Opposing the fee hike
Nobody with a functioning brain expects genealogy to be free.
Yeah, yeah, The Legal Genealogist knows there are those who think it should be free — that having to buy copies of birth, marriage and death certificates and court documents and government records is somehow “unfair” and some nameless faceless someone else should be paying for their hobby.
The rest of us are only too aware of the costs involved for a public office in supplying copies of records: the staff expenses in locating the record, the supplies and costs in sending it. And we’re willing to pay our fair share for the records we need.
But supplying essential records shouldn’t be a profit center, and it sure seems that a fee proposal by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) for records essential to our research as family historians is trying to do just that: raise revenue, not serve records.
And so I am joining the campaign to oppose the proposed nearly 500% hike in fees for USCIS genealogical records, now online at Records, Not Revenue.
Here’s the story.
USCIS records include things like Naturalization Certificate Files (C-files) from September 27, 1906 to April 1, 1956; Alien Registration Forms (AR-2) 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; and Alien Files (A-files) numbered below 8 million (A8000000) and documents therein dated prior to May 1, 1951.1
From 2008-2016, we could ask USCIS to search its records and tell us what it held with respect to our ancestors for a search fee of $20. If it found records, and we wanted a copy, it’d cost us $20 for a record from microfilm and $35 if the record was on paper.2
So, for example, if I wanted the four-page 1938 visa file for my grandfather’s sister, who returned to the United States from Germany, it would have cost $55: $20 for the record search and $35 for the record from paper. (It would have been at most $40 for, say, an alien registration file, the AR-2: $20 for the search, $20 for the record from microfilm.)
In 2016, USCIS raised those fees. An index search went to $65 and the record copies were the same — $65 from microfilm or on paper.3
So that 1938 visa file as of 2016 cost $130: $65 for the record search and $65 for the record itself.
Now USCIS proposes to vastly increase all records-related fees. To get a file under this proposal will cost — are you ready for this? — no less than $240 and more likely as much as $625.
The record search fee would be $240, and if the record had already been digitized, it would be provided without an additional fee. If the record was on paper however (and visa files are paper records), there would be an additional paper-record fee of $385, for a total of $625. (By the way, there’s no guarantee that a paper record digitized for person A would be considered as digitized for person B.)
That’s flatly outrageous.
First off, huge numbers of these records should be transferred — or at least a copy sent — to the National Archives and so should be available for research there at a much lower cost. They’re not, and there’s no indication as to why they’re not or when the restrictions will be lifted.
Second, there’s no explanation for the fee amount even for records entirely in the custody of USCIS: how is it justifying this enormous increase? It says — without specificity — that it’s “based on the average time to complete a request.”
In short, this smacks of revenue-raising, not record-serving. And that’s just plain wrong.
So… what can we do as genealogists?
Speak out.
We need to be heard, loud and clear on this issue. The entire community — whether our individual research requires access to USCIS records or not — needs to say this is frankly wrong. And we only have until December 16, 2019 to be heard.
Here’s the game plan:
First: read the proposed rule that changes the fees (it’s online at the Federal Register here, and the section on the fees in the Genealogy Program begins on page 587 here).
Second: Put together your thoughts about why this proposed fee hike is a bad idea. You can look at the Records, Not Revenue website for more information about this and ideas about what to include. You can also read the comments that have already been posted about this proposal at the online portal of the Federal Register here. Write it out and have it ready to upload (the comment system is online). Be sure to specifically mention that you’re commenting on the fees for the Genealogy Program.
Third: Post your comment to the online Federal Register comment system here. The reference number is DHS Docket No. USCIS-2019-0010 — make sure to follow all the instructions, and then check on the Federal Register portal comment page to be sure yours posted.
Fourth: Send a copy of your comments to the two United States Senators from your state and to the member of the House of Representatives for your district. You can get names and contact information for your Senators at Senate.gov and for your House member at House.gov.
Fifth and last: Recruit your fellow genealogists-librarians-historians-researchers-news media friends to join in. This impacts all researchers — and we need to stand together on this.
After you’ve commented, if you’d like to stay informed on this issue, you can sign up for updates at Records, Not Revenue.
As genealogists we do need to pay our fair share. When researchers require records, we can’t expect them to be free or for the costs to be paid by taxpayers not interested in our research.
But there’s a big difference between paying our fair share and creating a revenue stream.
We’re entitled to records… we shouldn’t be asked to fund a profit center.
We need to speak out.
Now.
The deadline for comments is December 16, 2019.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “Records, not revenue,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 21 Nov 2019).
SOURCES
- See “Historical Records Series Available From the Genealogy Program,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (https://www.uscis.gov/genealogy : accessed 20 Nov 2019). ↩
- See ibid., USCIS Genealogy Program. ↩
- See e.g. Judy G. Russell, “Heads up: fee hike coming,” The Legal Genealogist, posted 11 May 2016 (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : accessed 21 Nov 2019). ↩
Fees are outrageous. These records belong to us not the government to sell back to me. Our taxes paid for this and fees should be eliminated.
