Welcome Corps

The Welcome Corps is a private sponsorship initiative of the U.S. Department of State, announced on January 19, 2023, that enables groups of at least five American citizens or lawful permanent residents to sponsor refugees being resettled to the United States. It represents the most significant structural change to the U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP) in decades, opening resettlement beyond the traditional nine national resettlement agencies that have historically held cooperative agreements with the State Department.

Sponsor groups commit to raising a set amount of funds per refugee (initially set at roughly $2,425 per refugee at launch) and to providing core resettlement services for the first 90 days after arrival. These services include securing housing, enrolling children in school, connecting newcomers to health care and employment, and offering cultural orientation. Sponsors must pass background checks and complete a certification process administered by the Community Sponsorship Hub and a consortium of partner organizations including the International Rescue Committee, Church World Service, and others.

The program was modeled in part on Canada's long-running Private Sponsorship of Refugees (PSR) Program, in place since 1979, and on the ad hoc Uniting for Ukraine and Operation Allies Welcome sponsorship efforts that followed the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the 2021 fall of Kabul. The Biden administration framed Welcome Corps as a way to help reach the annual refugee admissions ceiling, which was set at 125,000 for fiscal years 2022, 2023, and 2024.

A second phase, Welcome Corps on Campus, was launched later in 2023 to allow colleges and universities to sponsor refugee students. The program's future has been politically contested: subsequent shifts in U.S. refugee policy under changing administrations have created uncertainty about continued case processing and intake, making the program a recurring point of debate in U.S. immigration and humanitarian policy circles.