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CHRONOLOGY 1790 Congress establishes uniform rule of naturalization, imposing a two-year residency for aliens who are “free white persons of good moral character.” 1802 Congress revises 1790 Act to require a five-year residency and that naturalizing citizens renounce allegiance and fidelity to foreign powers. 1819 Congress requires shipmasters to deliver a manifest enumerating all aliens transported for immigration and requiring secretary of state to inform Congress of the numbers. For the first time, an official count of legal immigrants is kept. 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo guarantees citizenship to Mexicans remaining in the territory ceded by Mexico to the United States. Treaty sets the first base for the flow of Mexicans to the United States and provides base for future legal and undocumented immigration forging the first link in “chain migration” from Mexico. 1855 Castle Garden becomes New York’s port of entry for legal immigration. The volume of immigration sets the stage for later development of “visa overstayers” who remain because such extensive numbers overwhelms the ability of immigration authorities to keep track of them. 1862 Congress passes Homestead Act, granting acres of free land to settlers who develop land in frontier regions and remain on it for five years, spurring high levels of immigration.