I don’t agree that fees should be eliminated. And actually our taxes DIDN’T pay for all these records. In many cases the fees paid by the people who had to file those documents in the first place paid for them. So I have no problem paying our fair share. It’s when that share isn’t fair at all that I get up in arms.
Thanks for your focus on this issue — I would love to be a fly on the wall to know the real reason for this.
However, if the record filing has already been paid for, what’s the justification for the (new) fees, if any?
But my more crucial question is why the USCIS and National Archives are simply not part of an expanded library idea, with mostly no additional fees for services? City and County etc libraries cost a lot of money to run and a lot of that is staff time. Further, in the USA we can join more or less an infinite number of library systems. From my home system and also if travelling to adjacent counties, I could check out hundreds of books at the same time, all for free.
Certainly it would be reasonable to limit the number of records searched for at a particular time and to also expect requests to take some time to be fulfilled, based on staff capacity.
Please don’t call me an idealist. I accept that this is a discussion for another time, and involves a high-level but also grassroots discussion about national priorities.
Thanks for your hard work!
It’d be enough to have historic federal records transferred to the National Archives.
Thanks very much for bringing this to our attention. I have commented on the Federal Register and registered my concern with my Congressional representative.
As a senior citizen with a fixed income, there is no way that I can pay such an fee–even if I definitely wanted the records.
I agree with you that paying a reasonable fee makes sense, because it does take a bit of time to locate and copy or scan records and get them to the requester. Also I agree that the proposed fee schedule is out of proportion to the work involved. I’ve already written and submitted my objection to the proposed fee hike–adding my belief that moving the documents to NARA would benefit both the government and the public, facilitating access to these records.
Thank you for adding your voice.
I agree that paying a reasonable fee makes sense, because of the time and talent it takes to locate, copy or scan, post online or mail, the requested records. However, a 500% increase on ANYTHING is not fair. The proposed fee schedule is totally out of proportion to the work involved, as stated above. Furthermore the documents researchers are requesting have probably already been donated or sold to the holding institution. Does it have the right to make such profits?
No, these are government records, not donated records. (That doesn’t justify the fee increase, but we need to keep the facts straight as we fight this.)
The increase in fees as proposed is a financial disincentive to people simply wishing to do research on family members. This a disservice to the public at these rates.
Don’t tell me — tell USCIS. The instructions are in the blog post.
I agree with the first poster. These are our records and other than postage and copy fees, no one has a right to charge anything for them. What is the real reason for this increase? Someone needs to line their pockets with our cash so they can purchase a bigger house? Or what?
Because of drastic reduction in costs of DNA sequencing, millions of citizens are now trying to trace their roots and as a country of immigrants, these proposed usurious increases will essentialy cut off an important source of family history from a majority of the voting public.
This requested increase indicates gross mismanagement of a government agency, Wholesale and cost effective, digitization and indexing, of these and similar records should be an agency goal, not this proposed, individual as requested, and high cost method being used today.
Don’t tell me — use the links in the blog post to tell USCIS! And then tell your Congressional representative and Senators!
Is there some reason why these records are not being scanned and preserved in digital form?
Clearly a database search is much cheaper that a manual search.
One word: money.
Have you tried requesting this information under a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request? The law allows the Federal Government to charge a fee that is directly connected to the time spent on the search and a per page duplication cost that is usually quite reasonable (.10 – .20 cents per page).
https://www.dhs.gov/how-submit-foia-or-privacy-act-request-department-homeland-security
USCIS is now taking the position that you MUST use the Genealogy Program for these records and may not request them under FOIA.
FYI – The deadline to comment has been extended. The Federal Register website now shows, “Due Dec 30 2019, at 11:59 PM ET.”
Yup. Check tomorrow’s blog for an update.
Need records, they are public records and it is our relatives who fought for country and put their lives on the line. therefore we should be allowed to access them at a reasonable price. It is outrageous to have to pay an exorbitant prices for these when we all pay taxes.
Don’t tell me — tell USCIS (directions on how to do that are in the post).
My aged mother recently lost her Permanent Resident (“Green”) ID card. Replacing via USCIS involves a lengthy form submittal and a shocking $540 upfront fee. And, the instructions for the form state the fee is non-refundable no matter their decision! So I’m not surprised at this increase at all.
It’s certainly not a surprise that this Administration is trying to hike immigration- and naturalization-related fees. It makes you wonder if it’s including the genealogy fees just as cover for the other hikes…
This is a poorly disguised attempt to halt public access to government records. Open records is so important to our democracy and of course, genealogists. Ask your local and state genealogy society to contact your congressional representatives as well as contacting them yourself.
Make sure you comment on the USCIS proposal and not just here!