Source: https://preview.uscis.gov/history-and-genealogy/genealogy/genealogy-notebook/why-some-c-files-may-lack-a-declaration-intention
Timestamp: 2020-07-07 16:32:25
Document Index: 518291596

Matched Legal Cases: ['§ 2', '§ 4', '§2', '§ 310', '§ 2', '§ 323', '§ 2', '§ 504', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 2', '§ 4', '§ 2', '§ 4', '§ 4', '§ 1', '§ 504', '§ 5', '§ 4', '§ 317', '§ 1', '§ 4', 'art 12', '§ 323', '§401', '§ 334', '§ 3', 'art 10', '§ 4', '§ 1', '§ 318', '§ 4', '§ 5']

Exemptions Allowed Many Aliens to Naturalize Without a Declaration of Intention
Only the Naturalization Courts Kept Copies of “Old Law” Declarations of Intention
Repatriating Former Citizens Did Not Need to Make a Declaration of Intention
The Declaration of Intention Became Voluntary Before the C-File Records Series Closed
Children expatriated by actions of a parent – Legislation in 1940 made it easier for those whose US citizenship had been lost through their parent’s naturalization elsewhere, or some other act of expatriation performed by their parent while they were a child.10
[1] The Married Woman’s Citizenship Act (“Cable Act”) of Sept. 22, 1922, 42 Stat. 1022, § 2 (allowing naturalization of wives of U.S. citizens without filing a declaration); Act of May 24, 1934, 48 Stat 797, § 4 (amending §2 of Cable Act to be gender-neutral); see also Nationality Act of 1940, 54 Stat. 1114, §§ 310-312 (reenacting similar provisions).
[2] Act of May 9, 1918, 40 Stat. 542, § 2 (repealing, limiting, and/or consolidating various previous acts expediting veterans’ naturalization and waiving declaration of intention for honorably discharged veterans); Nationality Act of 1940, supra, §§ 323-5; see also Act of July 17, 1862, 12 Stat. 597 (enacting expedited naturalization for honorably discharged U.S. Army veterans)(limited by Act of May 9, 1918, supra, § 2; repealed by Nationality Act of 1940, supra, § 504); Act of July 26, 1894, 28 Stat. 124 (extending naturalization privileges to honorably discharged Navy and Marine veterans) (repealed by Act of May 9, 1918, supra, § 2); Act of June 30, 1914, 38 Stat. 395 (repealed by Act of May 9, 1918, supra, § 2); Act of July 19, 1919, 41 Stat. 222 (waiving naturalization fees for honorably discharged soldiers of World War I).
[3] See United States v. Morena, 245 U.S. 392 (1918) (resolving split of authority and holding that seven-year expiration date established by the Basic Naturalization Act of 1906 also applied to "old law" declarations).
Obviously expatriation did not necessarily entail disloyalty or an unpatriotic action. While it required an affirmative act, such choices could be innocuous and even motivated by good intentions (e.g., marriage). 34 Stat. 1288, §§ 2-3.
[5] Cable Act of 1922, supra, § 4 (allowing naturalization of women who lost U.S. citizenship by marriage to an alien prior to the Act’s passage on Sept. 22, 1922) (amended by Acts of July 3, 1930, 46 Stat. 854, § 2, March 3, 1931, 46 Stat. 1511, § 4, and May 24, 1934, 48 Stat. 797, § 4) (§§ 1-4, repealed by Nationality Act of 1940, supra, § 504; § 5 repealed by § 4 of Act of March 3, 1931, supra). After the Cable Act in 1922, Congress gradually removed all restrictions on women’s independent citizenship, but the process was not completed until 1940. See Act of June 25, 1936, 49 Stat. 1917 (allowing repatriation by women who lost citizenship by marriage to an alien after naturalization of husband or termination of the marriage); Act of July 2, 1940, 54 Stat. 715 (amending Act of June 25, 1936 to permit repatriation of women still married to an alien who have “resided continuously in the United States since the date of such marriage”); Nationality Act of 1940, supra, § 317(a) and (b) (allowing naturalization of all women expatriated by marriage since 1907).
[6] Act of May 9, 1918, 40 Stat. 545, § 1 (amending Basic Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906, 34 Stat. 596, § 4, Part 12) (allowing resumption of citizenship (repatriation) by taking Oath of Renunciation and Allegiance “before any court… authorized by law to naturalization aliens or before any consul of the United States" for Great War soldiers who lost U.S. citizenship by an oath of allegiance to an allied foreign power as part of service in its armed forces); Nationality Act of 1940, supra, § 323 (amended by Act of April 2, 1942 (56 Stat. 198) (making WWII veterans of Allied belligerent nations also eligible for repatriation under expedited procedure).
[7] The Nationality Act of Oct. 14, 1940, §401 (e) (8 U. S. C. 801 (e)) provided that voting in a foreign election or plebiscite would result in expatriation of a U.S. citizen. The Act of August 7, 1946 (60 Stat. 865) allowed for the expeditious naturalization of former citizens expatriated by in a foreign election.
[8] Immigration and Nationality Act of June 27, 1952, 66 Stat. 163, § 334(f) (making the declaration of intention voluntary).
[9] Act of June 25, 1910, 36 Stat. 829, § 3 (allowing aliens “otherwise qualified to become a citizen of the United States” who, “because of misinformation regarding… citizenship status erroneously exercised the rights and performed the duties of a citizen of the United States in good faith,… [to] file the petition for naturalization prescribed by law without making the preliminary declaration of intention required of other aliens”) (adding Part 10 to § 4 of the Basic Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906, 34 Stat. 596), amended by Act of May 9, 1918, 40 Stat. 545, § 1.
[10] Nationality Act of Oct. 14, 1940, supra, §§ 318 (allowing for the naturalization (repatriation) of former citizens expatriated by parent’s actions during their minority) and 319 (expediting naturalization of persons who lost U.S. citizenship by the cancellation of a parent’s naturalization for actual or presumptive fraud).
[11] Act of March 26, 1804, 2 Stat. 282 (amending Naturalization Act of 1802) (providing for widows and orphans of a “declarant” (alien who filed a declaration of intention) to naturalize without filing a declaration upon proof of the deceased's declaration and taking the Oath of Renunciation and Allegiance) (recodified by Basic Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906, 34 Stat. 596, § 4, Part Six; repealed by Act of May 24, 1934, 48 Stat. 797, § 5).
The wives and children of deceased or insane declarants probably would have derived citizenship from the naturalization of their late or incapacitated spouse or parent under the contemporary naturalization laws.