Federal Government Turns Genealogy Into a Money Making Venture

The Federal Government reports that they received over 40,000 requests for genealogy information from the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS,) through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA,) so they have decided to turn it into a fee-for-service revenue generating department for the government coffers.

Some of the record groups that the USCIS will be able to search for a fee are:

• Naturalization Certificate Files (C-files) from September 27, 1906 to April 1, 1956
• Alien Registration Forms from August 1, 1940 to March 31, 1944
• Visa files from July 1, 1924 to March 31, 1944
• Registry Files from March 2, 1929 to March 31, 1944
• Alien Files (A-files) numbered below 8 million (A8000000) and documents therein dated prior to May 1, 1951

Index Searches and Record Copy Fees will run from $20.00 to $35.00.

Read about this new program on the USCIS website.



(genemisc)