The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, or the BCIS, was created Under the Homeland Security Act of 2002. The BCIS was short-lived, however, and in 2004, the BCIS underwent a name change and a rebranding. Today, the BCIS is known as the USCIS, or U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services. The BCIS was under the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), as is the current USCIS. Before the Department of Homeland Security was developed, services were provided by the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Before BCIS could undergo a name change, they were required to notify “appropriate congressional committees” at least 60 days before the name change took place, in accordance with regulations dictated by the Homeland Security Act. Notification of the BCIS name change was submitted to the Federal Registrar on October 13, 2004. This date also marks when BCIS officially became known as the USCIS.

When the BCIS was formed, the BCIS resumed duties previously performed by Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The duties of BCIS were to support the overall mission of DHS; more specifically, to improve the delivery of immigration and citizenship services. The BCIS consisted of approximately 15,000 employees. Eduardo Aguirre Jr., formerly served as the head of the BCIS. The Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services, or BCIS, consisted of approximately 250 offices as well as the National Customer Service Call (NCSC) Centers, Application Support Centers, Asylum offices Service Centers, and Forms Centers.

The responsibilities of the BCIS included:

• Employment-based petitions for immigration
• Family-based petitions for immigration
• Naturalization applications
• Asylum and Refugee applications
• Special status applications

The BCIS also issued immigration documents and renewals. Annual goals for the BCIS included:

• Serve over 13 million customers through the National Customer Service Call Centers
• Process over 7 million immigration applications
• Process over 75,000 asylum cases
• Provide service to over 6 million customers by phone through contacts at the Service Centers
• Provide naturalization services to over one million new citizens

The BCIS began operating on March 1, 2004. Within their first 100 days of operation the BCIS reported meeting goals in the following areas:

• Maintaining the core values of integrity, respect, and ingenuity
• Effective communication regarding the rebranding of the INS into the BCIS
• Forming a backlog reduction team to help alleviate the many pending immigration application that the BCIS has to process
• Formulation of an electronic filing system
• Creating Temporary Protected Status for citizens of Honduras and Nicaragua