USCIS Immigration Officer. What's the job like?

[Anonymous]

I've seen this position posted on USAJobs from time to time and I've been wondering what "a day in the life" is like for this position?

How is it working for USCIS in general?

[Anonymous]

Is the job in Fairfax or Arlington? In Fairfax you will have one of the last remaining in-office government jobs where you interview 10-20 people a day. The Arlington ISOs process paper forms remotely. It's a decent job either way.

USCIS in general rates highly in government surveys. However, everyone is demoralized from last year's furlough threat and worried about the agency's future fiscal viability. It's possible everyone would get fired if Trump wins reelection as well.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've seen this position posted on USAJobs from time to time and I've been wondering what "a day in the life" is like for this position?

How is it working for USCIS in general?

Ooof

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen this position posted on USAJobs from time to time and I've been wondering what "a day in the life" is like for this position?

How is it working for USCIS in general?

Ooof

That bad, huh?

[Anonymous]

I am one currently, and have been for 20 years (legacy INS prior to USCIS). Look, the ISO job is going to depend on your duty station and your directorate (FOD or SCOPS). I've been in both a field/district office and several service centers in my time with the agency. If you're in a field office, you will spend a majority of your time doing adjustment or Natz interviews and it could suck depending on the office culture, management, and performance requirements. Each district is different - smaller districts with smaller immigrant populations like Des Moines/Helena will only do 6-8 per day, while NYC/Houston/LA will make officers do upwards of 13. Thirteen interviews a day make it impossible to do a good job on any of them, and that contributes to turnover and morale issues, IMHO.

Service centers (Arlington - which will be moving to the Branch Avenue complex soon, Dallas, Nebraska, California, Vermont), however, are awesome to work at. FT Telework, flexible schedules, come to work in jeans, overtime if you want it. The directorate that oversees the centers is piloting a remote program starting in July to see if they can do the work fully remote - leadership is pushing this as the future of USCIS. The downside of the center is that some of the work is hard and complex - the employment based applications and petitions require an excellent ability to write and defend decisions, decipher tax returns and org structures, etc.

Our union just ratified a remote program for the agency and a lot of the SMEs at the HQ level in admin are leaving DC to go back to where they started with the agency. We are an agency where you get your experience and expertise at the field or center, then come to HQ to "get your 14/15" and then you try like hell to get back to the field as a 15.

We are going to be hiring like mad, the furlough had a lot of newer staff jumping to other agencies, and it did cause some boomers to (finally) retire. We are hugely backlogged because of COVID and DOS being virtually shutdown overseas and not processing visas for the past 14 months. But - in my 20 years with the agency, that furlough threat was an anomaly - it's never happened and it's unlikely that it will happen ever again with good leadership and governance. Since we are fee funded, we are not affected by any funding crises/shutdowns created by congress.

[Anonymous]

^Do you guys hire entry level folks and, if so, what type of backgrounds do you look for?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I've seen this position posted on USAJobs from time to time and I've been wondering what "a day in the life" is like for this position?

How is it working for USCIS in general?

Ooof

That bad, huh?

USCIS is not a top tier agency but I would not call it a bad place to work. One interesting aspect of the agency is that they hire lawyers and people straight off the streets (unemployed, servers, etc) into the ISO position. In the past you could shoot up to GS 14 pretty quickly if you put in the effort to master a subject enough to get to HQ but those GS14 jobs seem to be severely limited now. Quality of life can range from hellish to amazing depending on your office culture and workload, but ISO is generally tolerable as opposed to an asylum officer when the border crossings heat up.

There is also the potential to travel internationally for temporary terms abroad which is a decent alternative to State's foreign service.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:^Do you guys hire entry level folks and, if so, what type of backgrounds do you look for?

Of course we do, but how easy it is to "get in" depends on where you are applying and if you can pass the writing/reasoning tests. If you just want to get your foot in the door, you need to seriously think about relocating to the areas with service centers and then transferring from there once you get your career status. When they hire, they hire about 200 officers at a time (vs 1-3 at districts and you won't get hired over someone with Vet's Preference, I guarantee it) because the volume the centers produce is just huge compared to field offices. They are paper mills.

