| This sounds incredibly frustrating! Almost all of my USDS projects have involved moving data across agencies, including quite a few with USCIS. It's definitely one of our most common challenges, and USDS is often called into help because we are uniquely positioned to work across departments. As you probably realized when going through the process, USCIS has historically been 98% paper [1] (I've been to the underground limestone cave where they store a lot of it), and we've been working hard to help them modernize the entire agency, including an online application for naturalization [2] and the corresponding backend processing systems. There are a lot of reasons why it's so hard to get agencies to work together, but making it better starts with modernizing individual systems and processes, especially when we're starting with paper that, obviously, can't be transferred seamlessly. For the most part, USCIS doesn't store your entire case file digitally (yet), and even the metadata is stored in a bunch of different systems, which includes (of course) an actual mainframe. (I've seen the mainframe too; it has pretty sweet green LED strips, and not much else going for it.) I'm actually not familiar with how USCIS triggers SSA cards, but I'm going to ask. As it happens, USCIS and SSA do interact electronically in some situations. USCIS runs the E-Verify program, which talks with SSA, as described in this dense but refreshingly public privacy document: https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/privacy.... We've also helped USCIS introduce and improve data exchanges with State, including an early engagement on modernizing the immigrant visa process [3], which you went through, and work on refugee admissions [4]. One of the things I love most about my time at USDS is how many civil servants have embraced and championed best practices for building digital services to best serve the American people. The former director of USCIS, in particular, intuitively understood how technology can improve the immigration process and continued to push us and the agency until their final day in office. As USCIS makes more benefits applications available online, they'll have more data in a readily accessible digital format. They'll be able to streamline the user experience as you progress through the process over the years, and by the end of it, they shouldn't need to ask you a whole lot. It's been great to see human-centered design being championed over and over. Congratulations on becoming a citizen! Want to help us continue to improve the immigration system? We could use the help: https://www.usds.gov/join [1] https://medium.com/the-u-s-digital-service/technology-is-hel... [2] https://my.uscis.gov/exploremyoptions/us_citizen_through_nat... [3] https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2015/07/15/bringin... [4] https://www.usds.gov/report-to-congress/2016/refugee-admissi... |