Immigration Files (Government Records Series, Part 8)

“We are all the product of things we’ve never seen and people we never met. In fact, if just one little detail had been changed in their lives, we may not even exist!” – Melanie Johnston

Did you know that you can order immigration files for your ancestors from the government?

I didn’t know this either until I was doing some of my own genealogy research a few months ago. I was looking for information about my 2^nd great-grandmother, Anna Fedczak, and came across the history and genealogy webpage on the U.S Citizenship and Immigration Services website (www.uscis.gov/genealogy ). If you are interested in obtaining an immigration record for your ancestor, this post will explain the process of using the genealogy feature of the USCIS website.

There are two options when ordering an immigration file on the USCIS website. There is an index search and a record search. If you know the exact file number for your immigrant, you may go ahead and submit a record search. However, it is not likely that you will have this information. So, if you do not have a file number, you must request an index search before requesting the record.

Results from index search will tell you whether a records exists for your ancestor and the file number for the record(s). When clicking on the index search button, you will be prompted to first fill out requester information including your name, mailing address, and email. Then, you will fill out information pertaining to your immigrant. This will include their name, country of birth, and date of birth. After, you will enter information about where your ancestor resided in the United States and names of their close relatives, such as their spouse and names of children. There is also a section where you may include miscellaneous information about the individual, such as military service, date of naturalization, date of marriage, etc., to help with the search. Lastly, you will submit a payment of $65.00, which goes through the Department of Homeland Security. Your request will be assigned a case number and you may check the case status as your request is being handled. I submitted my index search request on May 17 and received the file number on June 3, 2019.

Then, on June 17 I submitted my record request. This part is easier because there is no further information that needs to be submitted other than the file number that you received. There is an additional $65.00 payment for the record search.

I expected to receive the record digitally through email, just as I had received the information pertaining to the index search.

This is where the process became a little confusing…I received a letter in the mail, about a week and a half after it was dated. The letter stated that USCIS Genealogy does not use the postal service any longer to send records. I received a confirmation number and a PIN number in this letter to register my case on a new website they are using, called ContactFIRST. I tried to input this information and it did not work. So, I emailed the address associated with ContactFIRST about my issue and they stated that the program will only give you several days to do this. If no response is recorded, the office will put the record onto a CD a mail it to you. This does not make sense because it does not give you much of a chance to receive it the mail, before closing the case and sending it to you on a CD.

I wanted to include this information because if you decide to request an immigration record from USCIS, be prepared to be patient and be prepared to deal with a little bit of red tape. Remember, it is the government and they are a little sluggish and a bit confusing J

The last page of Anna's immigration record.
You can see her signature and fingerprint at the
bottom.

So…I received my CD in mail on July 29. The record contained some great information, including a description of Anna. This was fun to read because I only have one black and white photo and it is extremely poor quality. The record said that she was 5’5, 124 pounds, and she had brown eyes and grayish-brown hair. There was a section which asked which organization and clubs that she’d been a member of while living in the United States and she responded, “Ukrainian National Society, 1925-Present”. This was very interesting as it was something I had not known beforehand. At the bottom of the last page of the document, her signature was written and there was a fingerprint of her right index finger!

The record was really fun to receive and I was very glad to learn some new information about my 2^nd great-grandmother.

The only disadvantages were the cost and the confusion with receiving the record.

However, I would still recommend ordering an immigration file if there is ancestor that you are particularly interested in learning more about!