<P> The act excluded Chinese laborers from immigrating to the United States for ten years and was the first immigration law passed by Congress . Laborers in the United States and laborers with work visas received a certificate of residency and were allowed to travel in and out of the United States . Amendments made in 1884 tightened the provisions that allowed previous immigrants to leave and return, and clarified that the law applied to ethnic Chinese regardless of their country of origin . The act was renewed in 1892 by the Geary Act for another ten years, and in 1902 with no terminal date . It was repealed in 1943, although large scale Chinese immigration did not occur until 1965 . </P> <P> The Empire of Japan's State Department negotiated the so - called Gentlemen's Agreement in 1907, a protocol where Japan agreed to stop issuing passports to its citizens who wanted to emigrate to the United States . In practice, the Japanese government compromised with its prospective emigrants and continued to give passports to the Territory of Hawaii where many Japanese resided . Once in Hawaii, it was easy for the Japanese to continue on to Japanese settlements on the west coast if they so desired . In the decade of 1901 to 1910, 129,000 Japanese immigrated to the United States or Hawaii; nearly all were males and on five - year work contracts and 117,000 more came in the decades from 1911 to 1930 . How many of them stayed and how many returned at the end of their contracts is unknown but it is estimated that about one - half returned . Again this immigrant flow was at least 80% male and the demand for female Japanese immigrants almost immediately arose . This need was met in part by what are called "postcard wives" who immigrated to new husbands who had chosen them on the basis of their pictures (similar marriages also occurred in nearly all cultures throughout the female - scarce west). The Japanese government finally quit issuing passports to the Territory of Hawaii for single women in the 1920s . </P> <P> Congress also banned persons because of poor health or lack of education . An 1882 law banned entry of "lunatics" and infectious disease carriers . After President William McKinley was assassinated by an anarchist of immigrant parentage, Congress enacted the Anarchist Exclusion Act in 1901 to exclude known anarchist agitators . A literacy requirement was added in the Immigration Act of 1917 . </P> <P> In 1921 the United States Congress passed the Emergency Quota Act, which established national immigration quotas . The quotas were based on the number of foreign - born residents of each nationality who were living in the United States as of the 1910 census . </P>

Who control(s) the process by which immigrants become citizens