Service Center Operations Directorate

Service Center Operations Directorate (SCOPS) provides services for persons seeking immigration benefits while ensuring the integrity and security of our immigration system.

We provide decisions to individuals who want to receive immigration benefits.

We support components at headquarters and service centers.

We treat everyone with respect and dignity regardless of the outcome of the decision.

We ensure that new immigrants and citizens understand the privileges and advantages of lawful presence in the United States.

SCOPS consists of six Service Centers that provide immigration benefits for petitioners and applicants who do not require interviews. These six centers are California Service Center (CSC), Humanitarian, Adjustment, Removing Conditions, and Travel Documents Service Center (HART), Nebraska Service Center (NSC), Potomac Service Center (PSC), Texas Service Center (TSC), and Vermont Service Center (VSC).

Generally, the work performed by the service centers is organized by these distinct product lines, but is not limited to:

• Business – Immigrant (permanent) and nonimmigrant (temporary) classifications for individuals of extraordinary ability; outstanding researchers and professors; executives and managers; advanced degree professionals; athletes; entertainers; skilled and unskilled workers; individuals working in specialty occupations; religious workers; agricultural workers and temporary and seasonal workers; and workers in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), among others.
• Family – Petitions for immediate family members and fiancés.
• Humanitarian – Benefit requests filed by refugees and asylees and their accompanying family members, individuals seeking consideration of Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), and individuals seeking temporary protected status (TPS); relief for victims of abuse, crimes, and severe forms of trafficking; waivers of inadmissibility; and posthumous naturalization based on death in active military service, among other humanitarian benefits.
• Students and exchange visitors – Requests for employment authorization (practical training in a field of study for foreign students), dependents of exchange visitors (such as medical students, au pairs, or other cultural visitors), and waivers for medical doctors to enable them to work in medically underserved areas.
• Fraud Detection – Operational support, oversight and policy guidance for the Center Fraud Detection Operations (CFDOs) at each of the Service Centers.
• National Security – Oversight, operational support, and policy guidance for the Background Check Units (BCU) at each of the Service Centers.