A letter from a Sing Fat & Company executive asking immigration officials to cancel sponsorship for two employees, 1905.

In this letter, Tong Bong, the president of Chinese and Japanese goods retailer Sing Fat & Company, writes to the Commissioner of Immigration in San Francisco requesting he remove two names from the company’s partnership list. Companies could provide a list of employees to immigration officials to help immigrants enter the country. Under the Chinese Exclusion Act, only merchants and other wealthy immigrants with certification paperwork were allowed into the US, so sponsorship from an employer was critical in making a case for an individual to enter the country.

Transcription:

San Francisco, Cal., Aug. 12th, 1905

Hon. H.H. North

Commissioner of Immigration

Dear Honourable,

We beg to inform you, please cancel our partnership list. The name of Wong Chong & Wong Chung no more interest in our firm. & Oblige

We remain

Very respectfully

Sing Fat & Co Inc

President

Tong Bong

Citation Information
Department of Justice, Immigration and Naturalization Service, “Letter on Sing Fat Co. Stationary to H.H. North, Commissioner of Immigration, San Francisco,” Digital Public Library of America, https://dp.la/item/96a985cc5dee672bb681af447e1c740b.
Note: These citations are programmatically generated and may be incomplete.
Courtesy of National Archives and Records Administration.

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