WASHINGTON—U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has awarded nearly $10 million in grants to 45 public and private non-profit organizations across the country to help lawful permanent residents prepare for naturalization. The grants also help these organizations promote prospective citizens’ assimilation into American civic life by funding educational programs designed to increase their knowledge of English, U.S. history and civics. Located in 26 states, these organizations will receive federal funding to support citizenship preparation services for lawful permanent residents through September 2019.
USCIS awarded the grants through two competitive funding opportunities. The first funding opportunity supports organizations that provide citizenship instruction and naturalization application assistance. The second funding opportunity either assists non-profit organizations that have not previously received a grant from USCIS to establish new citizenship instruction programs, or helps organizations expand the quality and reach of their existing citizenship instruction programs.
Organizations that receive grants under these funding opportunities can only use grant funds to provide services to immigrants who have been lawfully admitted to the U.S. for permanent residence.
Since it began in 2009, the USCIS Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program has awarded $73 million through 353 competitive grants to public or private nonprofit organizations in 37 states and the District of Columbia. Now in its ninth year, the program has helped more than 190,000 lawful permanent residents prepare for citizenship.
USCIS anticipates that this year’s awards will assist an additional 25,000 lawful permanent residents from more than 50 countries prepare for naturalization by Sept. 30, 2019. A list of this year’s recipients can be found on the USCIS website.
The Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program is a major part of the agency’s efforts to support effective citizenship preparation services, and to provide information on naturalization to immigrants and public or private nonprofit organizations. USCIS also maintains the Citizenship Resource Center, an online hub that provides learning materials to help lawful permanent residents prepare for the naturalization process. USCIS also partners with federal, state and local agencies to raise awareness of the rights, responsibilities and importance of U.S. citizenship among the estimated 8.9 million lawful permanent residents nationwide who are eligible to apply for naturalization.
For additional information on the Citizenship and Assimilation Grant Program, please visit www.uscis.gov/grants.
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