What’s a Freely Associated State?

A Freely Associated State (FAS) is a small, independent country that grants the United States authority and responsibility for its national security in rough exchange for military protection.

Citizens of the Freely Associated States are not U.S. citizens; they are citizens of their own nations.

Three Pacific Island nations have signed Compacts of Free Association (COFAs) with the United States: (1) the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI), (2) the Republic of Palau and (3) the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM).

COFA citizens do not need a visa to live or work in the United States, but they lack easy access to U.S. citizenship when they move. Compact citizens living in the US face challenges green-card holders do not face, and pathways to citizenship afforded to immigrants from non-Compact nations is not given to Compact immigrants.

As the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Natural Resources noted during a 2023 hearing, the foundation of the free association relationships is “the strategic importance of the Pacific Islands to U.S.-led global security.”

The Republic of the Marshall Islands is home to a premier U.S. military facility, the Ronald Reagan Ballistic Missile Defense Test Site on Kwajalein Atoll, where the U.S. regularly conducts intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) testing and space surveillance activities.  In the FSM, the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is seeking a location for U.S. Air Force Agile Combat Employment operations. Palau is the site of a highly advanced radar with surveillance capabilities vital to U.S. regional interests.

These countries are members of the United Nations and conduct their own foreign policy, but the U.S. may overrule their government priorities if deemed inconsistent with U.S. defense policy (the “defense veto”).  The U.S. may also deny access of critical water and air rights of COFA nations to the military forces of other nations (the “right of strategic denial”), a denial that can be meaningful given the location of COFA nations in a geopolitically strategic part of the Pacific.

The three countries receive limited financial aid from the U.S. and qualify for circumscribed U.S. federal programs often related to U.S. presence within their borders, such as the U.S. Postal Service and U.S. Coast Guard patrols.

The freely associated states are ineligible for safety net programs found in U.S. territories such as Medicaid, Medicare, nutrition assistance, and Social Security.  FAS citizens currently lack any access to veterans health care in their home countries even though U.S. veterans health services are authorized in the Philippines and many COFA citizens have served in the U.S. armed forces.

Current compact agreements between the U.S. and the Freely Associated States were renewed in 2024.  At that time, financial support to each nation and the continuation of some federal programs was renegotiated. U.S. military authority in each FAS, however, was not discussed; the arrangement in which the U.S. assumes national security rights and responsibilities for each FAS nation is an inherent component of free association.

A Freely Associated State cannot unilaterally set the terms of its U.S. agreement or make it permanent. Nor can a FAS compel the U.S. to sign – or fund – any particular agreement. U.S. financial commitments to Palau in a 2010 COFA renewal remained unfunded by the U.S. government until 2018.  Like all international agreements, either nation can terminate the association.

If it were to become a Freely Associated State, Puerto Rico would have to negotiate the terms of its relationship with the U.S. without the benefit of a Resident Commissioner or any other representation within the U.S. Congress.

There is no guarantee that Puerto Rico and the U.S. would be able to agree on on the terms and sign a COFA. Under any agreement, however, COFA precedents is clear that access to U.S. citizenship and federal financial support would be lost, and U.S. military presence in Puerto Rico would increase.

If the sovereign nation of Puerto Rico were unable to negotiate acceptable terms with the U.S., its only recourse would be to refuse the FAS relationship while remaining an independent country. The two countries could then establish other international bilateral agreements. The close relationship that exists today would be severed, and U.S. citizenship would be in severe jeopardy and eventually lost.

Read more about Free Association:

• FAS are Foreign Countries with “Complete Independence.”

Ambassador Joseph Yun, who served as Special Presidential Envoy for Compact Negotiations and led U.S. deliberations with the Federated States of Micronesia and the Republics of the Marshall Islands and Palau, has explained that the Freely Associated States are “complete[ly] independent” and “foreign” countries.

• FAS Residents Do Not Have Birthright U.S. Citizenship.

A Foreign Minister of a Freely Associated State testified before Congress that there cannot be overlapping U.S. citizenship in the FAS as the relationship is between two “totally independent nations.”  Constitutional scholars and U.S. officials agree that U.S. citizenship cannot be assured if Puerto Rico were to become a sovereign nation.

• A Compact of Free Association is Based on U.S. Military Authority.

U.S. military presence is permanent but economic help is temporary, and Congress can end it.  The FAS have expressed concern about US abandonment and neglect and that the United States does not take their non-defense concerns seriously.

• COFA Citizens Lack Equal Rights With U.S. Citizens.

There are different rules for COFA citizens when they move to the United States, and FAS citizens who move to a state or U.S. territory can find themselves disadvantaged:

• • • Access to U.S. citizenship takes longer for COFA migrants and is more cumbersome than for immigrants to the U.S.
    • U.S. Migrants from Freely Associated States Concerned About Deportation
    • Natural Disasters Cause Extra Hardship for US Residents from the Freely Associated States
    • FAS Citizens Struggle in Guam after Typhoon Mawar
    • Access to Federal Benefits by COFA Citizens Living in the U.S. Stripped in 1996 Law
    • U.S. Citizens Prioritized over FAS Migrants for Guam Housing

• A Potential COFA with Puerto Rico Would Have Inherent Risks.

Compacts of Free Association have been described as ““obscure treat[ies]” that result in poverty and homelessness.”  Puerto Rico’s history and current situation  are different from that of the Freely Associated States, and there are substantial risks if Puerto Rico were to become a Freely Associated State.

• Healthcare Services under Free Association are Minimal.

Territories receive much more generous health benefits than Freely Associated States.

• The Legal Reality of Free Association has Limits.

In Free Association arrangements, either side can change the deal. A Republic of Puerto Rico cannot, for example, guarantee permanent U.S. citizenship.   See how the law works.

• The Enduring Legacy of “Commonwealth” Cannot Be Easily Repackaged in Free Association.

Is it possible to repackage a rejected “enhanced commonwealth” status as “free association”?  See how the federal government has responded to efforts to relabel “enhanced commonwealth” as “Free Association.”