The Commission therefore concludes that Lee Harvey Oswald had not expatriated himself by any acts performed between October 16, 1959, and May 1962, and concurs in the opinion of the State Department that his passport was properly returned to him in July 1961 and properly reissued in May 1962.
AUTHORIZATION FOR MARINA OSWALD TO ENTER THE UNITED STATES
Negotiations Between Oswald and the Embassy
On July 11, 1961, Oswald and his wife appeared at the Embassy in Moscow before John A. McVickar.[A15-145] Together they executed papers to set in motion the procedures for her admittance to the United States as a nonquota immigrant under the provisions applicable to the wife of an American citizen.[A15-146] The interview was routine. McVickar asked Marina whether she was a member of any Communist organization and she replied that she was a member of the Trade Union of Medical Workers[A15-147] but she denied she was or ever had been a member of the Komsomol,[A15-148] the Communist youth organization, or any other Communist organization.[A15-149] Marina Oswald has since admitted to the Commission that at one time she was a member of The Komsomol, but was expelled, according to her testimony, when it was learned that she intended to accompany her husband to the United States.[A15-150] The Embassy forwarded the papers pertaining to her application to the State Department on August 28, 1961.[A15-151]
Marina Oswald’s ability to obtain a nonquota immigrant visa depended on the favorable resolution of 3 questions. First, it had to be determined that she was the wife of an American citizen,[A15-152] which depended on whether her husband had expatriated himself. Second, it was necessary to determine that she was not and had not been affiliated with a Communist organization on other than an involuntary basis.[A15-153] Third, it had to be determined that she was not likely to become a public charge after she was admitted to the United States.[A15-154] Section 243(g) of the Immigration and Nationality Act[A15-155] presented a fourth issue. This section of the act prohibits the issuance of immigrant visas by American Consuls stationed in countries which have refused to accept or have unduly delayed accepting the return of persons sought to be deported from the United States. The Soviet Union had been designated as such a country in 1953. However, the sanctions of section 243(g) are often waived; and even if they were not waived in Marina’s case, she could obtain her visa at an American Embassy in some other country on her way from the Soviet Union to the United States, if she were otherwise entitled to the visa.[A15-156]
In a despatch dated August 28, 1961, the Embassy requested from the Department a security advisory opinion on Marina Oswald’s application to enter the United States. The Embassy wrote:
A favorable advisory opinion and approval of * * * [Mrs. Oswald’s] petition is recommended together with a waiver of the sanctions imposed by section 243(g) of the Act. * * *
In connection with her employment and her professional training, she has been a member of the Soviet Trade Union for Medical Workers since 1957. Such membership is routinely considered to be involuntary. * * *[A15-157]
The Department initiated a check on Marina Oswald with the CIA, the FBI, the Department’s own Office of Security, and Passport Office.[A15-158] The security check turned up no derogatory information on her, so that in early October 1961 the Department cabled Moscow that the available information concerning the applicant established her eligibility to enter the country as a nonquota immigrant.[A15-159]
The Department’s decision assumed that prior to obtaining her visa to enter the United States, Marina Oswald would provide some reasonable assurance that she was not likely to become a public charge after she had arrived there. The Department later encountered some difficulty in deciding that she had met this requirement. She knew no one in the United States other than the members of her husband’s family, and they lacked the means to furnish any substantial financial guarantees. After considerable correspondence on the matter with Oswald[A15-160] and with the Department,[A15-161] the Embassy decided to accept Oswald’s own affidavit to support his wife as sufficient assurance that she would not become a public charge. The Embassy’s reasons were set forth in a memorandum dated March 16, 1962:
It appears that * * * [Oswald] can find no one in the United States who is able and willing to execute an affidavit of support for his wife. Furthermore, Oswald has been able to obtain no concrete offer of employment in the United States. On the other hand, he is trained in a trade which should make him readily employable and he and his family will be able to live with his mother in Texas until he has found work and become otherwise settled. Taking into consideration the latter factors, Oswald’s legal obligation to support his wife, and the unusual circumstances of the case which make it difficult for Oswald to provide the usual financial evidence, the responsible consular officer * * * [is] willing to accept Oswald’s unsubstantiated affidavit as sufficient to overcome the public charge provisions of the law.[A15-162]