By the President of the United States of America.

A PROCLAMATION.

Whereas a Naturalization Convention between the United States of America and the Republic of Costa Rica was concluded and signed by their respective Plenipotentiaries at San José on the 10th day of June one thousand nine hundred and eleven, the original of which Convention, being in the English and Spanish languages is word for word as follows:

Convention to fix the condition of naturalized citizens who renew their residence in country of their origin

The President of the United States of America and the President of the Republic of Costa Rica, desiring to regulate the citizenship of those persons who emigrate from the United States of America to Costa Rica and from Costa Rica to the United States of America, have resolved to conclude a convention on this subject and for that purpose have appointed their plenipotentiaries to conclude a convention, that is to say: the President of the United States of America, G. L. Monroe Jr., Chargé d’Affaires ad interim of the United States [Page 228] at Costa Rica, and the President of Costa Rica, Seňor Licenciado don Manuel Castro Quesada, Minister for Foreign Affairs, who have agreed to and signed the following articles:

Article I

Citizens of the United States who may or shall have been naturalized in Costa Rica, upon their own application or by their own consent, will be considered by the United States as citizens of the Republic of Costa Rica. Reciprocally, Costa Ricans who may or shall have been naturalized in the United States upon their own application or with their own consent, will be considered by the Republic of Costa Rica citizens of the United States.

Article II

If a Costa Rican, naturalized in the United States of America, renews his residence in Costa Rica without intent to return to the United States, he may be held to have renounced his naturalization in the United States. Reciprocally, if a citizen of the United States, naturalized in Costa Rica, renews his residence in the United States, without intent to return to Costa Rica, he may be presumed to have renounced his naturalization in Costa Rica.

The intent not to return may be held to exist when the person naturalized in the one country resides more than two years in the other country, but this presumption may be destroyed by evidence to the contrary.

Article III

It is mutually agreed that the definition of the word “citizen” as used in this convention, shall be held to mean a person to whom nationality of the United States or Costa Rica attaches.

Article IV

A recognized citizen of the one party, returning to the territory of the other, remains liable to trial and legal punishment for an action punishable by the laws of his original country and committed before his emigration; but not for the emigration itself, saving always the limitation established by the laws of his original country, and any other remission of liability to punishment.

Article V

The declaration of intention to become a citizen of the one or the other country has not for either party the effect of naturalization.

Article VI

The present convention shall go into effect immediately on the exchange of ratifications, and in the event of either party giving the other notice of its intention to terminate the convention it shall continue to be in effect for one year more, to count from the date of such notice.

[Page 229]

The present convention shall be submitted to the approval and ratification of the respective appropriate authorities of each of the contracting parties, and the ratifications shall be exchanged at San José or Washington within twenty-four months of the date hereof.

Signed at the city of San José on the 10th day of June one thousand nine hundred and eleven.

[seal.] G. L. Monroe Jr

[seal.] Manuel Castro Quesada

And whereas the said Convention has been duly ratified on both parts and the ratifications of the two governments were exchanged in the City of San José on the 9th day of May, one thousand nine hundred and twelve;

Now, therefore, be it known that I, William Howard Taft, President of the United States of America, have caused the said Convention to be made public, to the end that the same and every article and clause thereof may be observed and fulfilled with good faith by the United States and the citizens thereof.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed.


Wm H Taft

By the President:
P C Knox
Secretary of State.