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Citizenship and Immigration Services

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U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS)
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Annual budget:$4.5 billion (2021)
Year created:2003
Official website:https://www.uscis.gov/


The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the agency in the federal government of the United States that administers the legal immigration process. The USCIS is a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), a United States executive department formed in 2002 in order to "ensure a homeland that is safe, secure, and resilient against terrorism and other hazards," according to its official website.[1] The USCIS helps DHS pursue that mission by administering benefit applications and aiming to make the national immigration system more efficient.[2]

HIGHLIGHTS
  • USCIS welcomes a daily average of 3,400 new citizens
  • USCIS completes 40,500 daily requests for immigration benefits
  • USCIS fingerprints and photographs 12,000 individuals daily

    • History

    The following table is taken from the USCIS website. The timeline shows how the responsibility for immigration policy shifted around the executive branch of the federal government from 1891 to 2003.[2]

    Historical Development of USCIS
    Year Change
    1891 Office of Superintendent of Immigration created and placed in the Treasury Department
    1895 Office of Superintendent of Immigration upgraded to Bureau of Immigration
    1903 Bureau of Immigration transferred to the newly created Department of Commerce and Labor
    1906 Naturalization Service created and Bureau of Immigration became the Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization
    1913 Bureau of Immigration and Naturalization divided into separate Bureaus – the Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization – and placed in the new Department of Labor
    1924 U.S. Border Patrol created within the Bureau of Immigration
    1933 The Bureau of Immigration and the Bureau of Naturalization reunited into a single agency, the INS
    1940 The INS transferred from the Department of Labor to the Department of Justice
    2003 The INS was abolished and its functions placed under three agencies – USCIS, ICE and CBP – within the newly created DHS

    Work

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    Mission

    According to its official website, the following is the USCIS mission:

    “ USCIS upholds America’s promise as a nation of welcome and possibility with fairness, integrity, and respect for all we serve.[3] ”
    —U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services[4]

    The website also lists the following core values:[4]

    • "Champion People — In Service to the Public"
    • "Uphold Integrity — Honor of Character and Action"
    • "Foster Collaboration — Moving Forward Together"
    • "Advance Opportunity — The Future Depends on What We Do Today"

    Duties

    The USCIS is the agency that administers legal immigration into the United States. The following sections outline some of the services the agency provides.[4][5]

    Citizenship

    The USCIS website provides information about becoming a citizen. At birth, people may become U.S. citizens if they were born in the United States or certain territories and subject to the jurisdiction of the country. If a child is born outside the United States to a citizen parent or citizen parents, then the child may become a citizen if the parents apply for a Consular Report of Birth Abroad of a Citizen of the United States of America (CRBA) at an embassy.[6][7]

    A person wishing to become a United States citizen after birth may apply for naturalization. This process involves a nationalization test made up of English proficiency and civics sections.[6] In addition, those who serve in the U.S. armed forces, along with their spouses and children, might be eligible for expedited processing of naturalization applications.[8] To help those seeking to become naturalized citizens, the USCIS publishes a 10-step guide to the process.

    Immigration of family members

    The USCIS helps people navigate the process of petitioning for relatives to immigrate to the United States. The agency provides information for this process based on whether the person seeking to bring a relative to the country is a citizen, green card holder, or refugee.[9]

    Working in the U.S.

    The USCIS website includes information for those who desire to enter the United States in order to work or go to school. These include temporary workers, permanent workers, students and exchange visitors, and business travelers. The website also includes information for employers seeking to hire foreign workers, including a link to the Office of Foreign Labor Certification, which administers part of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1952 (INA).[10]

    Humanitarian programs

    The following is a list of programs provided by the USCIS to help those facing disaster, oppression, or other emergencies:[11]

    • Battered spouse, children, and parents
    • Consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA)
    • Deferred enforced departure
    • Humanitarian parole
    • Refugees and asylum
    • Temporary protected status
    • Victims of human trafficking and other crimes
    • Special immigrant juveniles (SIJ) status
    • Female genital mutilation or cutting information

    Adoptions

    The USCIS website contains information for people looking to adopt children from outside the United States. The agency is responsible for evaluating prospective parents as well as the children being adopted before the adoption process proceeds.[12]

    E-Verify

    Following the passage of the Illegal Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), E-Verify was created as an electronic program for employers to use to determine the eligibility of prospective employees to work in the United States. E-Verify allows employers to submit I-9 forms, which verify employment eligibility, to the Social Security Administration and USCIS to make sure government records confirm that new hires are authorized to work in the United States.[13]