We hire at different grade levels depending on experience and education, no background is preferred over another, but anecdotally I can tell you from my previous stint as a supervisor, that law school grads make some of the worst officers. The ability to write and reason is the skill you will need the most at this job. My undergrad is in an English/Communications field and then an MPA. Degrees are not required though - plenty of staff at the centers have a HS diploma as their highest level of education and they perform the work just as well as someone with an advanced degree.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Do you guys hire entry level folks and, if so, what type of backgrounds do you look for?

Of course we do, but how easy it is to "get in" depends on where you are applying and if you can pass the writing/reasoning tests. If you just want to get your foot in the door, you need to seriously think about relocating to the areas with service centers and then transferring from there once you get your career status. When they hire, they hire about 200 officers at a time (vs 1-3 at districts and you won't get hired over someone with Vet's Preference, I guarantee it) because the volume the centers produce is just huge compared to field offices. They are paper mills.

We hire at different grade levels depending on experience and education, no background is preferred over another, but anecdotally I can tell you from my previous stint as a supervisor, that law school grads make some of the worst officers. The ability to write and reason is the skill you will need the most at this job. My undergrad is in an English/Communications field and then an MPA. Degrees are not required though - plenty of staff at the centers have a HS diploma as their highest level of education and they perform the work just as well as someone with an advanced degree.

As a supervisor in the federal government, I totally agree with your comment about law school grads. They are often horrible writers and poor communicators. I’ve generally found graduates of state schools to be some of the best overall employees.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Do you guys hire entry level folks and, if so, what type of backgrounds do you look for?

Of course we do, but how easy it is to "get in" depends on where you are applying and if you can pass the writing/reasoning tests. If you just want to get your foot in the door, you need to seriously think about relocating to the areas with service centers and then transferring from there once you get your career status. When they hire, they hire about 200 officers at a time (vs 1-3 at districts and you won't get hired over someone with Vet's Preference, I guarantee it) because the volume the centers produce is just huge compared to field offices. They are paper mills.

We hire at different grade levels depending on experience and education, no background is preferred over another, but anecdotally I can tell you from my previous stint as a supervisor, that law school grads make some of the worst officers. The ability to write and reason is the skill you will need the most at this job. My undergrad is in an English/Communications field and then an MPA. Degrees are not required though - plenty of staff at the centers have a HS diploma as their highest level of education and they perform the work just as well as someone with an advanced degree.

As a supervisor in the federal government, I totally agree with your comment about law school grads. They are often horrible writers and poor communicators. I’ve generally found graduates of state schools to be some of the best overall employees.

NP and I'm going to guess that the law school grads that apply for this job (probably GS-9 for entry level w/ grad degree?) are probably towards the bottom of the barrel. That's not a slight against this job, by the way, it's just that the better law school grads are probably getting jobs at law firms, non-profits, or taking actual attorney positions in the federal or state govt.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Do you guys hire entry level folks and, if so, what type of backgrounds do you look for?

Of course we do, but how easy it is to "get in" depends on where you are applying and if you can pass the writing/reasoning tests. If you just want to get your foot in the door, you need to seriously think about relocating to the areas with service centers and then transferring from there once you get your career status. When they hire, they hire about 200 officers at a time (vs 1-3 at districts and you won't get hired over someone with Vet's Preference, I guarantee it) because the volume the centers produce is just huge compared to field offices. They are paper mills.

We hire at different grade levels depending on experience and education, no background is preferred over another, but anecdotally I can tell you from my previous stint as a supervisor, that law school grads make some of the worst officers. The ability to write and reason is the skill you will need the most at this job. My undergrad is in an English/Communications field and then an MPA. Degrees are not required though - plenty of staff at the centers have a HS diploma as their highest level of education and they perform the work just as well as someone with an advanced degree.

As a supervisor in the federal government, I totally agree with your comment about law school grads. They are often horrible writers and poor communicators. I’ve generally found graduates of state schools to be some of the best overall employees.

NP and I'm going to guess that the law school grads that apply for this job (probably GS-9 for entry level w/ grad degree?) are probably towards the bottom of the barrel. That's not a slight against this job, by the way, it's just that the better law school grads are probably getting jobs at law firms, non-profits, or taking actual attorney positions in the federal or state govt.

