The Bureau of Immigration today, in view of existing misunderstanding regarding the new immigration law, explained certain features of the law, and the regulations issued there under, particularly respecting the procedure to obtain immigration visas for relatives exempt from the quota, and those relatives given preference within the quota.
Relatives totally exempt from quota restrictions are the wives and unmarried children, under eighteen years of age, of American citizens, also ministers of religion, college professors, their wives and unmarried children under eighteen, as well as bona fide students, at least fifteen years of age, seeking entry temporarily for the purpose of pursuing their education at government approved educational institutions.
The next class, which is not, however, exempt from the quota, but merely given first preference ahead of all other applicants, up to one half of each months quota, is comprised of children between eighteen and twenty-one, fathers, mothers, husbands or wives of American citizens, and also immigrants who are skilled in agriculture and their dependent children under sixteen.
The attention of the public is called to the fact that outside of the exceptions above mentioned, the only relatives entitled to exemption or preference, are those whose relatives in America are full-fledged citizens of this country, and that the relatives of mere declarants or immigrants are not entitled to any preference or any special privilege whatever.
As regards those immigrants who are entitled to preference within the quota, the quotas of the East European countries are so small that even the number of relatives who may be given preference by reason of earlier application will prove a very small number.
The procedure for obtaining immigration visas for exempt and
preferred relatives above specified is as follows:
Any citizen of the United States claiming that any immigrant is his relative, and that such immigrant is properly admissable to the United States as exempt, or is entitled to preference as a relative, may file with the Commissioner General a petition in a form prescribed by the Labor Department, stating: 1, the petitioner’s name and address; 2, if a citizen by birth, the date and place of his birth; 3, if a naturalized citizen, the date and place of his admission to citizenship and the number of his certificate, if any; 4, the name and address of his employer of the place of business or occupation if he is not an employee; 5, the degree of the relationship of the immigrant for whom such petition is made, and the names of all the places where such immigrant has resided prior to and at the time when the petition is filed; 6, that the petitioner is able to and will support the immigrant if necessary to prevent such immigrant form becoming a public charge.
This petition must be accompanied by the statements of two or more responsible citizens of the United States, to whom the petitioner has been personally known afro at least one year. The Department of Labor has published the form of petition to be used, and will send it by mail to any party requesting the same, and will not consider any other form of petition.
If the Commissioner General finds the facts stated in the petition to be true, and that the immigrant in respect of whom the petition is made is entitled to be admitted to the United States as a non-quota immigrant, or is entitled to preference as a relative, he shall, with the approval of the Secretary of Labor, inform the Secretary of State of his decision, and the Secretary of State shall then authorize the Consular officer with whom the application for the immigration visa has been filed to issue the immigration visa or grant the preference.
All other immigrants except those specified above as exempt or preferred need only apply directly for a visa to their nearest Consul abroad. Those of this non-exempt and non-preferred class do not need any papers from America. The preferred relatives, however in addition to writing their relatives in America to file the necessary petition in Washington, should immediately, without waiting for their American relative to take action, apply for a visa with the Consul as otherwise the quota may be filled by previous non-preferred applications.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
