U.S. National Status and Veterans Benefits in American Samoa

American Samoa is the one place under the U.S. flag where birth does not confer citizenship. A person born in the territory is a U.S. national and not a U.S. citizen, under 8 U.S.C. 1408, and carries a U.S. passport that says so on its endorsement page. The territory also has one of the highest rates of military enlistment of any state or territory, so a great many U.S. nationals are veterans. What that status does not affect: VA benefits. Disability compensation, health care, the GI Bill, home loans, and burial benefits turn on military service and character of discharge. None of this catalog’s federal entries has a citizenship gate, and a U.S. national veteran is eligible on the same terms as a citizen veteran. What it does affect: voting in federal elections, some federal employment paths, and sponsoring relatives for immigration. Naturalization is available, and military service is the fastest route to it. 8 U.S.C. 1439 covers naturalization through one year of honorable service in the armed forces, and 8 U.S.C. 1440 covers naturalization through active duty service during a designated period of hostilities, with several of the ordinary requirements relaxed. Many American Samoan service members naturalize while serving. Now the thing worth being careful about, because it is easy to get backwards. A veteran of American Samoan ancestry who naturalizes does not lose territorial veterans preference. The definition of preference eligible at Code 7.0202(b) is "a U.S. national of American Samoan ancestry," and 8 U.S.C. 1101(a)(22) defines a national of the United States as either a citizen of the United States or a person who, though not a citizen, owes permanent allegiance to the United States. Every citizen is a national. Naturalizing moves you from the second half of that definition to the first and leaves you inside it. The limit that actually bites is ancestry. Code 7.0202(b) reaches veterans of American Samoan ancestry, and a veteran without it is outside the statutory preference no matter which passport they hold. The personnel rule at Administrative Code 4.0307 is written differently, as "a U.S. citizen or a U.S. national of American Samoa ancestry," which read literally admits a citizen veteran with no Samoan ancestry. Those are not the same test, and no published summary of American Samoa veterans benefits mentions the ancestry requirement in either form. That preference also sits inside a career service that is itself limited. Code 7.0205(b) provides that any person entering the career service shall be a resident of American Samoa and either an American Samoan or an American national at the time of entry, with an exception when no resident meeting the minimum qualifications for the class of work can be found. A veteran moving to the territory should understand that rule before counting on government employment. The same distinction runs through the rest of territorial law, and it is a good habit to read these clauses slowly. Territorial student financial aid at Code 16.2507 is open to a United States national, a United States citizen, an American Samoan as defined in 41.0202, or a permanent resident of American Samoa, listing all four because here those are four different things. American Samoa Community College’s veterans policy extends resident tuition to eligible GI Bill users who are not U.S. citizens or nationals, a sentence that would be meaningless in any state. None of this changes a VA claim. It changes who may be hired, who may be preferred, and what a form is asking when it asks for your status.