46a USC Rule - Corporation, partnership, or association as citizen

(a) Ownership of controlling interest

Within the meaning of this chapter no corporation, partnership, or association shall be deemed a citizen of the United States unless the controlling interest therein is owned by citizens of the United States, and, in the case of a corporation, unless its chief executive officer, by whatever title, and the chairman of its board of directors are citizens of the United States and unless no more of its directors than a minority of the number necessary to constitute a quorum are noncitizens and the corporation itself is organized under the laws of the United States or of a State, Territory, District, or possession thereof, but in the case of a corporation, association, or partnership operating any vessel in the coastwise trade the amount of interest required to be owned by citizens of the United States shall be 75 per centum.

(b) Determination of controlling interest

The controlling interest in a corporation shall not be deemed to be owned by citizens of the United States

(a) if the title to a majority of the stock thereof is not vested in such citizens free from any trust or fiduciary obligation in favor of any person not a citizen of the United States; or

(b) if the majority of the voting power in such corporation is not vested in citizens of the United States; or

(c) if through any contract or understanding it is so arranged that the majority of the voting power may be exercised, directly or indirectly, in behalf of any person who is not a citizen of the United States; or,

(d) if by any other means whatsoever control of the corporation is conferred upon or permitted to be exercised by any person who is not a citizen of the United States.

(c) Determination of seventy-five per centum of interest

Seventy-five per centum of the interest in a corporation shall not be deemed to be owned by citizens of the United States

(a) if the title to 75 per centum of its stock is not vested in such citizens free from any trust or fiduciary obligation in favor of any person not a citizen of the United States; or

(b) if 75 per centum of the voting power in such corporation is not vested in citizens of the United States; or

(c) if, through any contract or understanding, it is so arranged that more than 25 per centum of the voting power in such corporation may be exercised, directly or indirectly, in behalf of any person who is not a citizen of the United States; or

(d) if by any other means whatsoever control of any interest in the corporation in excess of 25 per centum is conferred upon or permitted to be exercised by any person who is not a citizen of the United States.

Source

(Sept. 7, 1916, ch. 451, § 2(a)–(c), 39 Stat. 729; July 15, 1918, ch. 152, § 2,40 Stat. 900; June 5, 1920, ch. 250, § 38,41 Stat. 1008; Pub. L. 86–327, § 3,Sept. 21, 1959, 73 Stat. 597; Pub. L. 105–383, title IV, § 421,Nov. 13, 1998, 112 Stat. 3439.)

Codification

Section comprises subsecs. (a) to (c) ofsection 2 of act Sept. 7, 1916, as amended. Subsec. (d) ofsection 2 of the act is classified to section 803 of this Appendix.

Amendments

1998—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 105–383struck out “president or other” after “corporation, unless its” and inserted “, by whatever title,” after “chief executive officer”.

1959—Subsec. (a). Pub. L. 86–327redefined citizenship qualification for corporations by substituting requirement that the president or other chief executive officer and the chairman of the board of directors be United States citizens and that no more of the directors than a minority of the number necessary to constitute a quorum be noncitizens for requirement that the president and managing directors be United States citizens.

1920—Act June 5, 1920, added par. relating to percentage of corporate interest required to be owned by United States citizens and provisions of first par. concerning vessels in coastwise trade, and designated existing paragraphs as subsecs. (a) to (d).

1918—Act July 15, 1918, added par. relating to requirements for determining controlling interest.

Repeals

For provisional repeal, see note set out preceding section 801 of this Appendix.

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 Tuesday, April 16, 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.

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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.

46a USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

This is a list of parts within the Code of Federal Regulations for which this US Code section provides rulemaking authority.

This list is taken from the Parallel Table of Authorities and Rules provided by GPO [Government Printing Office].

It is not guaranteed to be accurate or up-to-date, though we do refresh the database weekly. More limitations on accuracy are described at the GPO site.

46 CFR - Title 46—Shipping

46 CFR 316

46 CFR Part 355 - REQUIREMENTS FOR ESTABLISHING UNITED STATES CITIZENSHIP

46a USC Rule - Corporation, partnership, or association as citizen

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