the termination of the marital relation if she continues to reside in the United States, unless she makes formal renunciation thereof before a court having jurisdiction to naturalize aliens, or if she resides abroad she may retain her citizenship by registering as such before United States consul within one year after the termination of the marital relation.'

"Section 3 of the expatriation act of 1907: 'That any American woman who marries a foreigner shall take the nationality of her husband. At the termination of the marital relation she may resume her American citizenship, if abroad, by registering as an American citizen within one year with a consul of the United States or by returning to reside in the United States; or, if residing in the United States at the termination of the marital relation, by continuing to reside therein."" It will be noted that the pending bill expressly provides that the repeal of the last-quoted section shall not restore citizenship lost or terminate citizenship resumed thereunder.

APPENDIX G

FIRST PERFECTING AMENDMENT OF THE MARRIED WOMEN'S INDEPENDENT CITIZENSHIP ACT OF SEPTEMBER 22, 1922 (ACT OF JULY 3, 1930)

AN ACT To amend the law relative to the citizenship and naturalization of married women, and for other purposes

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the last three sentences of section 3 of the act entitled "An act relative to the naturalization and citizenship of married women," approved September 22, 1922 (relating to the presumption of loss of citizenship by married women by residence abroad), are repealed, but such repeal shall not restore citizenship lost under such section 3 before such repeal.

SEC. 2. (a) Section 4 of such act of September 22, 1922, is amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 4. (a) A woman who has lost her United States citizenship by reason of her marriage to an alien eligible to citizenship or by reason of the loss of United States citizenship by her husband may, if eligible to citizenship and if she has not acquired any other nationality by affirmative act, be naturalized upon full and complete compliance with all requirements of the naturalization laws, with the following exceptions:

"(1) No declaration of intention and no certificate of arrival shall be required, and no period of residence within the United States or within the county where the petition is filed shall be required;

“(2) The petition need not set forth that it is the intention of the petitioner to reside permanently within the United States;

'(3) The petition may be filed in any court having naturalization jurisdiction, regardless of the residence of the petitioner;

"(4) If there is attached to the petition, at the time of filing, a certificate from a naturalization examiner stating that the petitioner has appeared before him for examination, the petition may be heard at any time after filing.

"(b) After her naturalization such woman shall have the same citizenship status as if her marriage, or the loss of citizenship by her husband, as the case may be, had taken place after this section, as amended, takes effect.”

(b) The amendment made by this section to section 4 of such act of September 22, 1922, shall not terminate citizenship acquired under such section 4 before such amendment.

SEC. 3. Subdivision (f) of section 4 of the Immigration Act of 1924, as amended, is amended to read as follows:

"(f) A woman who was a citizen of the United States and lost her citizenship by reason of her marriage to an alien, or the loss of United States citizenship by her husband, or by marriage to an alien and residence in a foreign country.'

APPENDIX H

HOUSE COMMITTEE REPORT ON ACT OF JULY 3, 1930

[House Report No. 1036, Seventy-first Congress, second session]

The Committee on Immigration and Naturalization, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 10960) to amend the law relative to the citizenship and naturalization of married women, and for other purposes, reports it back to the House without amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.

This bill would relieve certain native-born women who have married aliens, of some unnecessary naturalization requirements growing out of the expatriation act of March 2, 1907, and the woman's citizenship act of September 22, 1922, and hardships arising out of the restrictive immigration act of 1924.

Complete independent citizenship for women has not resulted from the act of September 22, 1922. After more than seven years of operation, the working of this legislation has developed certain more or less technical difficulties, which H. R. 10960 proposes to remedy.

PROPOSED LEGISLATION IN THE NATURE OF PERFECTING AMENDMENTS TO THE ACT OF SEPTEMBER 22, 1922

The native-born woman who married a foreigner on September 21, 1922, the day before that act became effective, and lost her American citizenship, was not, by the 1922 act, automatically restored to citizenship. She was given the right to repatriate herself by one year's residence in the United States, filing her petition in a court of competent jurisdiction, renouncing her doubtful allegiance to a country to which, in fact, she owed no allegiance, and whose nationality was thrust upon her without her consent, and by taking an oath of allegiance to the United States.

