Panama Canal Zone
The Panama Canal Zone () was an unincorporated territory of the United States from 1903 to 1979, centered on the Panama Canal and surrounded by the Republic of Panama. The zone consisted of the canal and an area generally extending on each side of the centerline, excluding Panama City and Colón, which otherwise would have been partly within the limits of the Zone. Its border spanned three of Panama's provinces. When reservoirs were created to assure a steady supply of water for the locks, those lakes were included within the Zone.
Panama Canal Zone
The treaty with Panama made no mention of the nationality status of the native inhabitants of the Zone. Pursuant to the principles of international law, they became non-citizen U.S. nationals unless they elected to retain their previous nationality. Children of non-citizen U.S. nationals generally acquired the status of their parents. However, for most nationality purposes, the Canal Zone was considered to be foreign territory and the status persons acquired at birth was governed by the Naturalization Act of 1795, which granted them statutory US citizenship at birth but only if their fathers were, at the time of the child's birth, U.S. citizens who had previously resided in the United States. In 1934 the law was amended to allow for citizenship to be acquired at birth through either parent if the parent was a U.S. citizen who had previously resided in the United States. In 1937 the law was further amended to provide for US citizenship to persons born in the Canal Zone (since 1904) to a U.S. citizen parent without that parent needing to have been previously resident in the United States. The law is now codified under title 8, section 1403. It not only grants statutory and declaratory born citizenship to those born in the Canal Zone after February 26, 1904, of at least one US citizen parent, but also does so retroactively for all children born of at least one US citizen in the Canal Zone before the law's enactment. This rule was later rendered moot when the rules were changed to state that (almost all) children born to U.S. citizens anywhere in the world were considered U.S citizens.