Remember: to see the actual case file, you will need to come to the National Archives
and Records Administration, Pacific Region, in San Bruno, California (http://www.archives.gov/pacific/san-francisco/index.html).
This website can help you start your search by getting the case file number.
To find the case file number, you must know the name that the immigrant or traveler
used on the papers. For a number of reasons, this may differ from the actual or
commonly used name:
- INS officials often did not understand the arrangement of Chinese names and sometimes
reversed family and personal names.
- Forms of address, marital status, or respect such as Ah or Shee were at times taken
to be actual names and listed on the index as such.
- Officials sometimes misheard, misunderstood, or misspelled the actual name.
- Chinese names may have been converted to Hawaiian names for phonetic reasons, such
as Chung to Akuna.
Having the name in Chinese helps to verify the name on the file.
Case files are unlikely to exist for Chinese who arrived in the United States before
1882 and never left and for Chinese Americans born in the United States who never
left.
Learn More About the NARA Files. Find out what's in a case file and how to
do a search.
Start a search. Search for case numbers now.
Make an appointment. To see the records at the NARA office, it is best to
make an appointment by calling (650) 238-3501 or sending an e-mail to
sanbruno.archives@nara.gov.
Volunteer to help. NARA has thousands of case files that need to be indexe
so that they can be searched. If you would like to volunteer to assist with this
public service project, contact the archives at (650) 238-3501 or send an e-mail
to sanbruno.archives@nara.gov.
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