Hikes announced on genealogy fees
Ouch ouch ouch.
The fee hikes proposed way last year on genealogically valuable records held by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) have been finalized and announced and…
Ouch ouch ouch.
Even though The Legal Genealogist figured this was coming, and even though the hikes are less than originally proposed, it’s still a major league ouch.
Effective 60 days from the publication of the new fee schedule in today’s edition of the Federal Register — so 60 days from today (and that will be October 2, 2020) — we’re going to have to pay a lot more for genealogy records from USCIS.
The smallest of the fee hikes — for a records search request made using the online request system — will be 95 percent. The biggest — for a copy of a paper record — is more than 300 percent.
Ouch ouch ouch.
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.
The USCIS proposal announced last November was ghastly: “The fee (for a record search) would increase from $65 to $240, an increase of $175 (269 percent increase). The fee for (a paper record) would increase from $65 to $385, an increase of $320 (492 percent).”4
The rule — published today — is better, but still appalling:
• For a record index search request made via online filing, the current fee of $65 will go to $160, a 95 percent increase. This is mitigated by the fact that it will include a copy of any record located that is stored in digital format.
• For a record index search request made by mail or other non-online means, the current fee of $65 will go to $170, a 162 percent increase. This will also be mitigated by the inclusion of a copy of any record located that is stored in digital format.
• For a Genealogy Records Request made via online filing, the current fee of $65 will go to $255, a 292 percent increase.
• For a Genealogy Records Request made by mail or other non-online means, the current fee of $65 will go to $265, a 308 percent increase.5
And — sigh — the only time any of these fees is refundable is if the agency tells us it has a record in response to an index search and tells us it’s held on paper and, when we ask for it, they can’t find it.6 But in all other cases, say if we make a records search request and it results in a report that no records were found, we don’t get our money back even if the reason why no records were found is that it was a lousy job by a distracted employee.
I’d love to say there was some wiggle room here, that USCIS demonstrated some real concern for genealogical research. Nope. The agency went through all of the major criticisms of its proposal and basically backhanded the arguments with a “hey we reduced the proposal, kwitcherbitchin.”7
And, of course, between the way the proposal is structured and the time it takes to get a response to an index search request — months even without a pandemic — the only part of this fee increase we can beat is getting a record copy request in now, and to do that we’d have to have already made and received the results of an index request (since we need that info to make a record copy request). We can’t beat this by filing an index request now. Yeah, we can file that for $65 now, but we won’t get a copy of any digitally-stored record that’s found for that price. We won’t get what we need to make the record request until well after October and then to ask for just the record would add another $255. So if we haven’t got the info we need to make a record request yet, we’re better off waiting until October.
Bottom line: prepare to pay more — much more — for genealogical records held by USCIS.
And prepare for the fight we’re all going to have to launch to get more records turned over faster to the National Archives.
Ouch ouch ouch.
Cite/link to this post: Judy G. Russell, “USCIS fees: ouch ouch ouch,” The Legal Genealogist (https://www.legalgenealogist.com/blog : posted 3 Aug 2020).
SOURCES
- See “Historical Records Series Available From the Genealogy Program,” U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (https://www.uscis.gov/genealogy : accessed 3 Aug 2020). ↩
- 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 2 Aug 2020). ↩
- Genealogy Requests, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Fee Schedule and Changes to Certain Other Immigration Benefit Request Requirements, 84 FR 62280 at 62343 (14 Nov 2019) (emphasis added). ↩
- See Table 1—Non-Statutory IEFA Immigration Benefit Request Fees, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Fee Schedule and Changes to Certain Other Immigration Benefit Request Requirements, 85 FR 46788 at 46792 (3 Aug 2020) (emphasis added). ↩
- Ibid., 85 FR 46919. ↩
- See Ibid., 85 FR 46834-46838. ↩
Who is leading that fight to get records turned over to NARA quicker?
Just a note – I found some naturalization files on familysearch recently that had not been there the last time I looked a couple of years ago. As we all know – check and check back again in databases. But no a-files, sigh.
Theresa, unfortunately, A-Files likely won’t be digitized anytime soon. They will hopefully all one day make their way to the National Archives, though, where they’ll be easier to access than in their current state.
Records Not Revenue, who led the campaign to get as many public comments on the fee hike as possible, will soon be providing information about how to get involved to push for transfer of USCIS’ records to NARA. Our official statement is below:
Records Not Revenue is dismayed at the astronomical fee hikes that will be imposed by USCIS for obtaining copies of historical records via the USCIS Genealogy Program. Many of the records held by the USCIS Genealogy Program should already be available at the National Archives, and we call upon USCIS and NARA to create and make public a plan to transfer the historical records and their associated indices, as soon as possible.
As of October 2, 2020, researchers will pay a minimum of $160 to initiate a records request, and pay up to $415 total to obtain certain historical records. USCIS will also impose additional fees if the requests are made by mail.
You can view the final rule in its entirety on the Federal Register at: https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/08/03/2020-16389/us-citizenship-and-immigration-services-fee-schedule-and-changes-to-certain-other-immigration.
In the coming days, Records Not Revenue will update its website with additional information on fees, how all the different permutations of fees will impact researchers, and HOW YOU CAN HELP. Stay tuned.
–Records Not Revenue
https://www.recordsnotrevenue.com/
The link to the rule is also in the original blog post… Just sayin’ …
Is there any way to know which records are more likely to be digital vs. paper? If I’m reading this correctly, the advantage to waiting to submit an index search is that it will include a digital copy of the record if available in that format. If we knew the record is likely to be paper, then would it make more sense to submit the index search now while it is less expensive? The key, of course, is knowing if there is any rhyme or reason to what may be digital or paper.
We certainly DO have an idea which ones are digitally stored — but remember, you will still need the USCIS indexing system number (and that’s generally not the number on the document itself) to actually request a document now. But, with a tip of the hat to Marian Smith, Alien Registration Forms 1940-1944 and Certificate Files (C-files) below 6.5 million (1906-ca. 1945). All others remain in hard copy, including C-files above 6.5 million (ca. 1945-1956), as well as the “lower” C-files that were unavailable at time of microfilming, OR were re-opened after microfilming (a paper file holds the later-generated paper); Visa Files; Registry Files; and A-Files below 8 million.