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About Us

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the government agency that oversees lawful immigration to the United States.

Mission Statement

USCIS will secure America’s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the integrity of our immigration system.

We are the 18,000 government employees and contractors of USCIS working at 250 offices across the world. Achieving our goals becomes possible when the different elements of our organization are engaged and acting as partners working toward a common outcome. USCIS’ strategic goals include:

  • Strengthening the security and integrity of the immigration system.
  • Providing effective customer-oriented immigration benefit and information services.
  • Supporting immigrants’ integration and participation in American civic culture.
  • Promoting flexible and sound immigration policies and programs.
  • Strengthening the infrastructure supporting the USCIS mission.
  • Operating as a high-performance organization that promotes a highly talented workforce and a dynamic work culture.

Core Values

Integrity

We shall always strive for the highest level of integrity in our dealings with our customers, our fellow employees and the citizens of the United States of America. We shall be ever mindful of the importance of the trust the American people have placed in us to administer the nation’s immigration system fairly, honestly and correctly.

Respect

We will demonstrate respect in all of our actions. We will ensure that everyone we affect will be treated with dignity and courtesy regardless of the outcome of the decision. We will model this principle in all of our activities, with each other, our customers and the public. Through our actions, this organization will become known as an example of respect, dignity and courtesy.

Ingenuity

As we meet the challenges to come, we will strive to find the most effective means to accomplish our goals. We will use ingenuity, resourcefulness, creativity and sound management principles to strive for world-class results. We will approach every challenge with a balance of enthusiasm and wisdom in our effort to fulfill our vision.

Vigilance

In this era of increased global threats and national security challenges,we will remain mindful of our obligation to provide immigration service in a manner that strengthens and fortifies the nation. We will exercise a holistic approach to Vigilance as we perform our mission. We will carefully administer every aspect of our immigration mission so that new immigrants and citizens can hold in high regard the privileges and advantages of lawful presence in the United States.

For more information on the history of our organization, see the “Our History” link to the left.


This page can be found at http://www.uscis.gov/aboutus



Last updated: 09/12/2009