23/116730.
Decided by Central Office May 24, 1946.
Citizenship — Expatriation — Failure of dual national to take up residence in United States in time — Section 401 (a) of the Nationality Act of 1940.
A person born abroad, who acquired only United States citizenship at birth (R.S. 1993; article 88 of the Polish Constitution), but thereafter became a dual national while a minor through his father's naturalization abroad (art. 3 of Citizenship Act of Poland) and was still such a dual national on January 13, 1941 (effective date of the Nationality Act of 1940), forfeited his United States citizenship status under section 401 (a) of the Nationality Act of 1940 by failing to take up residence in the United States before reaching his twenty-third birthday on October 11, 1944.
BEFORE THE CENTRAL OFFICE
Discussion: Major W---- B. V---- H---- has inquired concerning the citizenship status of the above-named subject. (E---- K----).
In Major V---- H----'s letter it was stated that the subject was born in Poland in October 1921. The State Department has stated that a United States passport was issued to the subject on May 27, 1941, being subsequently extended until December 23, 1941. Subject's father C---- K----, was naturalized in the United States District Court at Baltimore, Md., on February 21, 1905. The State Department has stated that C---- K---- reacquired Polish citizenship on October 23, 1922, according to article 3 of the Citizenship Act of Poland of January 20, 1920. The subject E---- K----, was interned in Europe for 27 months and did not come to the United States until February 24, 1945, when he arrived in New York on S.S. Gripsholm, as an exchange internee. The Department of State has concluded that the subject lost his nationality under Section 401 (a) on October 11, 1944, his twenty-third birthday.
Article 87 of the Constitution of Poland of March 17, 1921 (Nationality Laws — Flournoy and Hudson, p. 479) provides that a Polish citizen may not be at the same time a citizen of another state. Article 88 of the Polish Constitution provides that Polish citizenship is acquired at birth if the parents are Polish citizens and by naturalization. Article 3 of the Polish Law of January 20, 1920, referred to in the letter received from the State Department, reads as follows:
Citizens of other states who are of Polish descent, as well as their descendants, shall be recognized as citizens of the Polish state, when after return to the Polish state, they shall file in the administrative office of the place of their residence proofs of Polish descent, together with a declaration that they desire to be Polish citizens and that they renounce citizenship of the other state.
The subject's father became a United States citizen on February 21, 1905, and the subject acquired United States citizenship at birth on October 11, 1921, under section 1993 of the Revised Statutes. In view of the provisions of the Polish Constitution that a Polish citizen may not be at the same time a citizen of another state and the provision that Polish citizenship is acquired by birth if the parents are Polish citizens, it appears clear that the subject did not become a Polish citizen at birth. The acquisition of Polish citizenship by the subject's father under article 3 of the law of January 20, 1920, was a naturalization, and it will be observed that article 3 specifically states that the descendants of persons who acquire citizenship under that article shall be recognized as citizens. It is concluded, therefore, that the subject's case comes within the provisions of section 401 (a) of the Nationality Act of 1940 and that his failure to take up permanent residence in the United States prior to attaining the age of 23 years caused him to lose his United States nationality on October 11, 1944.