Background
July 1, 1924, was the effective date of the Immigration Act of 1924. That law required all arriving immigrants to present a visa when applying for admission. Immigrants applied for the visas at U.S. Embassies and Consulates abroad, and the State Department issued visa documents to approved immigrants before they departed for the United States.
Upon arrival, Immigrant Inspectors at the ports of entry collected “visa packets” from arriving immigrants and filed them in one of two ways: NON-Immigrant visas were filed temporarily at the ports of entry and were later destroyed. Immigrant (i.e., permanent admission) visas were sent to the Central Office in Washington for filing. At the Central Office, the visas were arranged by date and port of arrival, stamped with a unique Visa File number (see Record Request Issues, below), and indexed by name, date of birth, and place of birth. Beginning April 1, 1944, all new visas were filed in A-Files and the Visa Files series closed.
Between July 1, 1924 and March 31, 1944, Visa Files were the official arrival records of immigrants admitted for permanent residence. As such, they were used on a daily basis for verification of arrival for naturalization and other purposes. Passenger lists and border port manifests remained the official record of non-immigrant admissions in those years.
The Files Today
The Visa Files series was retired to storage in 1952, and consists of more than 3.1 million paper files filling nearly 7,000 boxes. The agency routinely retrieves Visa Files from storage in response to applications for naturalization or other benefits, Freedom of Information Act requests, and Genealogy requests.
Researchers should note that if an immigrant’s case re-opened after April 1, 1944, the Visa File may have been removed from the series and placed inside an A-File or a C-File (files consolidation). If the consolidation occurred between 1944 and 1975, the index will only refer to the A-File or C-File. If the consolidation took place since 1975 the Genealogy Program will perform additional steps to identify the file containing the visa packet (see Record Request Issues, below).
Research Value
Visa Files are among the most valuable immigration records for genealogical research. The application form itself contains the immigrant’s complete name, date of birth, and place of birth, as well as the names of his/her parents. Also on the form will the immigrant’s address(es) for the five-year period prior to emigration.
Of most value to many researchers is the photograph on the front of the visa packet. Attached to the visa application are vital records required by the Immigration Act of 1924. In most cases these include a certified copy of a birth certificate, health certificate, and police or “moral” certificate (the results of a record check done by the authorities in the old country). Some visas include marriage certificates, military service records, affidavits of support, or correspondence. When the birth record is absent there is usually an affidavit explaining the absence of official or church records and offering the testimony of an individual in a position to know the circumstances of the immigrant’s birth.
Index Search Issues
The most common problem in searching for Visa Files involves the immigrant’s name. Many Visa Files relate to immigrants who did not naturalize and so there is no index cross-reference to an alias or Americanized name. As a result the file remains indexed under the name of the immigrant upon arrival (i.e., the old country name). Researchers who have found the passenger list or manifest record of an immigrant arriving after July 1, 1924, should always provide the name as it appears on that arrival record. All requesters should provide all possible name variations or spellings.
Record Request Issues
Traditionally, the only Visa File record retrieval problem occurred when the immigrant’s case re-opened after 1975, the visa packet was consolidated into an A-File, and it was impossible to update the microfilmed index. Solving this problem involved performing a few additional steps.
The Genealogy Program may experience an additional problem with Visa Files if researchers try to submit Record Requests without a prior Index Search Request. As noted above, the agency assigned unique Visa File numbers after the immigrant arrived. Thus the Visa File number did not appear on the visa at any time while in the immigrant’s possession. Rather, since issuance the visa bore a number assigned by the Department of State (DOS). The DOS visa number may also appear on a ship passenger manifest under the column heading “Immigration Visa Number.” This is not the USCIS Visa File number, yet some researchers may mistakenly think the number on the passenger list is the number of the immigrant’s Visa File.
Visa Files may include documents containing personal information about other persons (called "third parties") who may still be living, such as the immigrant's children, other family, or neighbors. For example, if the immigrant had minor children living at the time of immigration they will be listed on one page of the four-page application. A document containing third party personal information is not releasable outside the Freedom of Information (FOIA) process, so some records recieved from the Genealogy Program may have some information redacted.
Where do I find a Visa File number?
Visa File numbers are not available outside USCIS (see Record Request Issues, above). To identify a Visa File number submit a Genealogy Index Search Request on form G-1041.