For example, Mrs. Emily Martin married an alien before the 1922 act and automatically lost her American citizenship. Later she returned to this country, resided here a year, as required by the law, but was denied naturalization because she told the court she might reside outside of the United States with her husband and children, the judge ruling that her year's residence here was not of the permanent character required by law.

This bill (H. R. 10960) repeals the year's residence requirement, also the permanent character of the residence now required of a woman who has lost her citizenship, and also the necessity of her going through the regular naturalization proceeding as if she were a foreign-born alien. Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen, a Member of this Congress, for example, married a British officer before 1922 and lost her American citizenship through no express desire of her own. To regain her American citizenship she was required to go through the same naturalization proceeding as a foreign-born alien, and as if she were not native born. Such a requirement is not a just treatment of native-born women who have lost their citizenship without their wish by the provisions of the 1907 act. A simple affirmative act of a native-born woman should be sufficient to regain citizenship lost through marriage.

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If a native-born man marries an alien and resides abroad in her country the remainder of his life he does not lose his American citizenship. His children, although they are foreign born and never have been in the United States, likewise are American citizens, at least until they are 18 years of age. But if a nativeborn woman marries an alien and resides two years in her husband's country, or five years elsewhere abroad, she is presumed not to be an American citizen. The committee, realizing that there should not be one rule of law for men and another for women in the matter of expatriation, proposes in H. R. 10960 to repeal the provision in the 1922 act raising the presumption that native-born American women, who have been married to aliens and have resided abroad, have lost their citizenship, by striking out the last three sentences of section 3 of the act of 1922, which the Department of State finds extremely difficult to administer.

There are native-born women whose American citizenship was lost by marriage, prior to the 1922 act, who can not now return to the United States to repatriate themselves because of our immigration quota law. For example, if an American woman, prior to the 1922 act, married an Italian, she, under the 1907 act, took the nationality of her husband. Under the 1924 quota law she must come within the Italian quota in order to enter the United States to be naturalized. Since the quota for Italy is already taken up by a long list of applicants, practically, she is not able to return to the United States for the purpose of repatriation, and we thus have excluded from the United States by an act of Congress, a native-born American woman who wants to repatriate herself.

The present law, classifying aliens entitled to "nonquota" status, now reads, in part, as follows:

"SEC. 4 (f). A woman who was a citizen of the United States and who prior to September 22, 1922, lost her citizenship by reason of her marriage to an alien, but at the time of her application for an immigration visa is unmarried."

In other words, her foreign-born husband must either have died or there must have been a divorce, before she can reenter the United States outside the quota limitations. H. R. 10960 amends the above provision of law so that such native-born women or one who has lost her American citizenship by marriage and foreign residence since September 22, 1922, may reenter the United States outside the quota, notwithstanding the fact that the marriage relationship still exists.

On March 6, 1930, hearings were held by the committee, and the following appeared on behalf of all the changes contained in H. R. 10960, and of the general principle that a woman, married or unmarried, should have the same right as a man to determine her own citizenship. (Hearings held on H. R. 10208.) At that hearing Mrs. Ruth Bryan Owen, Representative from Florida, sat with and assisted the committee.

The witnesses were Miss Dorothy Straus, an attorney, New York City, who represented the National League of Women Voters, who had charge of the presentation of the testimony on behalf of the organizations; Miss Margaret Lambie, representing the National Federation of Business and Professional Women, New York City; Miss Harlean James, Washington, D. C., representing the American Association of University Women; Miss Alice Edwards, Washington, D. C., the American Home Economics Association; Miss Cecelia Razovsky, New York City, chairman of the department of service to the foreign born of the National Council of Jewish Women; Mrs. E. E. Danly, representing the national board of the Young Women's Christian Association; Mrs. Clarence Fraim, representing the General Federation of Women's Clubs; Mrs. Ellis Yost, representing the Woman's Christian Temperance Union; and Mr. Edward S. McGrady, Washington, D. C., representing the American Federation of Labor. Communications in support of the same principle were received from Miss Elizabeth Christman, secretary of the National Woman's Trade Union League, and from Mrs. Adena Miller Rich, of the Immigrants' Protective League. H. R. 10960 is also indorsed by the National Woman's Party through their legislative representative, Mrs. Max Rotter, and Miss Maud Younger.

