Report of the President's Commission on the Assassination of President John F. Kennedy

Waiver of Section 243(g) Provisions

Section 243(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 prevented issuance of a visa to Marina Oswald by the Moscow Embassy. The section requires consular officers in a country, upon notification by the Attorney General that the country has refused or unduly delayed accepting a deportable alien who is a subject or resident of that country, not to issue visas to citizens of that country. The section had been invoked against Russia on May 26, 1953. Although section 243(g) contains no express provision for waiver, the Justice Department has concluded that the Attorney General possesses such waiver powers, and pursuant to this decision the Department has granted waivers in over 600 cases from the Soviet Union since 1953. The 1962 waiver procedures were prescribed by the Immigration and Naturalization Service, which required that before adjudicating a petition for an eligible beneficiary residing in the USSR, Czechoslovakia, or Hungary, the district director obtain a report of investigation. If no substantial derogatory security information is developed, the district director may waive the sanctions in an individual meritorious case. If adverse security information is developed, the visa petition is processed on its merits and certified to the regional commissioner for determination. The State Department’s visa instructions provide that “the sanctions will be waived only in individual meritorious cases in behalf of a beneficiary of a petition filed by a reputable relative.” Because Lee Harvey Oswald signed the petition on Marina’s behalf, his character was relevant. The State Department file on Oswald contained facts relating to his attempted expatriation, but the INS regulations did not require automatic denial of the waiver. The State Department successfully urged reversal of the original INS decision because reversal would be in the best interests of future U.S. dealings with the Soviet Union on behalf of American citizens, and because it seemed unfair to punish Oswald’s wife and baby for his earlier errors. Prevention of the separation of families is among the most common reasons underlying waivers of section 243(g).