315.4/10–1452

The Secretary of State to the Attorney General of the United States (McGranery)

My Dear Mr. Attorney General: The enclosed copy of a communication from the Secretary General of the United Nations, dated August 4, 1952, addressed to the Permanent Representative of the United States to the United Nations, concerning Section 247 of the Immigration and Nationality Act (P.L. 414, 82d Congress),1 is forwarded to you for your consideration in regard to the actions to be taken by you under the above-mentioned provision.

Section 247(b) of the Act provides that status as an immigrant can be maintained by an employee of the United Nations who has been lawfully admitted for permanent residence in the United States, and who presently “requests that he be permitted to retain his status as an immigrant and who, in such form as the Attorney General may require, executes and files with the Attorney General a written waiver of all rights, privileges, exemptions, and immunities under any law or any executive order which would otherwise accrue to him because of the acquisition of an occupational status entitling him to a non-immigrant status under paragraph 15 (A), 15(E), or 15(G) of Section 101(a).”

As the Secretary General points out, it is necessary to distinguish between privileges and immunities which accrue to the employee in his personal capacity and which can be waived by the employee, and those which accrue to the employee in his official capacity and which can be [Page 229] waived only by the international organization itself. In regard to the first category, it may be surmised that Section 247 does not require the waiver by immigrant alien employees of any privileges or immunities enjoyed by employees who are United States citizens.

The fact that most privileges and immunities are contained in the second category follows from the very nature of the privileges and immunities themselves. This is particularly true in regard to immunity from legal process relating to the official acts of an international organization. This Department concurs in the assumption by the Secretary General that “no waiver by any such individual officer or employee will be deemed to constitute in any way a waiver of rights, privileges, exemptions, or immunities which accrue not to him personally but to the United Nations as an international organization.”

In order that a clear distinction be maintained between privileges and immunities which may and which may not be waived by an employee in his individual capacity, the following draft of a waiver is submitted for consideration by the Department of Justice in carrying out its functions under Section 247(b) of the Immigration and Naturalization Act:

I, ____________________, an employee of ____________________, which has been designated as an “international organization” under the provisions of the International Organizations Immunities Act (P. L. 291, 79th Congress), hereby waive all rights, privileges, exemptions, and immunities which accrue to me individually as an employee of said international organization. This does not constitute a waiver of any right, privilege, exemption or immunity which can only be waived by the organization itself, and in particular it does not constitute a waiver in regard to an immunity from legal process relating to official acts of the organization.

Sincerely yours,

For the Secretary of State:
Adrian S. Fisher

The Legal Adviser
  1. Approved June 27, 1952; 66 Stat. 163.