NORDBYE, District Judge.
The petitioner was born January 14, 1898, at Ahamedabad, India. Her father was a native and subject of Canada. Petitioner's husband, Gilbert Willard Eklund, was born in Minnesota and is located at Bombay, India, where he is engaged in the practice of dentistry. He is an American citizen. Petitioner was married in India to Mr. Eklund on May 4, 1929, and continued to reside there until February, 1936, when she legally entered the United States at New York. On completion of her one year's residence in the United States, to wit, on March 3, 1937, she filed a petition for naturalization. She seeks naturalization under section 2 of the Act of September 22, 1922 (42 Stat. 1022, 8 U.S.C.A. § 368), which reads:
"Any woman who marries a citizen of the United States after September 22, 1922, or any woman whose husband is naturalized after that date, shall not become a citizen of the United States by reason of such marriage or naturalization; but, if eligible to citizenship, she may be naturalized upon full and complete compliance with all requirements of the naturalization laws, with the following exceptions:
"(a) No declaration of intention shall be required;
"(b) In lieu of the five-year period of residence within the United States and the one-year period of residence within the State or Territory where the naturalization court is held, she shall have resided continuously in the United States, Hawaii, Alaska, or Porto Rico for at least one year immediately preceding the filing of the petition."
This act, however, was amended on May 24, 1934, 48 Stat. 797, § 4 (8 U.S.C. A. § 368), and provides:
"Sec. 4. Section 2 of the Act entitled `An Act relative to the naturalization and citizenship of married women,' approved September 22, 1922, is amended to read as follows:
"`Sec. 2. That an alien who marries a citizen of the United States, after the passage of this Act, as here amended, or an alien whose husband or wife is naturalized after the passage of this Act, as here amended, shall not become a citizen of the United States by reason of such marriage or naturalization; but, if eligible to citizenship, he or she may be naturalized upon full and complete compliance with all requirements of the naturalization laws, with the following exceptions:
"`(a) No declaration of intention shall be required.
"`(b) In lieu of the five-year period of residence within the United States and the one-year period of residence within the State or Territory where the naturalization court is held, he or she shall have resided continuously in the United States, Hawaii, Alaska, or Porto Rico for at least three years immediately preceding the filing of the petition.'"
The question presented is whether petitioner must reside in the United States one year or three years immediately preceding the filing of her petition. The answer depends on the effect of the amendment of May 24, 1934. It is the view of the Immigration and Naturalization Service that an alien woman who married a citizen of the United States after September 22, 1922, and before May 24, 1934, may be naturalized upon proof of residence in the United States for at least one year immediately preceding the filing of the petition. General Order No. 211, August 2, 1934, promulgated by that department, reads as follows:
"Although Section 4 of the Citizenship Act of 1934 amends Section 2 of the so-called Cable Act (Act of September 22, 1922, 42 Stat. 1022; U.S.C., tit. 8, Sec. 368) the original and unamended form of Section 2 of said Cable Act continues to operate in part, and even after May 24, 1934, vests citizenship as follows; any alien woman who married a citizen of the United States after September 21, 1922, and before 12 noon E. S. T. May 24, 1934, or any alien woman who was married prior to 12 noon May 24, 1934, and whose husband was naturalized between September 21, 1922, and 12 noon E. S. T. May 24, 1934, if eligible to citizenship, may be naturalized upon full and complete compliance with all requirements of the naturalization laws, with the following exceptions;
"(a) No declaration of intention shall be required;
"(b) In lieu of the five-year period of residence within the United States, the six-month period of residence in the county, and the one-year period of residence within the State or Territory where the naturalization court is held, she shall have resided continuously in the United States, Hawaii, Alaska, or Puerto Rico for at least one year immediately preceding the filing of the petition."
However, the department's construction is obviously incorrect if the language of the amendment "after the passage of this Act, as here amended," refers to the date of the passage of the original act of September 22, 1922. If that be true, then an alien who married a citizen after September 22, 1922, or whose spouse became naturalized after that date, and seeks citizenship under the act, must reside in the places designated for the period of three years immediately preceding the filing of the petition.
The compilers of the Code first adopted the same construction as the general order above quoted. They wrote such construction into the act by using the following language (8 U.S.C.A. § 368): "An alien who marries a citizen of the United States, after May 24, 1934, or an alien whose husband or wife is naturalized after May 24, 1934, shall not become a citizen of the United States by reason of such marriage or naturalization."
But in the republication of this statute in May, 1937, the act was rewritten by the code writers to read as follows: "An alien who marries a citizen of the United States, after September 22, 1922, or an alien whose...
