From: Ted Albers, a community relations officer with the U.S. Citizenship & Immigration Services (USCIS) in South Burlington. USCIS is the immigration-benefit and services arm of the Federal Government.

You may or may not be aware of some of the hard-copy and online resources that USCIS produces for immigrants who are preparing for the citizenship test. These materials are helpful to ESL and Civics educators as well. These resources are detailed on the websites below.

For libraries, the “Citizenship Toolkit” is probably the most useful for a library, and is a free resource if you register online (it costs $73 if purchased through the Government Printing Office). Even if a library does not serve immigrants, the Toolkit is helpful to social-service providers, students and others for understanding the legal immigration process.

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To learn about the contents of the Toolkit, and to register, please visit this website:
http://www.citizenshiptoolkit.gov/

Find the online civics and citizenship toolkit here:
http://www.uscis.gov/citizenship/organizations/civics-and-citizenship-toolkit

Find individual study materials for the Citizenship test (the ‘New test’) here. Most of these materials are in the Toolkit.
http://www.uscis.gov/newtest

A “Welcome to the US” guide in many languages is available here.
www.uscis.gov/newimmigrants

A host of other relevant resources are here:
http://www.welcometousa.gov/

For libraries that are in a position to purchase civics and English language materials:
http://bookstore.gpo.gov/collections/const-cit-day.jsp

ALA “American Dream” Resources are here:
http://www.americandreamtoolkit.org/

You can request a 1MB PDF file of a handbook Expanding ESL, Civics and Citizenship Education in Your Community by emailing me a ted.albers@dhs.gov

Ted Albers, USCIS Community Relations, Northeast Regional Office, South Burlington, VT
802-660-5007 Desk