What is a Declaration of Intent or DOI? Did everyone immigrating to the US have one?
A Declaration of Intent in this context, represents the first step in the naturalization process. Immigrants in the US who wished to become US citizens had to go to their local court and file a Declaration of Intention to become a US citizen. That document had to be on file for at least two years, and they had to live in the US for at least five years, before they could take the next step. The second step toward citizenship was filing a Petition for Naturalization with their local court (if they had moved since filing the Declaration, this could be a different court). The judge then either granted or denied the petition, thus granting or denying US citizenship. There was and is no requirement that immigrants naturalize as US citizens, thus there was no requirement that all immigrants file a declaration of intent. Many immigrants did file declarations–many more, in fact, than actually became citizens.