    The E-Verify program is run by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the Social Security Administration, and the USCIS Verification Division.[13] The USCIS website provides data about E-Verify usage and updates. In 2015, there were over 600,000 employers enrolled in E-Verify.[14]

    Statistics

    The USCIS budget was $6.3 billion in 2024.[15] While some money comes to the USCIS through Congressional appropriations, over 95 percent of the agency's annual budget comes from fees paid by individuals and organizations employing the immigration and naturalization services that the USCIS provides. Most of these fees go into the Immigration Examinations Fee Account, which Congress created in 1988, and the USCIS receives money from other fee accounts as well.[4]

    According to the USCIS website, the agency performs the following functions on an average day:[16]

    “
    • Adjudicate more than 40,500 requests for various immigration benefits.
    • Process 3,800 applications to sponsor relatives and future spouses.
    • Analyze nearly 560 tips, leads, cases and detections for potential fraud, public safety and national security concerns.
    • Process refugee applications around the world in support of the refugee admissions ceiling of 15,000 refugees for fiscal year 2022.
    • Grant asylum to 163 individuals already in the United States.
    • Screen more than 547 people for protection based on a credible fear of persecution or torture if they return home.
    • Serve 800 people at in-person appointments for document services and other urgent needs.
    • Fingerprint and photograph 12,000 people at 130 application support centers.
    • Approve applications and petitions to help unite 3 foreign-born orphans with the Americans who want to adopt them.
    • Grant lawful permanent residence to more than 2,300 people and issue nearly 9,200 Green Cards.
    • Welcome more than 3,400 new citizens at naturalization ceremonies—that’s one every 25 seconds in a 24-hour period. Typically, about 47 of these new citizens are members of the U.S. armed forces.
    • Ensure the employment eligibility of 100,000 new hires in the United States.
    • Receive 60,000 phone calls to our toll-free phone line and more than 150,000 inquiries and service requests via online accounts and digital self-help tools.
    • Receive 1.5 million visitor sessions to our website.
    • Conduct automated verifications on employment eligibility and immigration status for more than 124,000 cases in E-Verify and 52,000 cases in SAVE.
    • Conduct manual reviews of eligibility and immigration status for more than 1,300 cases in E-Verify and 7,000 cases in SAVE.
    • Resolve more than 1,000 phone calls and 450 emails related to E-Verify and SAVE inquiries.
    • Process more than 1,500 Form I-134A supporter applications for Ukraine, Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela
    • Process 900 Freedom of Information Act/Privacy Act requests.[3]
    		 ”

    Organization

    Angelica Alfonso-Royals was appointed the acting director of the USCIS on May 25, 2025.[17]

    Click here to view the USCIS organization chart.

    Employment

    The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government is a website that tracks workforce trends in federal agencies. According to its 2015 analysis, the USCIS ranked number 86 out of 320 federal sub-agencies. The metrics used in this ranking included leadership, pay, innovation, and support for diversity.[18]

    Recent news

    The link below is to the most recent stories in a Google news search for the terms 'U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services'. These results are automatically generated from Google. Ballotpedia does not curate or endorse these articles.

    Citizenship and Immigration Services - Google News

    See also

    External links

    Footnotes

    1. ↑ Department of Homeland Security, "Our Mission," accessed June 21, 2016
    2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "Our History," accessed June 21, 2016
    3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Note: This text is quoted verbatim from the original source. Any inconsistencies are attributable to the original source.
    4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "Mission and Core Values," accessed February 26, 2024
    5. ↑ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "What We Do," accessed June 22, 2016
    6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "U.S. Citizenship," accessed June 22, 2016
    7. ↑ U.S. Department of State, "Birth of U.S. Citizens Abroad," accessed June 22, 2016
    8. ↑ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "Citizenship for Military Personnel & Family Members," accessed June 23, 2016
    9. ↑ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "Family," accessed June 23, 2016
    10. ↑ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "Working in the US," accessed June 23, 2016
    11. ↑ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "Humanitarian," accessed June 23, 2016
    12. ↑ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "Adoption," accessed June 24, 2016
    13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "About the Program," accessed June 24, 2016
    14. ↑ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "E-Verify History and Milestones," accessed June 24, 2016
    15. ↑ U.S. Department of Homeland Security, "United States Citizenship and Immigration Services Budget Overview Fiscal Year 2025," accessed June 19, 2025
    16. ↑ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "A Day in the Life of USCIS," accessed February 26, 2024
    17. ↑ U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, "Angelica Alfonso-Royals, Acting Director, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services," accessed June 19, 2025
    18. ↑ The Best Places to Work in the Federal Government, "Agency Report: Citizenship and Immigration Services (DHS)," accessed June 21, 2016
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