1.7.16 Residence requirements

No subordinate lodge shall receive a petition for the degrees of Freemasonry from an applicant who has not resided within the State for the period of one year, unless such petitioner shall belong to any branch of the Armed Forces of the United States, in which case the petitioner not subject to the usual residence requirements, shall give in the application form for the degrees, the names and addresses of three references as to character, who must be residents of the petitioner's legal residence.
See Decision Nos. 48, 59, 70.

Related Decisions

No. 48. Clarification Of Petition Categories

Decision: The provisions of Article VII, Sections 1.7.15 and 1.7.16 of the Constitution have no application to petitions for membership, and that the restrictions therein contained apply only in cases of petitions for degrees.

Constitution, Article VII, Sec. 1.7.15. 1.7.16. May 15, 1899. (Van Slyck, GM)

No. 59. Clarification Of Residence

Decision: The residence of a person referred to in the Constitution is his legal residence or domicile in exactly the same sense as that which determines his right to vote, and that a lodge cannot receive a petition, under Section 1.7.16 of Article VII of the Constitution, until the petitioner, having actually established his legal residence within this Grand Jurisdiction with the further qualification that he had resided in the State at least one year.

Constitution, Article VII, Sec. 1.7.16. May 18, 1908. (Armington, GM)

Amended November 17, 1979.

No. 70. Armed Forces Exemption

Decision: The exception noted in Article VII, Section 1.7.16. exempting members of the Armed Forces of the United States from the specific requirements of the Constitution as to the filing of petitions, does not apply to residents of Rhode Island.

Constitution, Article VII, Sec. 1.7.16. May 19, 1919. (Gross, GM)