DIGEST OF PROVISIONS OF H. R. 10960

Section 1 strikes out of section 3 of the act of 1922 the presumption that a native-born woman loses her United States citizenship by residence abroad after her marriage to an alien.

Section 2 amends section 4 (a) of the 1922 act and provides a method whereby the native-born woman who lost her citizenship by marriage to an alien prior to September 22, 1922, may be repatriated by a simple affirmative act in a court of competent jurisdiction; that is, she may go before a naturalization examiner,

prove that she has lost her citizenship by marriage to an alien, that she is eligible to become a citizen under our naturalization laws, then go into court and take the oath of allegiance. This amendment repeals the one year's residence requirement, the permanent residence requirement, the posting of the name for 90 days, and the requiring of native-born women the same searching examination and naturalization process as is required of the foreign-born alien.

Section 3 would permit a native-born woman who had lost her citizenship by marriage to an alien to return to the United States outside of the quota, notwithstanding her marital status has been terminated.

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW SHOWN

In compliance with paragraph 2 (a) of Rule 13 of the Rules of the House of Representatives, changes in existing law, act of September 22, 1922, made by the bill are shown as follows:

Existing law proposed to be repealed is included in black brackets; new matter is printed in italics; existing law in wich no change is proposed is shown in roman: "SEC. 3. That a woman citizen of the United States shall not cease to be a citizen of the United States by reason of her marriage after the passage of this act, unless she makes a formal renunciation of her citizenship before a court having jurisdiction over naturalization of aliens: Provided, That any woman citizen who marries an alien ineligible to citizenship shall cease to be a citizen of the United States. If at the termination of the marital status she is a citizen of the United States, she shall retain her citizenship regardless of her residence. [If during the continuance of the marital status she resides continuously for two years in a foreign State of which her husband is a citizen or subject or for five years continuously outside the United States, she shall thereafter be subject to the same presumption as is a naturalized citizen of the United States under the second paragraph of section 2 of the act entitled "An act in reference to the expatriation of citizens and their protection abroad", approved March 2, 1907] but such repeal shall not restore citizenship lost under section 3 before such repeal. "SEC. 4. (a) [That a] A woman who (before the passage of this act) has lost her United States citizenship by reason of her marriage to an alien eligible to citizenship or by reason of the loss of the United States citizenship by her husband may if eligible to citizenship and if she has not acquired by any other nationality by affirmative act, be naturalized (as provided by section 2 of this act, provided) upon full and complete compliance with all requirements of the naturalization laws, with the following exceptions: [Provided, That no certificate of arrival shall be required to be filed with her petition, if during the continuance of the marital status she shall have resided within the United States.]

'(1) No declaration of intention and no certificate of arrival shall be required, and no period of residence within the United States or within the county where the petition is filed shall be required;

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(2) The petition need not set forth that it is the intention of the petitioner to reside permanently within the United States;

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(3) The petition may be filed in any court having naturalization jurisdiction, regardless of the residence of the petitioner;

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(4) If there is attached to the petition, at the time of filing, a certificate from a naturalization examiner stating that the petitioner has appeared before him for examination, the petition may be heard at any time after filing.

"(b) After her naturalization [she] such woman shall have the same citizenship status as if her marriage or the loss of citizenship by her husband as the case may be had taken place after [the passage of this act] this section as, amended, takes effect.'

"(c) The amendment made by this section to section 4 of such act of September 22, 1922, shall not terminate citizenship acquired under such section 4 before such amendment.