ISO/Former SISO, and I will say that from my experience, they are mostly from state schools and we don't get the class ranking because it's not required on the job application. Some of these schools are in the upper tiers of Law School rankings. Nebraska/Vermont/Dallas don't get a lot of Ivy applicants because of geography. When we had a mass ISO hiring in 2008-09 during the recession, we got a lot of new law grads who couldn't land jobs in the field, so they came to work for us. We also get a lot of former non-profit attorneys who come to work for us, for better or worse. A lot of them also suffer from what I would term "decision paralysis." I've had officers rotate off my team to find boxes of moldy oldie cases just sitting because the person couldn't/wouldn't make a decision on the case. Meanwhile, some immigrant is wondering WTF is going on with the benefit they applied for, we're getting congressionals, the case is running up against an old date report, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:^Do you guys hire entry level folks and, if so, what type of backgrounds do you look for?

Of course we do, but how easy it is to "get in" depends on where you are applying and if you can pass the writing/reasoning tests. If you just want to get your foot in the door, you need to seriously think about relocating to the areas with service centers and then transferring from there once you get your career status. When they hire, they hire about 200 officers at a time (vs 1-3 at districts and you won't get hired over someone with Vet's Preference, I guarantee it) because the volume the centers produce is just huge compared to field offices. They are paper mills.

We hire at different grade levels depending on experience and education, no background is preferred over another, but anecdotally I can tell you from my previous stint as a supervisor, that law school grads make some of the worst officers. The ability to write and reason is the skill you will need the most at this job. My undergrad is in an English/Communications field and then an MPA. Degrees are not required though - plenty of staff at the centers have a HS diploma as their highest level of education and they perform the work just as well as someone with an advanced degree.

As a supervisor in the federal government, I totally agree with your comment about law school grads. They are often horrible writers and poor communicators. I’ve generally found graduates of state schools to be some of the best overall employees.

NP and I'm going to guess that the law school grads that apply for this job (probably GS-9 for entry level w/ grad degree?) are probably towards the bottom of the barrel. That's not a slight against this job, by the way, it's just that the better law school grads are probably getting jobs at law firms, non-profits, or taking actual attorney positions in the federal or state govt.

ISO/Former SISO, and I will say that from my experience, they are mostly from state schools and we don't get the class ranking because it's not required on the job application. Some of these schools are in the upper tiers of Law School rankings. Nebraska/Vermont/Dallas don't get a lot of Ivy applicants because of geography. When we had a mass ISO hiring in 2008-09 during the recession, we got a lot of new law grads who couldn't land jobs in the field, so they came to work for us. We also get a lot of former non-profit attorneys who come to work for us, for better or worse. A lot of them also suffer from what I would term "decision paralysis." I've had officers rotate off my team to find boxes of moldy oldie cases just sitting because the person couldn't/wouldn't make a decision on the case. Meanwhile, some immigrant is wondering WTF is going on with the benefit they applied for, we're getting congressionals, the case is running up against an old date report, etc.

I've seen lots of law grads move up to leadership but the disasters tend to stick out. I think a lot of them go to law school to be civil rights advocates then take this job and can't figure out the whole "neutral adjudicator" thing. I've seen most of them burn out in 6 months.

[Anonymous]

This chain is too old but I am hoping someone can help me to navigate USCIS hiring path. Any jobs they post requires extensive experience and cannot find a way for an entry level job. Is there any temp agency or temp jobs USCIS utilize ao I can get my foot in? Once I work with them they won’t let me go I am sure about that but I can get close to them! By the way I am a FEMA reservist so no issues with background check etc… (but as a reservist I’m not considered Fed Emp so I don’t get any leverage from that) Thank you all for any info, really appreciated.

[Anonymous]

The commute from 20005 is long.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This chain is too old but I am hoping someone can help me to navigate USCIS hiring path. Any jobs they post requires extensive experience and cannot find a way for an entry level job. Is there any temp agency or temp jobs USCIS utilize ao I can get my foot in? Once I work with them they won’t let me go I am sure about that but I can get close to them! By the way I am a FEMA reservist so no issues with background check etc… (but as a reservist I’m not considered Fed Emp so I don’t get any leverage from that) Thank you all for any info, really appreciated.

The GS 5/7/9 Immigration Services Officer is the entry level position that does not require extensive experience. ISOs have been hired out of retail jobs.