National Lutheran Council. Division of Welfare. Lutheran Immigration Service.

The National Lutheran Council (NLC) was established on September 6, 1918 as a common agency of participating Lutheran church bodies to administer domestic programs, publicize Lutheran activities and beliefs, and provide overseas emergency relief to areas devastated by World War I. By the 1940s the NLC expanded and reorganzied its program through the creation of divisions, departments, commissions, and bureaus. Its Division of Welfare was first established as a Department in 1940 and as a Division in 1946. In 1960, the Lutheran Immigration Service was formed as a joint agency of the NLC and the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod.

The result of the reorganization of the NLC's Lutheran Refugee Service and Service to Immigrants program, the LIS served to assist immigrant entry and resettlement in the U.S. with the aid to the Lutheran World Federation and Lutheran health and welfare agencies in the U.S.