"SEC. 3. Subdivision (f) of section 4 of the immigration act of 1924, as amended, is amended to read as follows:

(f) A woman who was a citizen of the United States and [who prior to September 22, 1922] lost her citizenship by reason of her marriage to an alien, [but at the time for her application for an immigration visa is unmarried] or the loss of United States citizenship by her husband, or by marriage to an alien and residence in a foreign country.'

APPENDIX I

SENATE COMMITTEE REPORT ON ACT OF JULY 3, 1930

[Senate report No. 614, Seventy-first Congress, second session]

The Committee on Immigration, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 10960) to amend the law relative to the citizenship and naturalization of married women, and for other purposes, having considered the same, reports it to the Senate and recommends that the bill do pass with the following amendments:

(1) On page 3, line 2, strike out "effect."" and insert "effect." (2) On page 3, after line 2, insert the following:

(c) A child born without the United States of alien parents shall be deemed a citizen of the United States by virtue of the naturalization of the mother under the provisions of subdivision (a) of this section if (1) such naturalization takes place during the minority of such child, and (2) such child is at the time of such naturalization within the United States in pursuance of a legal admission, whether or not for permanent residence."

(3) On page 3, after line 6, insert the following:

(c) Paragraph (b) of section 2 of such act of September 22, 1922, is amended to read as follows:

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'(b) In lieu of the five-year period of residence within the United States and the six-months' period of residence within the county where the petitioner resided at the time of filing the petition, she shall have resided continuously in the United States, Hawaii, Alaska, Porto Rico, or the Virgin Islands for at least one year immediately preceding the filing of the petition and after legal admission, whether or not for permanent residence.'

(4) On page 3, line 13, after the word 'country" insert a comma and the following: "and her unmarried minor children if accompanying or following to join her".

(5) On page 3, after line 13, insert the following new sections:

SEC. 4. Subdivision (a) of section 1 of the act entitled "An act to supplement the naturalization laws, and for other purposes," approved March 2, 1929, is amended to read as follows: "That (a) the registry of aliens at ports of entry required by section 1 of the act of June 29, 1906 (34 Stat. L., Pt. I, p. 596), as amended, may be made as to any alien not ineligible to citizenship in whose case there is no record of admission for permanent residence prior to July 1, 1924, if such alien shall make a satisfactory showing to the Commissioner General of Immigration, in accordance with regulations prescribed by the Commissioner General of Immigration, with the approval of the Secretary of Labor, that he— (1) First entered the United States prior to July 1, 1924;

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'(2) Has resided in the United States continuously since such entry; (3) Is a person of good moral character; and

(4) Is not subject to deportation.'

"SEC. 5. Section 4 of such act approved March 2, 1929, is amended by striking out the period at the end thereof and inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon and the following: 'except that no such certificate shall be required if the entry was on or before June 29, 1906.'

"SEC. 6. The fourth subdivision of section 4 of the naturalization act of June 29, 1906, as amemded, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following new paragraphs:

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'Any alien who has entered the United States as a government official or as a member of the family of a government official or as an attendant, servant, or employee of a government official shall not acquire residence for naturalization purposes until he departs from the United States and thereafter is lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence.

"Whenever in this act it is required that an affiant or witness must be a citizen of the United States, such affiant or witness shall not be competent unless during all of the five-year period immediately preceding the filing of the petition for citizenship he has been a citizen of the United States.'

"SEC. 7. The last proviso in the first paragraph of the seventh subdivision of section 4 of such act of June 29, 1906, as amended, is amended by striking out the period at the end thereof and inserting in lieu thereof a semicolon and the following: 'except that this proviso shall not apply in the case of service on American-owned vessels by an alien who has been lawfully admitted to the United States for permanent residence.'

"SEC. 8. The twelfth subdivision of section 4 of such act of June 29, 1906, as amended, is amended by adding at the end thereof the following paragraph: "Any individual who claims to have resumed his citizenship under the provisions of this subdivision may, upon the payment of a fee of $1, make application

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