USCIS Pairs with Smithsonian Museum to Create Citizenship Preparation Tool

On May 25, 2012 U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History launched "Preparing for the Oath: U.S. History and Civics for Citizenship," a Web-based learning tool designed to help immigrants prepare for the civics portion of the naturalization test. This interactive resource features videos and multimedia activities that showcase artifacts from the Smithsonian Institution’s collections and exhibitions.

“Preparing for the Oath is an invaluable addition to the citizenship preparation materials we offer to aspiring citizens,” said USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas. “Using the Smithsonian Institution's extensive collection, this online tool will help individuals learn about the founding principles of American democracy and the rights and responsibilities of citizenship in a meaningful way.”

Designed as a self-study tool to prepare for the civics portion of the naturalization test, Preparing for the Oath is based on the 100 civics questions and answers from which USCIS draws when administering the test. Preparing for the Oath is organized into themes related to U.S. history, government and civics, with a short video and self-test on the content of each civics question. Many questions prompt users to explore an artifact from the Smithsonian collection; others have accompanying interactive learning activities. A section for teachers provides materials and strategies to use Preparing for the Oathin a classroom setting.

Preparing for the Oath was launched during a special naturalization ceremony on May 25, at the National Museum of American History, featuring keynote remarks from former Secretary of State Dr. Madeleine K. Albright. USCIS Director Alejandro Mayorkas administered the Oath of Allegiance to 12 new citizens from 12 countries, including three members of the U.S. Armed Forces.

“The naturalization ceremony and release of Preparing for the Oath highlight the strong partnership between USCIS and the Smithsonian. During the past four years, the two entities have worked together to provide immigrants, adult educators and the public with a better understanding of American history and the naturalization process,” said Marc Pachter, interim director of the museum.

The National Museum of American History collects, preserves and displays American heritage in the areas of social, political, cultural, scientific and military history.

USCIS Makes Major Strides During 2008

USCIS Makes Major Strides During 2008

WASHINGTON—More than one million new citizens took the Oath of Allegiance during fiscal year 2008, just one of the significant accomplishments introduced today by U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Acting Director Jonathan Scharfen highlighted the agency’s progress throughout the past year and discussed future goals, saying the positive results are directly attributable to the USCIS workforce.

“The tremendous dedication and hard work of more than 18,000 USCIS employees and contractors has resulted in the continuous progress we’ve realized this past year,” Scharfen said. “We set aggressive goals to reduce application processing times, further cut the FBI name check backlog, and began a viable transformation process for the agency. I’m proud to say that we are achieving those goals while ensuring that national security is an essential part of our ongoing customer service improvements.”

Key accomplishments for the year include the following:

*
Completed more than 1.17 million naturalization applications, up more than 50 percent from FY07.
* Reduced naturalization application processing times to 9-10 months, down from the 16-18 months projected after the surge of applications in late FY07.
* Hired 1,600 new adjudications officers during FY08. Significantly revised and restructed the existing training curriculum and developed the BASIC training program at the USCIS Training Academy, preparing new officers to be “job-ready’ upon completion of training.
* Worked with the FBI to effectively eliminate all name checks pending more than two years and reduced the cases waiting for a name check final result from almost 350,000 in late FY07 to less than 37,000.
* Interviewed more than 100,000 refugee applicants and completed more than 47,000 asylum applications.
* Increased participation in E-Verify, the nation’s preeminent employment eligibility verification system, by 260 percent over last year, resulting in the verification of more than 10 percent of the Nation’s new hires.



During FY09, USCIS’ goal is to achieve a 20 percent reduction in processing times for the majority of key petitions and applications, in spite of having to work through an unexpected surge of applications received during FY07. The agency plans a five-month processing time for naturalization applications (N-400s) and a four-month processing time for both adjustment of status applications (I-485s) and petitions for alien workers
(I-140s).

USCIS moves into 2009 with a more aggressive agenda to improve its services to customers. The agency has awarded the Transformation Solution Architect task order to IBM, a five-year investment to improve its filing and adjudication systems. The task order is just one of the building blocks of USCIS’ overall transformation plan made possible through last year’s implementation of a new fee structure.

“We’re proud of 2008 and the milestones we’ve met,” Scharfen added. “But, much work remains. We are gearing up for 2009 with a forward-looking and robust agenda that will result in an even better immigration service for our customers and our great Nation.”