Have you wondered if you grand parents or great-grand parents were illegal aliens? That is, did they become citizensof the US, and what were the laws back 100 years ago. What were the requirements for becoming a citizen back in the late 1800's and early 1900's? This is a little lengthy, so if your not interested, delete the message ======================================================= >From Yahoo! Answers: What year were US citizenship requirements formulated "The general elements of the 1802 naturalization law remained the law of the land for more than a century. Congress made relatively few adjustments to the law during that time. Nevertheless, some of those changes promoted uniformity while others lessened the requirements for naturalization in certain cases, and still others denied naturalized U.S. citizenship to entire classes of persons. "The Act of May 26, 1824 provided that an alien who came to the U.S. while under age 18 might, after reaching age 21 and after five years residence, be admitted as a citizen without having previously made a declaration of intention. Often termed "minor naturalizations" because they related to immigrants who arrived in the United States as minors, 1824 Act cases were also called "one paper naturalizations" because no declaration of intention was required. The ease and speed of naturalization under the 1824 Act led to unfortunate abuses and frauds that continued until repeal in 1906. "Another exception to the two-step naturalization process was created for veterans who served honorably in the U.S. Army during wartime, allowing them to petition for naturalization without previously filing a declaration of intent. This class of "one paper naturalizations" was first introduced by an Act of July 17, 1862, and was extended to veterans of the Navy and Marine Corps on August 1, 1894. During World War I nearly 200,000 alien soldiers were naturalized under provisions of the Act of May 9, 1918, and additional legislation governing the naturalization of members of our armed forces passed in 1919, 1926, 1940, and 1952. "After passage of an Act of February 10, 1855, immigrant women were able to acquire U.S. citizenship without naturalization. They became citizens upon marriage to a U.S. citizen husband, or upon their husband´s naturalization. Like children, who since 1790 acquired citizenship upon the naturalization of a parent, women derived citizenship from their husbands. A 1907 law took this concept further by providing that all U.S.-born women who married aliens would lose their U.S. citizenship upon marriage. It was not until 1922 that women´s citizenship was separated from that of their husbands. For more details, see the history of women and naturalization on the Website of the National Archives and Records Administration. "While nationality law allowed some variation in naturalization requirements, by the turn of the 20th Century many Americans were concerned with variations in naturalization procedures and the increasing lack of uniformity. Each court charged a different fee and recorded naturalization on different forms. And it seemed each court had its own interpretation of what constituted "good moral character" or "attachment to the Constitution." Most disturbing was the prevalence of fraudulent naturalization under old laws that did not require either positive identification of the applicant nor proof that the applicant had been legally admitted as an immigrant to the United States. A Presidential commission investigated naturalization throughout the United States and reported their findings in 1905. In addition to documenting widespread fraud, the commission report recommended passage of new legislation to govern future U.S. naturalizations. "Consequently, the Naturalization Act of June 29, 1906 implemented most of the commission´s recommendations. Because courts previously competed for naturalization business and naturalization fees, the new law set standard fees for all naturalization proceedings in all courts. Because incomplete naturalization records fostered fraud, the new law mandated standardized Declaration and Certificate forms be used by all courts and that copies of all naturalization records be forwarded to a supervisory Federal agency. The 1906 law created that agency by establishing the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization (a predecessor of the current INS, which is now in the U.S. Department of Justice) in the U.S. Department of Commerce and Labor. "The 1906 Act also made knowledge of the English language a requirement for naturalization. Proficiency in English was considered essential to performing the duties of citizenship, the most important of which is to cast an informed vote. The commission report explained the requirement as follows: