18 USC § 1425 - Procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully | Title 18 - Crimes and Criminal Procedure | U.S. Code

USCPrelim is a preliminary release and may be subject to further revision before it is released again as a final version.

Current through Pub. L. 113-13. (See Public Laws for the current Congress.)

(a) Whoever knowingly procures or attempts to procure, contrary to law, the naturalization of any person, or documentary or other evidence of naturalization or of citizenship; or

(b) Whoever, whether for himself or another person not entitled thereto, knowingly issues, procures or obtains or applies for or otherwise attempts to procure or obtain naturalization, or citizenship, or a declaration of intention to become a citizen, or a certificate of arrival or any certificate or evidence of nationalization or citizenship, documentary or otherwise, or duplicates or copies of any of the foregoing—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 25 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate an act of international terrorism (as defined in section 2331 of this title)), 20 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate a drug trafficking crime (as defined in section 929 (a) of this title)), 10 years (in the case of the first or second such offense, if the offense was not committed to facilitate such an act of international terrorism or a drug trafficking crime), or 15 years (in the case of any other offense), or both.

prev | next

(a) Whoever knowingly procures or attempts to procure, contrary to law, the naturalization of any person, or documentary or other evidence of naturalization or of citizenship; or

(b) Whoever, whether for himself or another person not entitled thereto, knowingly issues, procures or obtains or applies for or otherwise attempts to procure or obtain naturalization, or citizenship, or a declaration of intention to become a citizen, or a certificate of arrival or any certificate or evidence of nationalization or citizenship, documentary or otherwise, or duplicates or copies of any of the foregoing—

Shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 25 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate an act of international terrorism (as defined in section 2331 of this title)), 20 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate a drug trafficking crime (as defined in section 929 (a) of this title)), 10 years (in the case of the first or second such offense, if the offense was not committed to facilitate such an act of international terrorism or a drug trafficking crime), or 15 years (in the case of any other offense), or both.

Source

(June 25, 1948, ch. 645, 62 Stat. 766; Pub. L. 103–322, title XXXIII, § 330016(1)(K),Sept. 13, 1994, 108 Stat. 2147; Pub. L. 104–208, div. C, title II, § 211(a)(2),Sept. 30, 1996, 110 Stat. 3009–569; Pub. L. 107–273, div. B, title IV, § 4002(a)(3),Nov. 2, 2002, 116 Stat. 1806.)

Historical and Revision Notes

Based on subsections (a) pars. (2)–(5), (7), (b), and (d) of section 746 of Title 8, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Aliens and Nationality (Oct. 14, 1940, ch. 876, § 346(a), pars. (2)–(5), (7), (b), (d), 54 Stat. 1163, 1164, 1167).

Section consolidates five similar paragraphs, and the punishment provisions of subsection (d) of said section 746 of title 8, U.S.C., 1940 ed., Aliens and Nationality, with minor necessary changes in translations and phraseology. Numerous references to aiding and assisting were omitted as unnecessary as such persons are principals under definitive section 2 of this title.

Words “a certificate of arrival or” were inserted before “any certificate” in subsection (b), so as to remove any doubt as to scope of section.

Amendments

2002—Pub. L. 107–273substituted “to facilitate” for “to facility” in last par.

1996—Pub. L. 104–208substituted “imprisoned not more than 25 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate an act of international terrorism (as defined in section 2331 of this title)), 20 years (if the offense was committed to facilitate a drug trafficking crime (as defined in section 929 (a) of this title)), 10 years (in the case of the first or second such offense, if the offense was not committed to facility such an act of international terrorism or a drug trafficking crime), or 15 years (in the case of any other offense)” for “imprisoned not more than five years” in last par.

1994—Pub. L. 103–322substituted “fined under this title” for “fined not more than $5,000” in last par.

Effective Date of 1996 Amendment

Amendment by Pub. L. 104–208applicable with respect to offenses occurring on or after Sept. 30, 1996, see section 211(c) ofPub. L. 104–208, set out as a note under section 1028 of this title.

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for this section. Updates to a broader range of sections may be found at the update page for containing chapter, title, etc.

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Monday, June 17, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

The Statutes at Large field is linked to the text of the law, in the context of its volume of the Statutes at Large, at the Government Printing Office. Please note that it takes a while for these pages to get posted, so for very recent legislation, you need to look at the "enrolled" version at the Thomas site.

The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

top

General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

18 USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

18 USC § 1425 - Procurement of citizenship or naturalization unlawfully

U.S. Code Toolbox

Law about... Articles from Wex

Get Involved

Find a Lawyer