Any person who may be applying to become a U.S. citizen is required to undergo an immigration background check. Since the United States already has enough issues dealing with its own criminals, the last thing the country wants is to let another countries criminals into the U.S. borders. To prevent this from happening the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services will check the criminal background records of any applicant for U.S. citizenship with the authorities responsible for maintaining that information in the applicant's home country. Furthermore, the USCIS will also query organizations like Interpol to ensure that the person applying for citizenship has no outstanding criminal record.

Since the happening of the 9/11 bombings, these immigration record searches have increased dramatically as it had appeared that some people had slipped through the system and still were eligible to enter into the confines of the United States with questionable records.

The criminal and terrorist record search is growing in popularity and is a must action for any company who is hiring employees from another country. Any company who is planning on hiring an employee from another country will be required to have that employee undergo an record search prior to the issuance of their work visa into the United States.

The immigration background check is a means of preventing any unwanted visitor from foreign soil into the United States. While the U.S. is open to immigration from almost any country in the world, there is a difference between a potential applicant who will be a law abiding U.S. citizen and someone who is more likely to commit a crime within the U.S. borders.

These criminal record searches are here to stay since the 9/11 World Trade Center Bombings and will only increase over the next few years as the U.S. government goes through and double checks every person who has applied for U.S. citizenship to ensure that he or she had not slipped through the cracks and granted citizenship even with a questionable criminal history in their home country.