“The applicable law at the time was the Immigration and Nationality Act of like 1951...”
I think it might be the “Immigration and Nationality Act 1952” a/k/a the “Mccarran Walter Immigration and Nationality Act”
The Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952 (also known as the McCarran-Walter Act) restricted immigration into the U.S. and is codified under Title 8 of the United States Code.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_and_Nationality_Act_of_1952
§ 1409. Children born out of wedlock
[snip]
(c) Notwithstanding the provision of subsection (a) of this section, a person born, after December 23, 1952, outside the United States and out of wedlock shall be held to have acquired at birth the nationality status of his mother, if the mother had the nationality of the United States at the time of such persons birth, and if the mother had previously been physically present in the United States or one of its outlying possessions for a continuous period of one year.
It appears to read the same, 1 year continuously present.
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NEED to get ORIGINAL text of the bill to determine the controlling language in 1963.
USC only shows CURRENT law, as amended ...
Yeah, good point. I was trying to locate that earlier, without much success. If you find it, please post. Thanks!
If you go to the "Notes" link on the Cornell page, you get the effective date of each section and of any changes to that section. It does not appear that 1409(c) has changed since the 1952 law was passed