I went on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Genealogy website and ordered an index search for Dominik Kowalski. The search is supposed to return all file numbers for the immigrant in question. My search returned a C-File number for Dominik, but no visa file number. The C-File includes a person's citizenship papers, such as the Declaration of Intention and Petition for Naturalization. I already had copies of these documents for Dominik, but I went ahead and ordered a copy of his C-File anyway, in the hopes that maybe some visa documents would be found in his there as well. I recently received Dominik's C-File documents from the USCIS, but unfortunately, no visa documents were included. I did, however, get a copy of his Certificate of Citizenship, which I did not previously have and which included a nice photo of him. I do have a couple of photos of him as a senior citizen, but this one was taken when he was much younger.
One of my paternal great-grandfathers, Dominik Kowalski, first came to America from Poland in 1912. HOWEVER, a few months ago, I found a couple of 1929 ship manifests in which Dominik is also listed. He is on a United Kingdom incoming passenger list from 14 Jun 1929, in which he is listed 'In transit to Gdynia." He returns to New York on 27 Aug 1929. It was a short trip back to Poland, and I noticed on the U.K. list that he was accompanied by a couple with the surname of Balicki, which was his wife's maiden name. (Click on images for larger versions.) So, why did he go back? Was he just accompanying some in-laws for the trip, or was there another purpose? Did a close family member pass away, perhaps? I may never figure out the answer, but since he was not yet a citizen in 1929 when he re-entered the country, a visa file should have been opened for him. (Between 1924 and 1944, visa files were created for every immigrant entering the U.S.) Visa files often contain more information that what is just simply listed in naturalization papers, so I was eager to obtain them, if indeed they did exist. I went on the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) Genealogy website and ordered an index search for Dominik Kowalski. The search is supposed to return all file numbers for the immigrant in question. My search returned a C-File number for Dominik, but no visa file number. The C-File includes a person's citizenship papers, such as the Declaration of Intention and Petition for Naturalization. I already had copies of these documents for Dominik, but I went ahead and ordered a copy of his C-File anyway, in the hopes that maybe some visa documents would be found in his there as well. I recently received Dominik's C-File documents from the USCIS, but unfortunately, no visa documents were included. I did, however, get a copy of his Certificate of Citizenship, which I did not previously have and which included a nice photo of him. I do have a couple of photos of him as a senior citizen, but this one was taken when he was much younger. So, while I didn't get any visa documents, going through the whole process was worth it for a copy of his Citizenship Certificate. I'm not sure why he didn't have a visa file - maybe it was because he had already been living successfully in the U.S. for 17 years, and had filed his Declaration of Intention to become a citizen back in 1925 before this trip to Poland. I AM pretty confident that he had to fill out some paperwork in order to take this trip (and be able to come back), but, at this point, I'm not sure how to go about finding it. Will take further digging, I'm sure.
2 Comments
Marian
1/26/2014 01:27:29 am
You are correct there was paperwork required for his 1929 travel, but he did not require a visa because he was not an immigrant in 1929--rather, he was a returning resident. After July 1924 residents had to apply for a Reentry Permit prior to their departure and that permit facilitated their re-admission upon return. You'll see on that OLYMPIC passenger list at the top of the column for Immigrant Visa number are the letters "R.P." indicating all the numbers listed below relate to Reentry Permits. Note all the people on that page have last permanent residences in the US so they are all returning. In your case there was no evidence of the Reentry Permit in the C-file and so there is little hope of finding any evidence of that permit today. But others may be luckier as sometimes Reentry Permit applications were filed in C-files and so survive. Any Reentry Permit files not moved into another file were eventually destroyed. It is the luck of the draw.
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Emily
1/26/2014 02:12:07 am
Thank you so much for your reply! This whole process was really confusing to me, so I'm glad you shed some light on it. It IS too bad that his was probably destroyed, but now at least I know not to keep searching for it. Thank you, again!
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