In re Naturalization of Pinner

The issue in this naturalization proceeding is whether petitioner has met the statutory residential requirements for admission to citizenship. A brief chronology of the relevant statutes will facilitate consideration of this question.

Since the first naturalization statute was enacted in 1790, 1 Stat. 103 , a period of residence in the United States has been required of applicants for naturalization. Since 1802, 2 Stat. 153 , the required period of residence has been five years. The Act of March 3, 1813, 2 Stat. 809 , required the five-year period of residence to be a continuous period immediately preceding naturalization, and provided that the applicant for naturalization must not have been outside the United States during this period. Upon the enactment of the Revised Statutes in 1874, the requirement of continuous physical presence in the United States during the five-year period of residence was eliminated. Revised Statutes § 2170. For many years thereafter the naturalization statutes did not specify whether an absence from the United States would break the required period of five-years’ continuous residence. In 1929, the Congress provided that an absence of one year or more…