United States Department of State (Foreign Affairs Manual)
Applies the ruleThe Department's internal guidance to consular officers, carrying at 9 FAM 402.9 the rules on treaty traders and investors, including the statement that a bilateral investment treaty may be a qualifying treaty of commerce and navigation for the purposes of INA 101(a)(15)(E).
The body that applies the rule and decides applications. It publishes what it requires, which is authoritative about its own practice but is not the text of the law.
fam.state.govCannot be cited for
It must not be cited as law. It is guidance to officers, it is revised by change transmittal without notice, and it confers no rights on an applicant. It must also not be cited for what it does not address: the section on treaty traders and investors says nothing about how an applicant acquired the treaty country's nationality, and that silence is an absence in the guidance rather than a ruling that investment citizens qualify. Nor for the regulations it implements, which are at 22 CFR 41.51.
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