BCIS Now Prefers to be USCIS!
Posted Sep 12, 2003

Just when people may have thought they had memorized the names and acronyms of the various new governmental entities involved with immigration, there appears to be yet another change. The term "bureau" has been eliminated from the names of the various entities which, for reasons of their own, find it unsuitable. So now we have the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS or CIS), the Customs and Border Protection (CBP), and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

In the case of the former BCIS, it appears that the "B" was dropped, but "US" for United States has now been added. We have heard that the former BCIS is being referred to as "CIS" more often than "USCIS," but the latter term has started appearing on official information received from them. This change does not seem to have any substantive affect, as on filing fee checks, for example. Filing fees will be accepted at this time whether checks are made out to USCIS, BCIS, or DHS.

We hope that the matter of entities and their names has been resolved, so that attention can be focused on reducing backlogs and other more significant matters that directly impact businesses, families, and individuals undergoing the immigration process!