‘Why do they keep calling us the INS?’

The folks at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, or USCIS – which has been a component of the Department of Homeland Security since DHS was created in 2003 – have been wondering why the general public continues to think of them as the INS, which is shorthand for the Immigration and Naturalization Service.

“After all, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) has not existed since March 1, 2003,” says an exasperated official blog posted on the USCIS website on April 13.

USCIS correctly noted that most of the functions that had been performed traditionally by the INS were transferred in 2003 to three newly-created components of DHS: USCIS, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

“So if INS was abolished eight years ago, why do so many people think it still exists?” asks the blog. “Why are so many people still searching for it online? Why has the word not gotten out to everyone? Do movie and television portrayals of ‘INS agents’ keep the legend going?”

Members of the public posted more than 60 possible answers to those intriguing questions. Here are some of the best:

• “because the USCIS forms still state INS”
• “Instead of asking what's wrong with the public that they can't get it right . . . why you don't you change the name back. INS is short and easy to remember. USCIS sounds like typical bureaucratic gov-speak. Simple is better.”
• “Many people do not understand the complexity of the immigration system, split among so many agencies, DOS for consulate matters, DOL for labor certs, DHS, DOJ. besides the split of ICE and CBP. Also, many people pronounce USCIS as ‘useless’, not a great combination of initials”
• “Until recently, even Wikipedia did not make it clear that INS no longer exists. And yes, the news has not made it to the popular culture.

The author of the USCIS blog reached the conclusion that the public apparently still thinks the INS exists based on an interesting monthly “Web Metrics Report” that summarizes traffic and activities on the agency’s website. That report shows that the third most popular search term used on external search engines (such as Google, Yahoo and others) which refer users to USCIS is the phrase “INS”. Almost 30,000 users searched on the term INS in January 2011 and were directed to the USCIS website, the report shows.

The same report reveals a handful of other tidbits:

Traffic is up – Overall traffic on the USCIS website increased by 17 percent in January 2011 over the prior month, and total user sessions increased by 22 percent.

Nonimmigrant workers – The most frequently downloaded file on the website is the Petition for Nonimmigrant Worker (Form I-129), which was downloaded 2.9 million times in January, a bump of more than 700,000 from the prior month.

Green cards – Other than the section of the website that provides official forms, the most popular “content area” relates to Green Cards, which identify permanent residents in the U.S. who are not citizens.

Popularity – More people visit the USCIS website than the sites of most other DHS components, such as ICE, FEMA and TSA. The main site for DHS itself (www.dhs.gov) occasionally tops USCIS, but not often.

Google – More Web surfers are directed to the USCIS Web pages by Google than the next 10 referral sources combined.