Washington: In a bid to enable organisations establish new high-quality citizenship programs, the US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has announced the opening of the application period for the Citizenship and Integration Training Academy (CITA), a new funding opportunity under the Citizenship and Integration Grant Programme.
CITA, a technical assistance grant, will provide up to $2.6 million in competitive funding to public or nonprofit organizations that have not received previous grant funding from USCIS.
USCIS expects to award up to seven organizations with a grant up to $400,000 for a period of three years.
The recipients will be announced in September 2024, and the three-year performance period for this funding opportunity will begin October 1, 2024, and end September 30, 2027.
Through this grant opportunity, USCIS will provide funding and rigorous training to enable organizations to establish new high-quality citizenship programs, it said in its latest statement.
“The CITA grant provides increased capacity-building and additional citizenship instruction resources for organizations that otherwise may not qualify for a grant,” said USCIS Director Ur M. Jaddou.
Jaddou added that through this programme, “we can help build organizations’ capacity to help immigrants improve their English language skills, increase their knowledge of U.S. history and government, and gain the tools to become successful and responsible US citizens.”
Since 2009, the USCIS Citizenship and Integration Grant Program has awarded $155 million through 644 grants to immigrant-serving organizations.
These grant recipients have provided citizenship preparation services to more than 350,000 immigrants in 41 states and the District of Columbia.
USCIS said it will use remaining fiscal year 2023 funding that it received from Congress through appropriations to make this funding opportunity available to communities.
Through the CITA grant, USCIS continues to fulfill President Joe Biden’s charge in Executive Order 14012 (Restoring Faith in Our Legal Immigration Systems and Strengthening Integration and Inclusion Efforts for New Americans) to “eliminate barriers in the naturalization process” and “make it more accessible to all eligible individuals.”
USCIS also continues to pursue its goals under the Interagency Strategy for Promoting Naturalization to address the needs of remote, isolated, and/or vulnerable populations by equipping more organizations to serve these communities.
