This article was prepared with the assistance of ABIL, the Alliance of Business Immigration Lawyers, of which Loan Huynh is an active member.
On December 5, 2025, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced the establishment of a new USCIS Vetting Center to be headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia. The new center will be “a specialized unit to strengthen the ability of America’s immigration system to screen out terrorists, criminal aliens, and other foreign nationals who pose potential threats to public safety or who have committed fraud or other crimes.”
USCIS said that once the new vetting center “is fully operational, it will draw on the full spectrum of classified and nonclassified screening and vetting capabilities and provide a more thorough supplemental review of immigration applications and petitions. These reviews will leverage state-of-the-art technologies, including artificial intelligence.” The center will use “Department of Homeland Security and other law enforcement and intelligence community screening resources to conduct this critical work and will be tasked with conducting reviews of pending applications as well as a more holistic review of already-approved applications,” USCIS said. Reviews conducted by the center “will prioritize applications from presidentially designated countries of concern.”
The announcement did not say when the center would be fully operational.
