first papers

American  

plural noun

Informal.

1. an official declaration of intention filed by a resident alien desiring to become a U.S. citizen: not required by law after 1952.

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Etymology

Origin of first papers

An Americanism dating back to 1910–15

Example Sentences

Laurence Kotlikoff, a Boston University economist, has known Summers since graduate school and coauthored one of the first papers Summers published in an academic journal.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

In 1980, one of Warren’s first papers as a full-time professor at the University of Houston took on one of the most divisive political issues of the time: utilities.

From Slate • Apr. 22, 2019

Ankita Patnaik, an economist at Mathematica Policy Research in Washington DC, authored one of the first papers studying QPIP.

From The Guardian • Jun. 15, 2018

Jurkowski, for one, started his lab in 2012 just before the first papers showing CRISPR–Cas9 genome editing in human cells were published.

From Nature • Dec. 1, 2015

I was not a neutral; my first papers of American citizenship were valueless to further my escape.

From With the Turks in Palestine by Aaronsohn, Alexander