New legislation in Washington aims to give American Samoans a more affordable and streamlined process to US citizenship.
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People born in American Samoa are considered US Nationals under US federal law, and must meet stringent requirements if they want to become US citizens.
Among the requirements is that the person spend some time in a US state, pay a huge fee and pass a civics test.
Now the territory's US congresswoman, Aumua Amata, has introduced a bill that seeks to waive the residency requirements and civics tests, to have the citizenship tests administered in American Samoa and to allow for fees to be reduced in cases of economic hardship.
