UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION : CONSTITUTION ANNOTATED
During the eighteenth century and prior to American independence, the British Parliament passed laws that allowed certain foreign nationals to naturalize and become subjects if they met specific requirements under those laws. For instance, a 1709 law allowed the naturalization of foreign Protestants who took an oath of allegiance and paid a small fee.8 More significantly for the American colonies, in 1740, the British Parliament passed a law that uniformly provided for the naturalization of any foreign national residing in a British colony for at least seven years, effectively superseding the naturalization policies of the individual colonies.
image of Lady Liberty is from GraphicsFairy
