Although, there are people who use the names INS and USCIS, which stand for Immigration and Naturalization Service and U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services respectively, interchangeably, the two are not the same. Well, both the agencies are linked to the same service that is executing immigration and naturalization services in the United States. However, the former does not exist in the present time, since the agency was dismissed a few years ago.

The Immigration and Naturalization Service, commonly known as INS, was invalidated in the year 2003, as a result of the inception of the Homeland Security Act of 2002. Eventually, the functions and responsibilities accredited to the agency were distributed among 3 regulating bodies- the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services; U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement; and U.S. Customs and Border Protection. All three bodies fall under the federal government’s Homeland Security Department.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is the agency that currently deals with regulating immigration and naturalization issues in the US, while U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement governs the country’s immigration and tax laws and U.S. Customs and Border Protection looks after the border security aspects.

Even though the functions and responsibilities entitled to the Immigration and Naturalization Service are same to that of the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the latter is the most appropriate name in the present context. The same kind of functions often makes people forget the current name of the agency administering immigration and naturalization services. But, for the informed, since 2003, it is the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services that has been catering to people within the US with the above mentioned services.