How to Locate a USCIS Office

Know about USCIS
United States Citizenship and Immigration Services is the governing body for the citizenship and immigration procedures. It is a component of the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS). It was formerly known as the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services (BCIS).The administrative functions that were formerly carried out by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) are now managed by USCIS.
Goals
• To strengthen the security and sustain the integrity of the immigration process.
• To deliver effective customer service by providing immigration benefit and information services.
• To extend support to the participation of immigrants in American civic culture.
• To promote flexible and effective immigration policies.
• To strengthen the infrastructure that supports the governing body’s mission.
• To operate as a high-performance organization and promote a highly talented workforce.
• To promote a dynamic work culture.
These goals have been adhered to as effectively as possible. This government agency has about 18,000 government employees and contractors, working relentlessly at 250 offices across the world. It is headed by a director who has to report directly to the Deputy Secretary for Homeland Security. Alejandro Mayorkas, a Cuban immigrant is the present director.
How to Locate a USCIS Office?
A USCIS office can be easily located with just a click. Having a secure internet connection is the basic requisite for this. Anybody wanting to locate an office needs to log on to the USCIS website and click on the ‘Find a USCIS office’ tab which will direct the person to a page containing all the offices.
The USCIS offices list includes the following
• Field Offices (within the United States) – Handles scheduled interviews on non-asylum related applications.
• International Offices – Caters to the needs of US citizens and permanent residents who are residing outside the US regarding immigration issues.
• Application Support Centers – Provides biometric (fingerprinting) and related services.
• Asylum Offices – Handles scheduled interviews for only asylum-related matters.
• National Records Center – Accepts and Processes FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) requests.
• Service Centers & National Benefit Center – Handles a large variety of petitions and applications.
A person who wants to locate a USCIS office must first have a clear idea about the issue that he wants to be sorted out and then select any of the offices from the above mentioned list.
After selecting the specific office, the next step is to enter information about the zip code to find an office that has jurisdiction over that place. Another option is to select the state from a miniature map of the US. Both these will direct the person to the page which contains the list of addresses. Also, a person can select an office by just clicking on the state in the drop down menu that can be found below the map.
Additionally, a person can zero in on the exact office through the mapping facility that is available. This can be done by clicking on the view ‘All USCIS locations’ on the bottom most line of the web page.
Clicking on a particular address will display a page with a lot of details regarding the offices like the working hours, contact details, directions for reaching the office, availability of parking facilities, accommodations for the disabled, issues that are addressed there and the areas that are under its jurisdiction.