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Since 1952, an immigration case file has been created at headquarters for each person admitted to or entering Canada (even if later deported). Although the official landing record (the 1MM000 form) is removed from these files, microfilmed and retained separately by the department, the material remaining on these files is an excellent example of the requirements and pitfalls facing a potential landed immigrant or future citizen. The files contain a wealth of personel information on each immigrant, in the form of letters of reference, police reports, personal letters, departmental forms, immigration officers' assessments, and transcripts of various hearings and appeals. The plumber, baker, prostitute, professor, and criminal - and hundreds of others - are well profiled. The records demonstrate as no other series can the trials and tribulations of the immigrant; a controlled sample of these records should be an extremely valuable source for social science research.

Three series of immigration case files are represented in this accession, two specialized and one general. The AP (Assistant Passage) and W (Warrant) series are files on the repayment of loans granted to immigrants requiring financial assistance to travel to Canada, and are numbered and arranged by loan agreement of warrant number. The remainder are regular immigrant case files from the branch's first central registry system, divided up into successive numbered subseries. They begin with a "straight-numeric" (unprefixed) series in the range 1 to 999,999 and continue with files from eight later subseries (each in the range 1 to 99,999) with prefixed A, B, C, D, E, HQ1, HQ2 AND HQ3, in chronological order.

A random number generator was used to arrive at a ten per cent sample of the total in each series for transfer to the PAC, except that the earliest four series (boxes 92-94) were kept in their entirety.

Note sur l'étendue originelle

5.7 m of textual records.