Special mention may also be made of the provision in section 337 of the Code for the revocation of naturalization in the case of a person who takes up a permanent residence in his native land or some other foreign country within 10 years (instead of 5 years, as provided in the existing law) after the date of his naturalization.

The problem of the child born abroad to parents of different nationalities was the subject of extended consideration by the committee and finally resulted in the draft of section 201 (g) referred to above which confers American citizenship at birth upon a person born abroad if one of his parents is an American citizen. Prior to the Citizenship Act of May 24, 1934, only the children of American fathers acquired citizenship at birth if they were born abroad. This, however, was changed by the 1934 act so that a woman retaining citizenship after marriage to an alien also transmitted citizenship to her children. In enacting this measure Congress apparently took into consideration the fact that persons born in foreign countries whose fathers were nationals of those countries would be likely to have stronger ties with the foreign country than with the United States, and consequently annexed as a condition for retaining citizenship a 5-year period of residence in this country between the ages of 13 and 18. This condition was equally applicable irrespective of whether the citizen parent was a father or a mother.

It has been recognized, however, that these residence requirements will impose great hardship in some cases. This is especially true where the head of the family is a salaried person residing abroad as a representative of the American Government or some American commercial or other organization. The committee has therefore recommended that in cases of this character the conditions relating to residence during minority shall no longer be imposed. If the citizen parent does not represent the American Government or an American educational, scientific, philanthropic, religious, commercial, or financial organization, the foreign-born child, in order to retain American citizenship, is required under section 201 (g) to reside in the United States 5 years between his thirteenth and his twenty-first birthdays. The committee recommends strengthening the 1934 act in another respect, however, by restricting the right of transmitting citizenship in a case of this kind, through the requirement that the citizen parent should have resided at least 10 years in the United States prior to the birth of the child. Mention is made above of section 317 of the Code. While probably the majority of former American nationals who have been naturalized in foreign states through the naturalization of their parents therein continue to reside in such foreign states, some of them return to the United States to reside, and it seems only reasonable to adopt special provisions to enable the latter to recover their American citizenship if they so desire.

None of the various provisions in the Code concerning loss of American nationality, such as those applicable to children born abroad to parents only one of whom has American nationality and persons who, after obtaining American nationality through naturalization, establish a residence abroad, is designed to be punitive or to interfere with freedom of action. They are merely intended to deprive persons of American nationality when such persons, by their own acts, or inaction, show that their real attachment is to the foreign country and not to the United States.

Important reasons for terminating American nationality in cases of persons who reside in foreign countries and have to all intents and purposes abandoned the United States lie in the fact that it will prevent them from transmitting American nationality to their foreign-born children having little or no connection with the United States, and embroiling this Government in controversies which they may have with the governments of foreign countries in which they reside. The mere presumption of expatriation provided for in section 2 of the act of March 2, 1907, in cases of naturalized citizens residing for 2 years in the foreign states from which they came or 5 years in other foreign states, has proven inadequate. In general the right to protection should be coexistent with citizenship, and a law under which persons residing abroad are denied the protection of this Government, although they remain citizens of the United States and transmit citizenship to children born abroad, is deemed inconsistent and unreasonable. The admission of an alien to the privilege of American citizenship is subject to the condition that he intends to reside permanently in the United States and perform the duties of citizenship. When a naturalized citizen abandons his residence in the United States and takes up residence in the state of which he was formerly a national, definite termination of his American citizenship should follow.

Further explanations of the various provisions of the Code submitted herewith may be found in the comment on the various articles-appendix 1 herewith. In addition to the Code and appendix 1, we also submit herewith the following: Provisions of the Code and corresponding provisions of the existing nationality laws, arranged in parallel columns (appendix 2), and constitutional, statutory, and treaty provisions relating to nationality (appendix 3).

Your committee, in the light of the experience of the interested departments in handling cases presented to them for action, is convinced that it is most desirable to have the nationality laws of the United States revised, and embodied in a single Code, the meaning of which may be readily understood. We feel that there is no branch of the law of more importance to the country, or requiring more careful attention, than that branch which governs nationality, determining, as it does, what classes of persons shall compose the national society itself. The proposals contained in the accompanying draft Code are to be regarded merely as suggestions for the use of the appropriate committees of Congress. When the matter is to be considered by these committees, the undersigned will be glad to designate members of their respective departments whose duties involve the handling of citizenship cases to confer with the committees, if that is desired.

Respectfully,

CORDELL HULL,

Secretary of State. HOMER CUMMINGS,

Attorney General.

FRANCES PERKINS,
Secretary of Labor.

Enclosures: Draft Nationality Code and appendices 1, 2, and 3, as above.

FOREWORD

The proposed nationality code appears in the right-hand column and the nationality laws now in effect appear in the left-hand column.

Changes have been made by statute and Executive order from time to time since the basic Naturalization Act of 1906 in the names of the Federal agencies and their officers in charge of the administration of the naturalization laws. These changes have required the incorporation in the following current nationality provisions of the titles of the Department of Labor, the Secretary of Labor, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization in lieu of those previously used and which have become obsolete. The authority for these substitutions, reference to which will not be repeated herein, is indicated by the following citations:

Sections 1, 3, act of March 4, 1913 (37 Stat. 736-737; 5 U. S. C. 611; 5 U. S. C. 351, 353); as amended by title 4, part 2, act of June 30, 1932, as amended by section 16, act of March 3, 1933 (47 Stat. 1517-1519; 5 U. S. C. 124-126, 129-130); and Executive Order No. 6166 of June 10, 1933.

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COMPARATIVE PRINT OF THE TEXT OF THE PROPOSED AND PRESENT NATIONALITY LAWS

Part 2. Provisions of the Proposed Code and the Corresponding Provisions of the Existing Nationality Laws

CHAPTER I. DEFINITIONS