March 12, 1943: Free to Work

Letter from INS to Opa

Transcription:

U.S. DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

Immigration and Naturalization Service

Philadelphia, PA.  

St. 16645

Doeppner, Thomas Walter

(Doppner) (Koeppner)

March 12, 1943

Mr. Thomas Walter Doeppner

1011 Moro Street

Manhattan, Kansas

Dear Sir:

Information has been furnished this Service by the Kansas City office of this Service that you have accepted employment from the Department of Electrical Engineering in Kansas State College as assistant laboratory instructor, working 15 hours per week and earning sixty cents per hour, and that you will also continue your employment with the college library working twenty hours per week at thirty-five cents per hour.

I am pleased to advise that you will be permitted to continue your present part time employment provided you continue to carry some work in an approved school.

Sincerely yours,

Earl G. Harrison

Commissioner

By

E.E. Salisbury

Chief, Certifications Branch

Stamp on lower left end of letter reads:

For Victory

Buy United States Bonds and Stamps

SO, it feels like the INS just repeated back what Opa wrote to them. And they have given him permission to continue on in his work as long as he is still going to school. 

The immigration status of Opa is surprisingly secure and easy right now. I would have thought with all the wavering before, and with the war starting, that he would have been even more at risk. It seems that he is finally able to relax into his studies more without being too concerned about the nuts and bolts of his legal status in the United States. 

I hate to say it, but now that his status is secure and there is absolutely nothing for him to do regarding his family overseas (in terms of immigration)- he likely has a lot less writing and paperwork to deal with. It's a sad break, but it is a break. He can focus in on school, and he definitely seems to be doing that. Opa is free to work and study towards his goals.