Friend

The Attorney General appeals from the district court’s declaratory judgment holding that Horace Gozon Friend is a citizen of the United States. The district court had jurisdiction over this matter pursuant to 8 U.S.C. § 1503 (a). We have jurisdiction to review the decision of the district court pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291 , and we reverse.

I.

The facts of this case are not in dispute. Horace Gozon Friend (“Friend”) was born in the Philippines on January 16, 1931, when the Philippines was a possession of the United States. His father, Horace B, Friend, was a U.S. citizen who had never left the Philippines before Friend’s birth. Under a statute then in force, section 1993 of the U.S. Revised Statutes, Friend’s father must have resided “in the United States” prior to his son’s birth in order to *640 transmit his U.S. citizenship to his son. See Rev. Stat. § 1993; Weedin v. Chin Bow, 274 U.S. 657, 675 , 47 S.Ct. 772 , 71 L.Ed. 1284 (1927). Friend has contended before various U.S. authorities that his father’s residence in the Philippines should qualify as residence “in the United States” within the meaning of section 1993.

The U.S. Embassy in the Philippines disagreed, informing…