The United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has proposed a substantial fee hike to access millions of historical immigration records held exclusively by its genealogy program.
Please join us for a webinar to better understand the USCIS genealogy program; the issues related to access, transparency, and efficiency; and how you can help. Rich Venezia, Renée Carl, and Marian Smith of Records Not Revenue will provide an overview of the valuable records held by USCIS; explain the proposed fee hike USCIS announced; and guide the NYG&B community to help make a difference.
About the Presenters
Rich Venezia lives in Philadelphia and specializes in 20th-century immigration research. He also coordinates week-long genealogical research classes about immigration records with fellow presenter Marian Smith. A records access advocate, he founded Records Not Revenue in 2019.
Renée Carl is a professional genealogist based in Washington, D.C. Renée and Rich worked on two seasons of PBS' Genealogy Roadshow together, and when Rich founded Records Not Revenue, he recruited Renée to tap into her public policy and advocacy background to provide policy guidance.
Marian Smith led the History Program within the Records Division of USCIS in Washington, D.C., for several decades. Her most recent work focused on digitization and data integrity in relation to USCIS’ old records and documenting old record location and retrieval processes. Marian joined this merry band of records access advocates to help ensure continued access to the records she spent decades bringing to light.