New Strategies and Goals for US Immigration

In February 2011, at a press conference, the director of the USCIS outlined some new goals and plans for the USCIS and for United States immigration in general for 2011. Among the stated goals is the need to improve security. Indeed, fighting fraud at all levels of United States immigration is the main goal of the USCIS this year. To that end, the agency has created the secure mail initiative with the United States Postal Service (USPS). The initiative will ensure that the USPS can track deliveries of US immigration documents more easily and be able to respond to questions about delivery of those documents.

The USCIS will also be partnering with law enforcement to crack down on the unauthorized practice of immigration law (UPIL). This initiative will target notaries, attorneys, and those posing as official sources of immigration information to defraud immigrants who are seeking help understanding America, immigration, and related subjects.

The USCIS also aims to improve customer-service as part of its long-range improved American immigration plan. USCIS is transferring United States immigration services to a computer-based service from a paper-based system to improve customer service and response times. The USCIS also plans to roll out its VIBE (Validation Instrument for Business Enterprises) tool, which will make it easier to verify which employees are authorized to work in the US. In addition, the USCIS will also unveil a mobile service, aimed at helping those who cannot easily travel to USCIS offices for United States immigration services.

A third goal for the USCIS is to improve consistency in immigration services. To that end, the USCIS is taking part in a long-range project to review and update all USCIS policies in order to eliminate contradictory and out-of-date best practices and polices. The USCIS is also working on its citizenship public education and awareness initiative, which aims to raise awareness about citizenship and immigration while also promoting free educational resources and the values of US citizenship. Another goal for the USCIS in 2011 is to improve transparency, in part by offering more multilingual resources and events.