immigration · card D

Denaturalization

Denaturalization is a court's cancellation of a person's naturalization, usually because it was gained by fraud or was not legally allowed.

Section 15 of the 1906 law let U.S. attorneys sue in a naturalization court to cancel a certificate obtained by fraud or illegally.

Married women were one group affected: after 1907 a woman married to an alien could not naturalize on her own, and a few judges who granted such petitions anyway saw the certificates canceled in federal court. The holder had to surrender the certificate. The case files are among federal court records at the National Archives.

As seen in a recordFederal court cancellation decree, 1911
Certificate of naturalization No. 288471 canceled; petitioner found to be the wife of an alien
How to cite this page

Daily Ancestor. "Denaturalization." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/immigration/denaturalization. Last checked 2026-10-03.

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