US Citizenship and Immigration services a component of the US Department of Homeland Security deals with services related to immigration and is responsible for overseeing lawful immigration into the country. This agency offers immigration and citizenship benefits to its customers. The goal of the USCIS is to strengthen the security of the country’s immigration system. Flexible immigration policies are also being promoted by the USCIS.
All the visa and citizenship applications are processed by this federal agency. USCIS is a worldwide network that consists of 18,000 employees and contractors. They work from 250 offices and oversee lawful immigration into the country.
USCIS detects fraud and by making use of the Visa Security Program (VSP), identifies potential terrorist and criminal threats. It provides accurate and useful information to its customers. The customers can call the USCIS at any time and obtain the required information. USCIS answers more than 41,000 phone calls a day.
USCIS, on an average day, grants US citizenship to around 3000 new immigrants. It completes more than 30,000 applications for immigration benefits and conducts around 135,000 background checks. More than 3,400 foreign nationals receive permanent resident status and 7,300 Green Cards are issued by the USCIS every day.
Foreign nationals, who are unable to return to their home countries due to natural disasters and other reasons, can apply for asylum or refugee status in America. On an average, USCIS processes 200 refugee applications a day and grants asylum status to 40 foreign nationals living in the country. Americans can adopt foreign-born children and the USCIS on an average day assists Americans to adopt 125 orphans.
USCIS customers can obtain information about immigration forms and about the forms they have filed with the agency by visiting local immigration offices. Customers can make INFOPASS appointments and visit USCIS offices. USCIS serves more than 12,000 customers a day at its field offices.
There are 129 Application Support Centers and the USCIS customers who have filed certain immigration forms will have to visit these centers to submit their photographs and other biometrics information. According to the USCIS, around 11,000 applicants visit these centers on an average day and submit biometrics information.
The interactive website of the USCIS contains information about immigration forms and all the forms can be downloaded from the website. Several applications can be filed online. The website also allows the customers to check the status of their pending cases.