Need help with Immigration info??
She has no paperwork, no birth certificate...nothing. she is trying to file for social security benefits and they are requiring documentation from INS..I have searched and searched and can find nothing on-line regarding her immigration - I was hoping there would be a list or registry of immigrants she would be on.
She came over with 30-32 other Greek displaced/orphaned children and she remembers it being in the newspaper - something about president Truman lifting a quota regarding immigrants from war-torn Europe after WWII.
Can anyone suggest how I can find proof of her immigration?
thanks for any help you may give.
Answer:
Thanks for the interesting question. Are you sure it had to do with WWII and not the Greek civil war? I just poked into it and found this:
"Legislation adopted during the Truman administration also allowed 10,000 refugees of a civil war in Greece to enter the United States, bringing a second wave of Greek immigrants to this area in the 1950s."
If that were the case, there might be a statute you could look up, dating from the Truman administration. There might be a lead if you follow up on that. I just found an article about Truman and Greek heritage, but here it is for what it is worth (I quoted the pertinant part.)
http://www.cjonline.com/stories/050303/l...
There is also this: http://www.ilw.com/articles/2003,1014-tr...
"Visas should be distributed fairly among persons of all faiths, creeds and nationalities. I desire that special attention be devoted to orphaned children to whom it is hoped the majority of visas will be issued." (Truman, after WWII)
(I am also seeing reference to a 'Displaced Person Act')
you can search in public library and other public records for news paper around that date and then go from there
I find your story hard to believe, you know America is not exactly backward. This is not ancient Greece where you cant find things. If they could find scrolls of with slave names on it, then.dig deeper.
Did someone not adopt her as an orphan, did an oprhange have the answers, who raised her, she didn't raise herself, any school records, immunization records, ??
Is she trying to get her own social security benefits? If so, how did she get a social security number in the first place? That should provide a path to the paperwork.
Sorry to hear that. I have a friend whose mother was in a similar situation only from France- she had come over as a war bride right after WW2 when things were not as strict and she had no papers either. She never worked- stay at home mom as was the norm then- and so never applied for any social security number or anything. When she was older, her husband died, and to continue to receive his social security benefits, they needed her INS documentation which didn't exist. They contacted an immigration lawyer who said this is more common than you might think, and he settled everything for a hefty fee of course. She had to show mortgage papers to prove residency and birth certificates of her children. In the end, she was naturalized.
I suggest hiring an immigration lawyer- they are used to dealing with this sort of thing.
The Immigration information post by website user , MyTend.com not guarantee correctness.
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