Overview#
Nationals are
Natural Person of a
Nationality
Although all U.S.
citizens are also U.S. Nationals, the reverse is not true. As specified in 8
U.S.C. § 1408, a person whose only connection to the U.S. is through birth in an outlying possession (which is defined in 8
U.S.C. § 1101 as
American Samoa and Swains Island, which is administered as part of American Samoa), or through descent from a person so born, acquires U.S. nationality but not U.S. citizenship. This was formerly the case in only four other current or former U.S. overseas possessions:
- Guam from 1898 to 1950, when citizenship granted by an Act of Congress through the Guam Organic Act of 1950;
- Philippines from 1898 to 1935 when immigration rights of national status was rescinded as part of the Philippine Independence Act, with full independence in 1946;
- Puerto Rico from 1898 to 1917 when citizenship was granted through the Jones–Shafroth Act of 1917;
- United States Virgin Islands from 1917 to 1927 when citizenship was granted by an act of Congress in 1927.
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