USCIS is an abbreviation of United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. The USCIS is an agency of the U.S. government, and its area of responsibility is immigration to the United States. Individuals who immigrate legally to the United States must go through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The USCIS is a part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and it employs 18,000 people who work all over the world in one of USCIS’ 250 offices. Previously many of the tasks that are performed by the USCIS today, were performed by the INS, or the Immigration and Naturalization Services. The INS was part of the U.S. Department of Justice. It is the goal of the USCIS both to maintain a secure immigration system, keeping unwanted and illegal immigrants out of the United States, while at the same time providing prospective legal immigrants with easy accessible information along with effective and timely immigration services. It is also a USCIS goal to help immigrants get integrated better into the American society and to participate actively in their local communities.