Explainer: Congressional Resources for Immigration Services

Feb 2

Explore the role of congressional offices in aiding constituents' access to immigration services, highlighting their collaboration with the United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). Understand the procedures, limitations, and communication channels involved in seeking assistance from congressional representatives for immigration-related matters.

Congressional offices serve as links in helping constituents - the people who they represent - access immigration services. The primary authority for immigration-related queries is United States Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). USCIS handles cases relating to visas, green cards, citizenship, asylum-seeking, passports, and a variety of other related topics.

Individuals create immigration cases and applications through USCIS, either online or in person. USCIS is a federal agency that is part of the federal government's executive branch while Congress is the legislative branch. Because of this separation of powers, the legislative branch can help constituents access services but not directly resolve issues. If queries are not properly addressed and assistance is needed, constituents can contact their congressional representatives in the U.S. Senate or the House of Representatives. Each congressional office has different procedures for aiding individuals, but the authority of the office will limit their help.

USCIS has active outreach operations through its External Affairs Directorate (EXA). The Office of Legislative Affairs housed under EXA has The Congressional Constituent Services Division, which handles congressional inquiries about their constituents’ cases and queries. This division is the main contact point for congressional offices to support queries from constituents.

Each congress member has an official government website, which will generally have information about seeking help for immigration-related issues. This information may be located under a tab titled “Help with a Federal Agency.” The Privacy Act of 1974 says that written authorization from constituents is required for congress members to assist you, so there will be some privacy release form you must fill out before a case can be opened to address your concerns. This form will have to be sent to the congressional office through their specified process, possibly by mail, email, and/or fax. Once you provide written authorization, the office will communicate with you about your case and any further information you may need to provide. You can also contact offices by phone or mail for assistance, but the procedure will generally be the same.

Since each office operates differently, you will need to understand their specific process to receive support and an ultimate resolution to your case. Additionally, offices will only help their constituents, so make sure you are contacting your representative. Everyone has three representatives - two U.S. Senators and one House Representative - and any of them can be contacted for help. It is generally better to pick one and stick with that office through the process rather than reaching out to multiple.

Following are the federal agency assistance pages on the websites of Senator Ted Cruz, Congressman Ted Lieu, Senator Jon Ossoff, and Congresswoman Elise Stefanik. They provide examples of different ways that congressional offices operate their immigration service assistance programs.

Congressional offices are generally happy to help constituents with their immigration-related issues, but they have limited scope. It is important to understand that they support constituents but cannot take direct action themselves. However, offices can be helpful when issues arise because they have dedicated communication channels with USCIS.

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