Labor Department Issues Regulations to Consuls on Immigration Relief

(Jewish Daily Bulletin)

Cabled instructions will be sent to consuls abroad whereby exemption from the quota will be granted to children who have passed twenty-one years of age provided they were under twenty-one when they applied for visas, it was learned following a conference yesterday by Congressman Dickstein with immigration officals.

The law as recently amended by Congress provided for the exemption of children of American citizens up to twenty-one, but was silent on the question of the status to be accorded those who applied before they became twenty-one but who since have passed their majority. The instructions will also require the consuls to grant priority in the order applications were filed and to issue visas first to parents and children, deferring visas to the wives of aliens until after parents and children have first been acted upon.

An order putting into immediate effect the relief measure for separated families was issued by Commissioner of Immigration Harry E. Hull and approved by Acting Secretary of Labor W. W. Husband.

Commissioner Hull’s order stated: “Subdivision 1 of Rule 3 is amended to read as follows:

“‘Subdivision 1-Non-quota Status Proof, Paragraph 1 – An unmarried child, under 21 years of age, or the wife of a citizen of the United States shall not be regarded as a non-quota immigrant unless provided with an immigration visa designating the holder as such, and then only when the citizenship of the alleged father or husband and his relationship to the immigrant are established to the satisfaction of the examining immigration officer.

“‘The husband of a citizen of the United States shall not be regarded as a non quota immigrant unless provided with an immigration visa designating the holder as such, and then only when the citizenship of the alleged wife and lawful marriage to her prior to June 1. 1928, are established to the satisfaction of the examining immigration officer.

“‘A woman seeking admission under Section 4 (f) of the Immigration act of 1924 as amended shall not be regarded as a non quota immigrant unless provided with an immigration visa designating the holder as such and unless she establishes to the satisfaction of the examining immigration officer her former American citizenship, the loss of same by marriage to an alien prior to Sept. 2, and the fact that she was unmarried at the time of making application for an immigration visa.'”