wl — = 1 7 , ae a. . ‘ _ : } , United States Citizenship and Immigration Services ("USCIS” or “CIS") is a component of the WN : | United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which in turn is under the General Services Wy _ Administration (GSA). It performs many administrative functions formerly carried out by the former United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS), which was part of the Department of Justice. a United States Citizenship and Immigration Services The stated priorities of the USCIS are to promote national security, to eliminate immigration case backlogs, i Ce ir Y and to improve customer services. USCIS is headed by a director, currently Leon Rodriquez, who reports ¢ Sn = directly to the Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security. USCIS consists of 18,000 federal employees and Nes ie ee —— — contractors working at 250 offices around the world. —=— <> >” - aS —- USCIS is charged with processing immigrant visa petitions, naturalization petitions, and asylum and refugee <.- SS a a li F " - r " — r F >: ad VS pplications, as well as making adjudicative decisions performed at the service centers, and managing all <> LS other immigration benefits functions (i.e., not immigration enforcement). SESS — g ( g ) oT = < <> = f 3 TRS, USCIS’ official website is USCIS.gov which includes an online appointment scheduling service known as Reswenen oN = INFOPASS. This system allows people with questions about immigration to come into their local USCIS a a — office and speak directly with a government employee about their case. Additionally, USCIS maintains a QMENES blog entitled “The Beacon” as well as the “@uscis” Twitter account. 7 > f a. #| : Unlike most other federal agencies, USCIS is funded almost entirely by user fees. Under President George ci ' vepreneurs imResiden W. Bush's FY2008 budget request, direct congressional appropriations made about 1% of the USCIS budget \ ee w Immigration He. recs and about 99% of the budget was funded through f