What is INS?

The Immigration and Naturalization Services shortly called as INS was part of the United States Department of Justice. The INS was authorized to handle all the legal and illegal immigration and naturalization issues. The purpose of INS was to protect and enforce the laws of naturalization and handle the process of an individual becoming a citizen of United States .The INS established three new agencies called USCIS (United States Citizenship and Immigration services), CBP (Customs Border and Protection), and ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement).

The USCIS administers all the immigration services including permanent residence, naturalization and other functions, CBP handles the border functions which include border patrol and ICE administers all the investigation, deportation and intelligence.

Immigration and citizenship

Immigration INS is the process of a foreign individual moving into the United States to live on a permanent basis or for a temporary visit. Each individual who wish to enter the country must seek permission to enter the country and abide by the immigration law. The immigration law refers to the government policies which handles the immigration to the United States. The USCIS performs many administrative services carried out by the Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS).

Citizenship:

Many people are welcomed into the United States every year and INS administers all the eligible people to successfully integrate into American Civic Culture. One of the main category administered for immigration through INS is US Citizenship. An individual is called a US citizen, when he/she is a legal member of the United States. Being a US Citizen , the individual has rights to obtain Social Security, receive benefits on retirement and has right to vote and choose a government. A US Citizen may obtain a US passport with which he may travel to every country in the world. Also the US Citizen has the right to sponsor his/her family to enter US legally and help in obtaining Green Card / Permanent Resident Card. Those individuals who seek for Immigration through INS must abide by the immigration laws .

An individual may become a US Citizen either at birth or after birth. If an individual is born in United States then he/she becomes a US Citizen automatically. If the individual is born abroad to US Citizen parents, then he/she may claim US Citizenship through parents. If the individual is born outside US to non- us citizen, who has immigrated to United States may obtain US citizenship through Naturalization. Naturalization is a process where permanent residents of at least18 years of age who meets all the eligibility requirements file for citizenship. If a person wishes to become a citizen of United States he/she must determine through which category he is able to file for US Citizenship.

Once the petitions for immigration is sent to USCIS for processing, the USCIS will check for the eligibility with inclusion of the supporting evidence. The approval of the immigration petition will be determined by the eligibility of the applicant. Once petition for immigration through INS is approved applicants will be notified in writing. If the application is denied, the applicants will be notified in writing the reason for rejection.


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