[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1599 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1599

 To amend the Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 
 1994 to provide the descendants of female United States citizens born 
   abroad before May 24, 1934, with the same rights to United States 
 citizenship at birth as the descendants of male citizens born abroad 
                           before such date.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              May 14, 1997

Mr. Gutierrez (for himself and Mr. Jackson of Illinois) introduced the 
  following bill; which was referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the Immigration and Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 
 1994 to provide the descendants of female United States citizens born 
   abroad before May 24, 1934, with the same rights to United States 
 citizenship at birth as the descendants of male citizens born abroad 
                           before such date.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Equity in Transmission of 
Citizenship Act of 1997''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) since certain children born abroad to United States 
        citizen mothers before May 24, 1934, only became entitled to 
        claim United States citizenship, acquired at birth, as of 
        October 25, 1994, with the enactment of the Immigration and 
        Nationality Technical Corrections Act of 1994, they could not 
        enter into the United States as a citizen prior to that date; 
        and
            (2) therefore, such children could not satisfy any 
        physical-presence requirement necessary to transmit United 
        States citizenship to their descendants in the same manner as 
        could the children born abroad to United States citizen fathers 
        before such date.

SEC. 3. EQUAL TREATMENT OF CHILDREN BORN ABROAD OF FEMALE UNITED STATES 
              CITIZENS IN TRANSMITTING CITIZENSHIP.

    (a) In General.--Section 101(d) of the Immigration and Nationality 
Technical Corrections Act of 1994 (Public Law 103-416; 108 Stat. 4306) 
is amended to read as follows:
    ``(d) Waiver of Physical-Presence Requirement for Transmission of 
Citizenship.--The physical-presence requirement in section 301(g) of 
the Immigration and Nationality Act, and any residence or physical-
presence requirement in a predecessor provision to such section (such 
as section 201(g) of the Nationality Act of 1940), shall be considered 
to have been satisfied by any person born before the date of the 
enactment of this Act who otherwise qualifies for United States 
citizenship based on such person's descent from an individual described 
in section 301(h) of such Act.''.
    (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) shall be 
effective as if included in the Immigration and Nationality Technical 
Corrections Act of 1994.
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