The U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) Genealogy Program is a fee-for-service program that provides researchers with access to historical immigration and naturalization records of deceased immigrants. USCIS has proposed significant price increases to the fees required to access their records — with some increases as high as 269%. These unique records are vital to professional genealogists, and the proposed rate increase will negatively impact our ability to do our jobs.
APG will be issuing a formal statement on this issue soon, but before then, we encourage our members and the genealogy community to learn more about the proposed fee increase at https://www.recordsnotrevenue.com/.
USCIS is seeking public comments over the next month, and it is important that your voice is heard! The most effective comments will be those that speak directly to the impact such fee increases would have on you and your business. Records Not Revenue has posted “comment starters” to help you prepare to think about your statement: https://www.recordsnotrevenue.com/comment-starters/. The deadline for comments is March 6th!