Daily AncestorImmigrant visa
An immigrant visa was the document a U.S. consul abroad issued to someone moving to the U.S. for good; from July 1, 1924 every immigrant needed one.
Visa stamps in passports were required from 1921, but the Immigration Act of 1924 made the immigrant visa central. Each nationality had a quota, the State Department issued a limited number of visas through its consulates, and only arrivals with a valid visa were admitted.
Passenger lists from mid-1924 add visa columns: the date and place the consul issued it, a State Department number, and Quota or N Quota. That number does not find the immigration file, so request a visa file by name, birth date and arrival instead. Visitors and students got nonimmigrant visas, and the columns do not always say which kind was issued.
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Daily Ancestor. "Immigrant visa." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/immigration/immigrant-visa. Last checked 2026-10-12.