September 4, 1943: Adulting with the INS

Letter from Opa to INS in Kansas City

Transcription:

st. 16645

U.S. Immigration and 

Naturalization Service

Kansas City, Missouri

Gentlemen:

I would like to obtain some information and advice concerning matters dealing with my present status as a student and my future status in the United States, as well as some other problems which have come up.

It will be possible for me to go to Kansas City on Friday, September 10 and Saturday, September 11. Could you arrange for somebody who is acquainted with my case to give me an interview on one of these days?

I shall appreciate if you will let me know about this soon and give me details as to the place and time of the interview. Thank you.

Very truly yours,

Thomas W. Doeppner

A quick little note to the INS. Opa has questions and he's hoping for answers. I think about the effort he has to take in order to talk to someone. Cheap phone calls and emails are a luxury he doesn't have. Plus, I imagine he feels that meeting in person might give him a boost if anything is subjective. 

I wonder if the problems he is referring to is the job he's trying to nail down. The Physics department is trying to hire him, but the government is getting in the way. We don't know the exact issue, but I have seen some of the complications of immigrants needing their employers to sponsor them for a work visa. It's a costly and paper-stacked endeavor. I wonder if Opa is going to see if the INS can help him out in this at all. Plus we haven't heard back on the marriage thing, have we? Opa wrote a bit ago about whether marriage to an American would affect his status or his children's. So far- no answer.

Opa is nearing the end of his time as a student, and he knows that his status will change, and likely become more complicated. Just like any kid graduating into the "real world" except Opa has just a few more things to worry about!

I hadn't really thought about it as clearly as now, but Opa really had to become an adult completely on his own. Instead of talking to his parents about his decisions after college, he's talking to an INS agent.