After medical examination at Ellis Island, immigrants joined a long queue in the Registry Room. About 5,000 people could be waiting at once before advancing one by one to inspectors. Officials compared each person's answers with ship lists, checking names, age, religion, last residence, marital status, and relatives in the United States.
An inspector had roughly two minutes for each immigrant. Doubt could mean detention for further investigation, while most successful applicants received a landing card.
At the end of an Atlantic journey stood an administrative line processing thousands in two-minute intervals. A life-changing decision about entry was compressed into the order of a manifest and a brief interrogation.