investigation of petitioners; preliminary examinations on petitions

investigation of petitioners; preliminary examinations on petitions Sec. 335. (a) At any time prior to the holding of the final hearing on a petition for naturalization provided for by section 336 (a), an employee of the Service, or of the United States designated by the Attorney General, shall conduct a personal investigation of the person petitioning for naturalization in the vicinity or vicinities in which such person has maintained his actual place of abode and in the vicinity or vicinities in which such person has been employed or has engaged in business or work for at least five years immediately preceding the filing of his petition for naturalization. The Attorney General may, in his discretion, waive a personal investigation in an individual case or in such cases or classes of cases as may be designated by him. (b) The Attorney General shall designate employees of the Service to conduct preliminary examinations upon petitions for naturalization to any naturalization court and to make recommendations thereon to such court. For such purposes any such employee so designated is hereby authorized to take testimony concerning any matter touching or in any way affecting the admissibility of any petitioner for naturalization, to administer oaths, including the oath of the petitioner for naturalization and the oaths of petitioner’s witnesses to the petition for naturalization, and to require by subpena the attendance and testimony of witnesses, including petitioner, before such employee so designated and the production of relevant books, papers, and documents, and to that end may invoke the aid of any court exercising naturalization jurisdiction as specified in section 310 of this title; and any such court may, in the event of neglect or refusal to respond to a subpena issued by any such employee so designated or refusal to testify before such employee so designated issue an order requiring such person to appear before such employee so designated, produce relevant books, papers, and documents if demanded, and testify; and any failure to obey such order of the court may be punished by the court as a contempt thereof. The record of the preliminary examination authorized by this subsection shall be admissible as evidence in any final hearing conducted by a naturalization court designated in section 310 of tins title. (c) The record of the preliminary examination upon any petition for naturalization may, in the discretion of the Attorney General, be transmitted to the Attorney General and the recommendation with respect thereto of the employee designated to conduct such preliminary examination shall when made also be transmitted to the Attorney General. (d) The recommendation of the employee designated to conduct any such preliminary examination shall be submitted to the court at the hearing upon the petition and shall include a recommendation that the petition be granted, or denied, or continued, with reasons therefor. In any case in which the recommendation of the Attorney General does not agree with that of the employee designated to conduct such 66 Stat. 256 preliminary examination, the recommendations of both such employee and the Attorney General shall be submitted to the court at the hearing upon the petition, and the officer of the Service in attendance at such hearing shall, at the request of the court, present both the view’s of such employee and those of the Attorney General with respect to such petition to the court. The recommendations of such employee and of the Attorney General shall be accompanied by duplicate lists containing the names of the petitioners, classified according to the character of the recommendations, and signed by such employee or the Attorney General, as the case may be. The judge to whom such recommendations are submitted shall, if he approve such recommendations, enter a written order with such exceptions as the judge may deem proper, by subscribing his name to each such list when corrected to conform to his conclusions upon such recommendations. One of each such lists shall thereafter be filed permanently of record in such court and the duplicate of each such list shall be sent by the clerk of such court to the Attorney General. (e) After the petition for naturalization has been filed in the office of the clerk of court, the petitioner shall not be permitted to withdraw his petition, except with the consent of the Attorney General. In cases where the Attorney General does not consent to withdrawal of the petition, the court shall determine the petition on its merits and enter a final order accordingly. In cases where the petitioner fails to prosecute his petition, the petition shall be decided upon its merits unless the Attorney General moves that the petition be dismissed for lack of prosecution. (f) As to each period and place of residence in the State in which the petitioner resides at the time of filing the petition, during the entire period of at least six months immediately preceding the date of filing the petition, there shall be included in the petition for naturalization the affidavits of at least two credible witnesses, citizens of the United States, stating that each has personally known the petitioner to have been a resident at such place for such period, and that the petitioner is and during all such periods has been a person of good moral character, attached to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and well disposed to the good order and happiness of the United States. (g) At the hearing on the petition, residence in the State in which the petitioner resides at the time of filing the petition, for at least six months immediately preceding the date of filing the petition, and the other qualifications required by subsection (a) of section 316 during such residence shall be proved by the oral testimony of at least two credible witnesses, citizens of the United States, in addition to the affidavits required by subsection (f) of this section to be included in the petition. At the hearing, residence and physical presence within the United States during the five-year period required by section 316 (a), but outside the State, or within the State but prior to the six months immediately preceding the date of filing the petition, and the other qualifications required by subsection (a) of section 316 during such period at such places, shall lie proved either by depositions taken in accordance with subsection (d) of section 332, or oral testimony, of at least two such witnesses for each place of residence. (h) Notwithstanding the provisions of subsections (f) and (g) of this section, the requirements of subsection (a) of section 316 as to the petitioner’s residence, good moral character, attachment to the principles of the Constitution of the United States, and disposition toward the good order and happiness of the United States may be established by any evidence satisfactory to the naturalization court in those cases under subsection (b) of section 316 in which the alien has been absent 66 Stat. 257 from the United States because of his employment by or contract with the Government of the United States or an American institution of research, recognized as such by the Attorney General, or employment by an American firm or corporation engaged in whole or in part in the development of foreign trade and commerce of the United States or a subsidiary thereof, or employment by a public international organization in which the United States participates. (i) (1) A petitioner for naturalization who removes from the jurisdiction of the court in which his petition for naturalization is pending may, at any time thereafter, make application to the court for transfer of the petition to a naturalization court exercising jurisdiction over the petitioner’s place of residence, or to any other naturalization court if the petition was not required to be filed in a naturalization court exercising jurisdiction over the petitioner’s place of residence: Provided, That such transfer shall not be made without the consent of (he Attorney General, and of the court to which the petition is transferred. (2) Where transfer of the petition is authorized the clerk of court in which the petition was filed shall forward a certified copy of the petition and the original record in the case to the clerk of court to which the petition is transferred, and proceedings on the petition shall thereafter continue as though the petition had originally been filed in the court to which transferred, except that the court to which the petition is transferred may in its discretion, require the production of two credible United States citizen witnesses to testify as to the petitioner’s qualifications for naturalization since the date of such transfer.