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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is a part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), and performs some of the functions formerly carried out by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, which was part of the Department of Justice. The United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is a Cabinet department of the federal government of the United States that has the professed goal of protecting Americas people from harm and its property from damage. ...
The United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) was a part of the United States Department of Justice which used to handle legal and illegal immigration and naturalization. ...
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USCIS was created on March 1, 2003 from what was formerly the Immigration Services Division (ISD) of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which is now abolished. The INS was widely seen as ineffective, particularly after scandals that arose after September 11, 2001. Eduardo Aguirre was appointed the first USCIS Director by President Bush.
The new agency is charged with processing immigrant visa petitions, naturalization petitions, and asylum and refugee applications, as well as making adjudicative decisions performed at the service centers, and managing all other immigration benefits functions (i.e., not immigration enforcement) performed by the former INS. Other responsibilities include:
- Administration of immigration services and benefits
- Adjudicating asylum claims
- Issuing employment authorization documents (EAD)
- Granting lawful permanent resident status (getting your "Green Card")
- Granting citizenship.
While core Immigration Benefits functions remain the same, a new goal is to process applications more efficiently and effectively. Improvement efforts have included reducing the applicant backlog, as well as providing customer service through different channels, including the National Customer Service Center (NCSC) with information in English and Spanish, Application Support Centers (ASCs), the Internet and other channels. Power lines leading to a trash dump hover just overhead in El Carpio, a Nicaraguan refugee camp in Costa Rica Under international law, a refugee is a person who is outside his/her country of nationality or habitual residence; has a well-founded fear of persecution because of his/her...
A United States Permanent Resident Card, also known popularly as Green Card, is an identification card for a permanent resident of the United States of America who does not have U.S. citizenship. ...
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The Executive Office for Immigration Review, which includes the U.S. Immigration Courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals, and which reviews decisions made by USCIS, remains under the jursidiction of the U.S. Department of Justice. The Board of Immigration Appeals (BIA) is the part of the Executive Office for Immigration Review that reviews decisions of the Immigration Courts and some decisions of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. ...
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The new bureau consists of approximately 15,000 federal employees and contractors who work in 250 local and field offices in the US and around the world.
As of January 3, 2006, Emilio T. Gonzales, Ph.D., is the Director of USCIS.
See also
The Statue of Liberty has been a symbol of freedom to many immigrants who entered the United States through Ellis Island Immigration to the United States is the act of immigrating, or moving, to the United States from another nation. ...
There have been a number of Immigration Acts in the United States. ...
Naturalization is the act whereby a person voluntarily and actively acquires a nationality which is not his or her nationality at birth. ...
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