Immigration and Naturalization Service
- proper noun
- Formal
- The Immigration and Naturalization Service began to deport him in 1974 for overstaying his visa.
- Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS)
- Immigration and Naturalization Service Commissioner
- U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service
Examples
-
One of several Latino/Chicano individuals appointed to high office under Jimmy Carter, Castillo served as Commissioner of the Immigration and Naturalization Service for a period of two and a half years.
Academic text (2001) -
Many people rely on the Immigration and Naturalization Service to process their visa applications.
-
From 1982 to 1986, almost 1.3 million immigrants applied to the Immigration and Naturalization Service to become United States citizens.
Academic text (2001) -
Visits to the local offices of the Immigration and Naturalization Service had yielded no answers.
Academic text (1999) -
Last year, 811,000 new immigrants entered the United States legally, according to the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Academic text (1993) -
At the time, the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) provided no reason for this action.
Academic text (1998) -
Extradition requests from the Haitian government have been ignored, as has a final deportation order from the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Academic text (2002) -
In order to uncover what specific factors influenced the naturalization rates of different groups of immigrants, the Immigration and Naturalization Service has conducted two record-linked studies since 1990 of immigrants who came in 1977 and 1982, respectively.
Academic text (2001) -
Each year, the United States admits between 700,000 and 900,000 legal immigrants; additionally, the Immigration and Naturalization Service estimates that 5 million illegal aliens now live in the country, with 400,000 new illegal aliens settling here annually.
Academic text (1998) -
The Immigration and Naturalization Service has strict guidelines for granting citizenship.
Synonyms
A former United States government agency that enforced immigration and citizenship laws
Surface Forms
Morphology
immigration + and + naturalization + service
The phrase is a compositional proper name: the parts 'immigration' and 'naturalization' describe the policy areas and 'service' denotes an organization, so a learner who knows these words can infer it is an agency dealing with immigration and citizenship matters. Although it refers to a specific U.S. institution, the meaning follows directly from the constituents and is cross-linguistically transparent as an organizational label.
Etymology
Immigration and Naturalization Service was named for the work it did: Immigration meant 'coming to live in the country', Naturalization meant 'becoming a citizen', and Service showed it was a government office that handled those tasks. So the name became the common label for the U.S. agency that managed entry and citizenship matters until it was replaced.