811.111 Vessels/5153
The Secretary of State to President Roosevelt
My Dear Mr. President: There is enclosed a proposed Executive Order6 to supersede Executive Order No. 4648 of May 13, 1927, entitled [Page 751] “Documents Required of Bona Fide Alien Seamen Entering the United States as Passengers,” and Section II (5) of Executive Order No. 5869 of June 30, 1932, entitled “Documents Required of Aliens Entering the United States.”
The present Executive Order No. 4648 which prescribes the documents required of bona fide alien seamen entering the United States as passengers, and not as members of the crew of the vessel upon which they arrive at a port in this country, provides in Section II that alien seamen arriving at a port in the United States as members of a crew sent forward by the owners to take delivery of a vessel in such port, and for the purpose of navigating such vessel to its foreign home port, may present a group transit certificate issued by a consular officer in accordance with Section 3 (3) of the Immigration Act of 19247 under such regulations as the Secretary of State and the Secretary of Labor may prescribe.
The Executive Order does not cover specifically the cases of alien seamen sent forward as passengers by the owners of a foreign vessel to join such vessel as members of the crew for the purpose of navigating such vessel on its voyage to foreign ports and not as provided in Section II to its foreign home port. Alien seamen have been and are being permitted to come to the United States for this purpose as passengers, but a technical difficulty has arisen regarding the authority to issue transit certificates to such seamen in the absence of specific provision for their issuance to alien seamen coming to the United States for the purpose indicated. It has been recognized that the owners of foreign vessels should be permitted to send forward to a port in the United States alien seamen as passengers to join such foreign vessel as members of the crew. A number of the principal maritime countries have requested that the facility heretofore extended should not be withdrawn. The provisions of Executive Order No. 4648 are included in the proposed Executive Order. The wording of Section II has, however, been altered to provide that passport visas, transit certificates or group transit certificates, may be issued by a consular officer to cover members of a crew sent forward as passengers by the owners of a foreign vessel to join such vessel as members of the crew, irrespective of the destination of the vessel.
It is considered desirable to include in the new Executive Order all the provisions relating to the documentation of bona fide alien seamen and it is, therefore, proposed to include in the new Order the provisions of Section II (5) of Executive Order No. 5869 of June 30, 1932, relating to the documentation of bona fide alien seamen arriving in a port of the United States as members of the vessel’s crew.
[Page 752]Other than as mentioned above the terms of the present Orders are unchanged. The proposed Order has the approval of the Secretary of Labor. The Order has also been approved by the Director of the Budget as to form and the Attorney General with respect to form and legality. It is hoped that the proposed Order will meet with your approval.
I am [etc.]