---
kind: "section"
citation: "8 U.S.C. § 1406"
title: "8"
title_heading: "Aliens and Nationality"
number: "1406"
heading: "Persons living in and born in the Virgin Islands"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/8/1406"
units:
  - "Chapter 12 — Immigration and Nationality"
  - "Subchapter III — Nationality and Naturalization"
  - "Part I — Nationality at Birth and Collective Naturalization"
---

# §1406. Persons living in and born in the Virgin Islands

- (a) The following [persons](/usc/8/1101.md?p=b-3) and their children born subsequent to January 17, 1917, and prior to February 25,1927, are declared to be citizens of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) as of February 25, 1927:
  - (1) All former Danish citizens who, on January 17, 1917, resided in the Virgin Islands of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38), and were residing in those islands or in the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) or Puerto Rico on February 25, 1927, and who did not make the declaration required to preserve their Danish citizenship by article 6 of the treaty entered into on August 4, 1916, between the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) and Denmark, or who, having made such a declaration have heretofore renounced or may hereafter renounce it by a declaration before a court of record;
  - (2) All natives of the Virgin Islands of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) who, on January 17, 1917, resided in those islands, and were residing in those islands or in the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) or Puerto Rico on February 25, 1927, and who were not on February 25, 1927, citizens or subjects of any foreign country;
  - (3) All natives of the Virgin Islands of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) who, on January 17, 1917, resided in the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38), and were residing in those islands on February 25, 1927, and who were not on February 25, 1927, citizens or subjects of any foreign country; and
  - (4) All natives of the Virgin Islands of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) who, on June 28, 1932, were residing in continental [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38), the Virgin Islands of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38), Puerto Rico, the Canal Zone, or any other insular possession or territory of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38), and who, on June 28, 1932, were not citizens or subjects of any foreign country, regardless of their place of [residence](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-33) on January 17, 1917.
- (b) All [persons](/usc/8/1101.md?p=b-3) born in the Virgin Islands of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) on or after January 17, 1917, and prior to February 25, 1927, and subject to the jurisdiction of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) are declared to be citizens of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) as of February 25, 1927; and all [persons](/usc/8/1101.md?p=b-3) born in those islands on or after February 25, 1927, and subject to the jurisdiction of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38), are declared to be citizens of the [United States](/usc/8/1101.md?p=a-38) at birth.

## Source credit

(June 27, 1952, ch. 477, title III, ch. 1, § 306, 66 Stat. 237.)