USINS Tips for searching

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Tips for Searching

At its simplest, a query can be just a word or a phrase. But with the tips on this page, you can expand the focus of your query to give you more complete results. These tips will get you started with basic query language and acquaint you with the full power of the CIS search site.

Look for words with the same prefix. For example, in your query form type reg* to find regulations, registration, region, Regan, and so on.

Search for all forms of a word. For example, in the form type immigrate** to find immigrates, immigrated, immigration, and immigrations.

Search with the keyword NEAR, rather than AND, for words close to each other. For example, both of these queries, immigrant and alien and immigrant near alien, look for the words immigrant and alien on the same page. But with NEAR, the returned pages are ranked in order of proximity: The closer together the words are, the higher the rank of that page.

Refine your queries with the AND NOT keywords to exclude certain text from your search. For example, if you want to find all instances of immigration but not alien, write the following query:

immigration AND NOT alien

Add the OR keyword to find all instances of either one word or another, for example:

citizenship OR naturalization

This query finds all pages that mention citizenship or naturalization or both.

Put quotation marks around keywords if you want the CIS search to take them literally. For instance, if you type the following query:

"alien near immigrant"

CIS search will literally look for the complete phrase alien near immigrant. But if you type the same query without the quotation marks:

alien near immigrant

CIS search searches all documents for the words alien and immigrant.

Use Free Text Search if you wish to search using natural language. CIS search will examine your search, extract nouns and noun phrases and construct a query for you. With free text queries you can enter any text you want, from a proper question, to a string of words and phrases, without worrying about the query language. For example, if you type in the following query:

How do I become a US citizen?

CIS search will create a query for you automatically and begin the search. Note that when you're using free text queries, the regular query language features are disabled and keywords such as AND, OR, and NEAR are interpreted as normal words.
Use Synonym Search if you wish the search to look up possible synonyms and include them in your search. When using the Synonym Search option use double quotes around synonym phrases. For example, if you select the And radio button and then type the following query:

CIS "Adjustment of Status"

CIS search will create the following query for you.

CIS And (Adjustment of Status or I-485 or Permanent Resident or Legal Permanent Resident). In this case CIS was not found in the synonym list but several synonyms were found for Adjustment of Status.

You do not need to use double quotes around single words. For example, if you typed the following query:

CIS FOIA

CIS search will create the following query for you.

CIS And (FOIA or Freedom of Information Act or Privacy Act or Records)

You may also enter a single word such as FOIA.
Strict Search is a generic search that passes your query straight to the CIS search. This option allows a more focused search, while the Synonym or Free-Text Search provide additional search assistance.

These hints will get you started, but for more complex queries and more examples, see the Query Language page.

Last Modified 09/30/2003