Some Visa and Registry files became eligible to be transferred to NARA last April, yet they are holding on to them. A FOIA request (the former method of obtaining genealogical documents held by the government) is filled at the cost of retrieval and copying, not hundreds of dollars. A microfilm could easily be in the archives for all to have access. After all, they are public documents already paid for by the public. We have until December 16 to have our voices heard. We can leave our comments here: https://www.regulations.gov/comment?D=USCIS-2019-0010-0001 I left the following comment:
As citizens of a country built by immigrants, we should have free or reasonable access to records of genealogical importance. There are records that were eligible to be transferred to NARA last April, yet you are basically holding them hostage and raising the ransom beyond many people's ability to pay. I can't imagine every having $625 to spend on a record that is a non necessity for daily living. Yet that one document may fill in a missing link and tear down a brick wall in my family tree. There needs to be easy access to records of deceased ancestors. Please consider exempting the Genealogy Program from rate increases and better yet, make all records of deceased relatives free to access in digital format. The cost to the government would be very little but be worth more than I can say to genealogists and historians.
