The United States Naturalization Act of 1795 (, enacted January 29, 1795) repealed and replaced the

Naturalization Act of 1790 The Naturalization Act of 1790 (, enacted March 26, 1790) was a law of the United States Congress that set the first uniform rules for the granting of United States citizenship by naturalization. The law limited naturalization to "free Whit ...

. The main change made by the 1795 Act from the 1790 Act was the increase in the period of required residence in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

before an alien can be naturalized from two to five years. The Act also omitted the term "natural born" in the characterisation of children born outside the US to US citizen parents. The Act repeated the limitation in the 1790 Act that naturalization was reserved only for "free white person " It also changed the requirement in the 1790 Act of "good character" to read "good moral character."

Pre-1795

Before 1795, naturalization law was governed primarily by the

Provisions

The 1795 Act continued the 1790 Act limitation of naturalization being available only to "free white person " The main change was the increase in the period of required residence in the

before an alien can be naturalized from two to five years, and the introduction of the Declaration of Intention requirement, or "first papers", which required to be filed at least three years before the formal application, creating a two-step naturalization process. Aliens intending to naturalize had to go to their local court and declare their intention to do so at least three years before their formal application. In the declaration, the applicant would also indicate his understanding that upon naturalization he would take an oath not only of allegiance to the United States but also of renunciation of his former sovereign. In addition to the declaration of intention and oath of renunciation, the 1795 Act required all naturalized persons to be "attached to the principles of the

Constitution of the United States The Constitution of the United States is the supreme law of the United States of America. It superseded the Articles of Confederation, the nation's first constitution, in 1789. Originally comprising seven articles, it delineates the natio ...

" and be "well disposed to the good order and happiness of the same." The Act removed the characterization of children born outside the US to US citizen parents as "

natural born citizen A natural-born-citizen clause, if present in the constitution of a country, requires that its president or vice president be a natural born citizen. The constitutions of a number of countries contain such a clause, but there is no universally ac ...

s", providing instead that such children "shall be considered as citizens of the United States".Naturalization Act of 1795
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Post-1795

The 1795 Act was superseded by the

Naturalization Act of 1798 The Naturalization Act of 1798 (, enacted June 18, 1798) passed by the United States Congress, to amend the residency and notice periods of the previous Naturalization Act of 1795. It increased the period necessary for aliens to become naturali ...

, which extended the residency requirement to 14 years and notice period to five years. The 1798 Act was repealed by the Naturalization Law of 1802, which restored the residency and notice requirements of the 1795 Act.

References

External links

Statutes At Large, Third Congress, Session II, p. 414
{{Immigration to the United States 1795 in law United States federal immigration and nationality legislation 1795 in the United States 3rd United States Congress