USCIS Announces $5 Million in Grants for Immigrant Civic Integration Programs

As part of its celebration of Constitution Day and Citizenship Day, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced on Monday, September 17, 2012, the award of approximately $5 million in grants designed to promote immigrant civic integration and prepare permanent residents for citizenship. Thirty-one immigrant-serving organizations from 21 states and the District of Columbia will receive federal funding to support citizenship preparation services for permanent residents through September 2014. 

Since the program began in October 2009, USCIS’s Citizenship and Integration Grant Program has helped more than 38,000 permanent residents in 30 states and the District of Columbia prepare for citizenship. Through Sept. 30, 2014, USCIS anticipates that an additional 26,000 permanent residents will receive citizenship preparation services as a result of the grants.

“With this grant program, USCIS continues its support for eligible permanent residents on the path to citizenship,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. “By expanding the availability of high-quality citizenship preparation services in communities across the country, this funding helps thousands of permanent residents pursue their goal of U.S. citizenship.” 

USCIS granted the awards through a competitive funding opportunity to organizations that will provide both citizenship instruction to prepare permanent residents for the civics and English components of the naturalization test, and naturalization application services within the scope of the authorized practice of immigration law. 

The Citizenship and Integration Grant Program is part of a multifaceted effort to provide citizenship-preparation resources, and support and information to immigrants and immigrant-serving organizations. USCIS complements this grant program with its Citizenship Resource Center, a centralized Web resource that provides learning materials to help permanent residents prepare for the naturalization process, and the Citizenship Public Education and Awareness Initiative, a multilingual initiative designed to raise awareness of the rights, responsibilities and importance of U.S. citizenship among the estimated 8.5 million permanent residents nationwide eligible to apply for naturalization.