8 U.S.C. § 1501
Section 1501 · Certificate of diplomatic or consular officer of United States as to loss of American nationality
This is § 358 of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (McCarran-Walter)
Amended 2 times on record
Applied in 17 court decisions — leading case Richards v. Secretary of State, Department of State (1985)
Most recently applied in Gerald Farrell v. Antony Blinken (July 2021)
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Whenever a diplomatic or consular officer of the United States has reason to believe that a person while in a foreign state has lost his United States nationality under any provision of Part III of this subchapter, or under any provision of chapter IV of the Nationality Act of 1940, as amended, he shall certify the facts upon which such belief is based to the Department of State, in writing, under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of State. If the report of the diplomatic or consular officer is approved by the Secretary of State, a copy of the certificate shall be forwarded to the Attorney General, for his information, and the diplomatic or consular office in which the report was made shall be directed to forward a copy of the certificate to the person to whom it relates. Approval by the Secretary of State of a certificate under this section shall constitute a final administrative determination of loss of United States nationality under this chapter, subject to such procedures for administrative appeal as the Secretary may prescribe by regulation, and also shall constitute a denial of a right or privilege of United States nationality for purposes of section 1503 of this title.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
References in Text
Chapter IV of the Nationality Act of 1940, as amended, referred to in text, which was classified to sections 800 to 810 of this title, was repealed by section 403(a)(42) of act June 27, 1952.
Codification
Section was formerly classified to section 100 of this title.
Amendments
1994—Pub. L. 103–416 inserted at end “Approval by the Secretary of State of a certificate under this section shall constitute a final administrative determination of loss of United States nationality under this chapter, subject to such procedures for administrative appeal as the Secretary may prescribe by regulation, and also shall constitute a denial of a right or privilege of United States nationality for purposes of section 1503 of this title.”
Cross References
Definition of the term—
Attorney General, see section 1101(a)(5) of this title.
Consular officer, see section 1101(a)(9) of this title.
Foreign state, see section 1101(a)(14) of this title.
National of the United States, see section 1101(a)(22) of this title.