In ongoing efforts to increase transparency, USCIS launched the Interim Guidance for Comment page this past August 20th.

Memoranda located under the “Interim Guidance for Comment” are current guidance of proposed or revised guidance to USCIS Field Offices and Service Centers and have been provided to the field offices and service centers as interim guidance. USCIS Adjudicators will continue using the current memoranda with the understanding that the guidance may be revised after the comment period closes. Final guidance will be issued to the Field Offices and Service Centers following review and consideration of public comments.

Currently, the “Evaluation of Evidentiary Criteria in Certain Form I-140 Petitions (AFM Update AD 10-41)” is posted for comment. The deadline for comments is September 3, 2010, and we welcome your participation.

This past June, Director Mayorkas introduced the "We Are America" National Children’s Art Project in collaboration with organizations serving immigrants. The deadline for the National Children’s Art Project was recently extended to August 30, 2010.


We encourage children across the United States to submit artwork in response to the following: "People have come from all over the world to become Americans. Why does that make us great?"


The artwork will be displayed in USCIS offices around the country and is also on display in our online photo gallery. For more information please visit www.uscis.gov/childrensartproject.

Five sailors became U.S. citizens during the first naturalization at a Navy basic training graduation ceremony in Great Lakes, Illinois on Friday, July 23. Over 1,000 sailors marched into the ceremonial drill hall at the Navy Recruit Training Center for their recruit graduation ceremony.

After the Pass-In-Review and presentation of the Nation’s Colors, USCIS Associate Director for Field Operations Debra Rogers administered the Oath of Allegiance to:

• Abdisalam Omar, age 24, from Somalia by way of France.
• Yojana Khatiwoda, 27, from Nepal
• Aasish Nepal, 26, from Nepal
• Daniel Denge, 24, from Kenya 
• Samuel Njuguna, 28, from Kenya

The five sailors will all serve as linguists with the Navy SEALS and joined the Navy under the Defense Department’s pilot program, “Military Accessions Vital to the National Interest” – or “MAVNI.” The program allows immigrants who have critical medical or linguistic skills to join the military and qualify to apply for U.S. citizenship if they meet all other general qualifications.

The ceremony marked the continued expansion of the successful USCIS "Naturalization at Basic Training" initiative, which started in August 2009, and has already expedited citizenship for more than 1,000 soldiers at the end of Army basic training.

Labels: Citizenship, Military

Starting this week, USCIS is launching four new online features to give you more accessibility to your case information. The new tools include:

• Online Inquiry Tool for Select Forms: If your case is outside the posted processing times and you filed an Application to Replace Permanent Resident Card (Form I-90) or an Application for Naturalization (Form N-400), you can now submit an electronic inquiry directly to the appropriate Field Office or Service Center instead of calling the National Customer Service number or making an InfoPass appointment with the local office. Additionally, once the electronic inquiry is received, USCIS now commits to a 15-day customer response, reduced from the previous commitment to respond within 30 days. We may be expanding this program to include other applications and petitions in the future.
• Specific Adjudication Steps by Form Type on My Case Status: Now when you check your case status online, the steps you see will be specific to your petition or application. Until recently, the website listed seven identical steps for all forms, even though not all the steps applied to all the forms. With the new feature, steps are customized for more than 40 form types.
• E-mail Notification in Spanish: When you register to receive e-mail updates on your case status, you can now elect to receive messages in English or Spanish. Until now, all messages had been in English.
• Change of Address Online in Spanish: You will now be able to submit a Change of Address Online in English or Spanish. Until now, the service had been provided only in English.

For more information visit our website.

Labels: customer service