Update on USCIS Genealogy Program

Today is the first day for using the online fee for service program at the US Citizenship and Immigration Service. Actually, online may be a little of a misnomer as you still must make your Genealogy Requests via mail. 

An index search for an ancestor will cost you $20.00 and the form to make such a request will be Form G-1041 available on the website. The USCIS will look through a variety of indices and will list all that pertain to your ancestor. You can fill the form out online but you will need to print it, as you cannot save it to your computer.

If your ancestor’s birth date is less than 100 years prior to the date you make the request, you must attach proof of death. Payment must accompany each request. If you already have a valid USCIS file number, you may skip the index search and make a record copy request.

Again, payment must be sent in with your request. Note: There will be NO refunds, should you submit invalid or non-existent file number.

The fee is $20 when taken from a microfilm copy and $35.00 when taken from an existing hard copy. Below are the types of records available.

1. Naturalization Certificate Files (C-Files) from September 27, 1906 to April 1, 1956 

2. Alien Registration Forms from August 1, 1940 to March 31, 1944 

3. Visa Files from July1, 1924 to March 31, 1944 

4. Registry Files from March 2, 1929 to March 31, 1944 

5. Alien Files (A-files) numbered below 8 million and documents therein dated prior to May 1, 1951.

To make a genealogy request via mail you will use Form G-1041A. Both Form G -1041 and Form G -1041A should be mailed to the address below for processing. 

 USCIS Genealogy Program

 PO Box 805925 

Chicago, IL 60680-4120

Go to the USCIS website for complete details on this new service. No word on how long you can expect the process to take. No word either, on the status of my request. My hunch – it’s in limbo.

© 13 August 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

Sorry, My Moron Filter Slipped

Occasionally, the “moron” filter in my brain slips and I have a major dumb attack. (Oh yes, it happens. Ask my spouse, or my children, or my boss, or, well you get the idea.) I’d tell you how my “fame” has made me all narcissistic and self-centered but wait, that approach was recently used.

Ditto if I’d tell you that nobody is beating me up more than I am beating myself. (Gees, politicians are making all of us sound disingenuous,) I have no real excuse or explanation for my little error, except to say some things tend to slip right past me. Okay, maybe a lot of things slip right past me. Last week at the start of my 7 Days, 7 Requests efforts, I wrote about sending for the Alien Registration Form of my great grandparents. Well, and this has been out there on the USCIS (US Citizenship and Immigration Service) website since at least June, starting tomorrow, August 13, the USCIS will offer a fee-for-service program in which family historians can request copies of a variety of immigration and naturalization records online including, wait for it, Alien Registration Forms. 

Now the USCIS is not necessarily the easiest site to navigate, so I can possibly be forgiven for not catching this soon to be service notice, but Juliana Smith of Ancestry’s “24-7 Family History Circle” reported this on August 1, BEFORE, my brilliant brainstorm. 

Juliana Smith’s blog is one that I have in my Google Reader, and I read it faithfully, except apparently I missed that one. My only excuse is that August 1 happens to be the day that I spent a mind numbing 7 hours playing Klutz paper dolls with my favorite 8 year old granddaughter (as opposed to my favorite 13 year old granddaughter who prefers shopping to paper doll playing). 

It took me several days to recover. I still wouldn’t have caught it except that Juliana did another post on August 10 entitled, “Ten Places to Find Immigrant Origins,” which mentioned among other things, the new online program by USCIS. The post is filled with lots of good information that I think many of you can use. I know I sure could have used it.

I’m guessing that my own little request will end in one of three ways. 

1. Nothing will happen. I mean literally nothing, and I will be all like “dum de dum,” waiting for information that never arrives. This is the worst-case scenario.

2. I will get my nifty little envelopes back with the federal speak version of “Idiot! Do this over and do it the correct way!”

3. I will get my information but it will take me a whole lot longer than any of you using the new online system, at which point, feel free to tell me how fast you received your information. Go ahead; twist the knife in my heart. 

I will keep you posted as to which of the three scenarios turns out to be the winner. Now, I’ll just go somewhere and hide my head in shame. Hey, maybe I can blame my error on a wide stance. What, that excuse has been used, too.

© 12 August 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder 

7 Days, 7 Requests - Immigration Files

On September 12 of 1906, my great grandfather, Leo Schrader, signed a Declaration of Intention stating that he intended to become a citizen of the United States. Five months earlier, Leo, his wife, Emma and his two young sons, Willi and Max had disembarked from the SS Amerika at Ellis Island. The declaration was the first in a series of steps leading to US Citizenship.

 

Changes made on September 27, 1906 may have created impediments to Leo’s completing the naturalization process. As far as we know, this is where Leo’s path to citizenship ended.

 In 1940, with the threat of global conflict, the Alien Registration Act of 1940 was enacted. It required registration and fingerprinting of all aliens 14 years old and older. Almost 5 million people were registered and fingerprinted at their local post office from August 27, 1940 to December 26, 1940. As a direct result of the bombing of Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, President Roosevelt issued a proclamation requiring further registration of all aliens, fourteen and older, from enemy nations – Germany, Italy and Japan. 

Leo and Emma were among those required to register in the month of February 1942. Information on the 1940 form included:

1. Name (maiden names for females as well as any other names the individual had used) 

2. Current Address

3. Birth date and Birth place

4. Country of Claimed Citizenship 

5. Marital Status, Sex and Race 

6. Physical Characteristics 

7. Information on the last port of arrival in the US

8. Length of time in the US 

9. Occupation 

10. Membership in clubs and organizations 

11. Any Previous Military or Naval Service 

12. Names of relatives living in the US

13. Any arrests 

14. Any political affiliations in past 5 years 

While Leo and Emma were required to register twice, it is important to know that if your ancestor was living in the US in 1940 and was not a US citizen, he or she would have been required to fill out an Alien Registration form regardless of their country of origin. If that is the case, there is a file out there waiting for you to view. The request must be made in writing and to the US Citizenship and Immigration Services. 

Taken from the USCIS website, you will find the four steps needed to make the request: 

1. On your written request, include a daytime phone number so that we may contact you. Fees in searching, copying and reviewing records may apply, see below. 

2. Provide as much information as possible on the subject matter. This will help expedite the search process. 

3. Verification of Identity, Guardianship, Accompanying Persons, and Amendment requests are requirements for making a request for records of a personal nature. Requests for disclosure of records on individuals other than yourself require consent or proof of death. 

4. Mail requests for USCIS records to the National Records Center, FOIA/PA Office, P. O. Box 648010, Lee’s Summit, MO 64064-8010. 

The USCIS website goes on to state: 

 Requests are deemed to constitute an agreement to pay any applicable fees that may be chargeable up to $25.00 without notice. Most requests do not require any fees; however, if fees exceed $25.00, we will notify you beforehand. Do not submit fees with initial requests. 

You can download and use a form G-639 to make the request. Because my great grandparents are deceased, I had to furnish proof of death, which for Leo was an obituary and for Emma a copy of her death certificate. I requested their complete immigration file, including but not limited to their alien registration forms. The requests went out in yesterday’s mail. Two letters, two requests – Boo Yah!

©  5 August 2008, Desktop Genealogist Unplugged, Teresa L. Snyder