Bill Yates

Bill Yates possesses over thirty-one years experience in immigration issues with the Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). He began his career as a special agent with the INS in Newark, New Jersey in 1974, and rose through the ranks to become the senior career official with USCIS.

His immigration career includes experience in a number of operations disciplines. He has performed adjudications, detention and removal, inspections, and investigations work for the INS and USCIS. He has supervisory and managerial experience in airport and seaport operations, district offices, regional offices, service centers and Headquarters. He has held a number of senior management positions including: Director of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force, Director of the Vermont Service Center, Director of the Eastern Region, Deputy Executive Associate Commissioner for Operations, Deputy Executive Associate Commissioner for Immigration Services, and his final position at the time of his retirement, Chief of Domestic Operations for USCIS.

Mr. Yates played key roles in many INS and USCIS initiatives over the years, including the direct mail adjudications program, the creation of the Immigration Services Division of the INS, and the creation of USCIS as a component of the Department of Homeland Security. More importantly, he strove to find reasonable solutions for frequently unreasonable problems, to treat customers and employees with dignity and respect, and to correct errors in policy and interpretation by the government, including his own, because people matter.

Mr. Yates has received numerous awards during his career including two Exceptional Service Awards from the Department of Justice, the 2004 USCIS Leadership Award, and the USCIS Medallion of Meritorious Service Award in 2005.

BIO

William R. (Bill) Yates, the Principal of W. R. Yates & Associates, LLC, has over forty (40) years' experience in immigration law enforcement, benefits, and national security matters. He began his career as a special agent in Newark, NJ in 1974 and rose through the ranks to become the Deputy Executive Associate Commissioner of INS Operations, where he had oversight over approximately 27,000 INS managers, officers and support personnel throughout the United States, Canada, and U.S. territories.  Following passage of the Homeland Security Act of 2002, which created three (3) new immigration agencies and abolished the INS, he became the senior career executive at U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS). He served in that capacity as the Chief of Domestic Operations until his retirement from the DHS on September 30, 2005. He then founded a consulting company that although located in the Washington, D.C. metro area, serves clients throughout the United States.