Libraries in the city of Los Angeles and San Diego, along with Riverside County are partnering with the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services and nonprofits to provide immigrants with citizenship information.

The City of Los Angeles joined the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) in a letter of agreement to promote immigrant integration and citizenship awareness, originally signed in 2010 and renewed in 2012.  The Los Angeles Public Library’s Immigrant Integration Initiative has established all of its 73 libraries as local information centers and has designated “citizenship corners” with a variety of naturalization materials throughout its system.

The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services trains librarians on the citizenship process and offers educational literature. With community partners, the libraries hold citizenship workshops and provide referrals. Programs and materials are available in a number of languages including Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Vietnamese, Farsi, Russian and Japanese. Since Los Angeles launched its initiative in September 2012, more than 127,000 people have visited its public libraries and begun their citizenship journeys.