USCIS continues to build upon the historical legacy of the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). Research with INS records can provide historians, genealogists, and other scholars with a better understanding of USCIS’ institutional precursors as well as the history of federal immigration and nationality policies.

Historical federal immigration and naturalization records can be divided into two groups:

          1) Topics and Events; and

          2) Individuals.

More information about each will be found on its respective pages.

 

Topics and Events	Individuals
Most helpful for: Students and scholarly researchers interested in agency history or a specific topic related to immigration history, from 1891-present. Researchers interested in the history of federal immigration and nationality laws, policies, and procedures.	Most helpful for: Family historians looking for information about an ancestor or a specific historical immigration record. Scholarly researchers searching for records related to an individual immigrant (biographical research).