Immigration Law

USCIS SETS UP GENEALOGY SERVICE

By Greg Siskind

This won't interest a lot of readers, but as an avid genealogy researcher, I'm really pleased to hear that USCIS is setting this up. There are instances where this may be useful as well for those trying to claim citizenship at birth and who need access to US immigration records for their parents and grandparents. Here are the records to be made available:

• Files of deceased subjects. (Provided files are defined as historical records.)
• Naturalization Certificate Files (C-Files) from 9/27/1906 to 4/1/1956
• Visa Files from 7/1/1924 to 3/31/1944 and Visa records from 3/31/1944 to 5/1/1951 in A-files.
• A-Files below 8 million and documents therein dated prior to 5/1/1951
• Registry Files from 3/2/1929 to 3/31/1944 and registry records from 4/1/1944 to 4/30/1951 in A-files.
• AR?2 Files from 8/1/1940 to 3/31/1944 and Alien Registration Forms from 3/31/1944 to 4/30/1951 in A-Files.

USCIS has not posted anything on their web site yet announcing they will accept information requests, but you can see the final rule here. Download uscis_geneaology_announcement.pdf

Full post as published by Greg Siskind's Blog on May 16, 2008 (boomark / email).