Stories from the Archives
Read the stories of people and programs that make up federal immigration history, learn about the most interesting items in our library collection, or get tips on researching in agency records.
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Among the most important of USCIS’s missions is promoting citizenship instruction and fostering civic integration. Today the agency accomplishes this mission through a variety of print, multimedia, and digital resources, such as the online Citizenship Resource Center. USCIS’s current efforts follow a long history of Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) citizenship awareness campaigns.
Reasons That Some C-Files Do Not Include a Declaration of Intention
USCIS Genealogy records requesters sometimes discover the Certificate File ("C-File") they received does not contain a Declaration of Intention record. The Declarations are not missing. Rather, these C-Files usually document “one-paper” naturalizations (so called because only a Petition for Naturalization was filed).
The declaration of intention is an American invention and unique aspect of our nation's naturalization history.
Research into U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) agency history is complicated by the many name changes it experienced over time.
What is the difference between a search requested from the National Archives (ordering reproductions, Immigration & Naturalization Records) and requesting information from USCIS? Does the content from these two sources overlap? Thank you for your help in understanding the difference between what is available from each agency for Naturalization records.
The vast collection of historical Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) subject, policy and correspondence files now stored as Entry 9 of Record Group 85 at the U.S. National Archives in Washington, D.C. includes thousands of files related to all aspects of immigration policy during the years 1906-1956.
After the United States entered World War II Congress acted to provide for the expedited naturalization of noncitizens serving honorably in the U.S. Armed Forces.
“New Year in America,” painting by Lois Johnson shows children in Hmong costumes.
It’s a little-known fact that the Bureau of Immigration played a key role in the U.S.’s first act of World War I.
Shortly after the creation of the federal Immigration Service in 1891 Congress authorized an immigration commission to investigate the workings of U.S. immigration laws.