Central Intelligence Agency Interview Preparation Guide

No. Security considerations prevent such tours. CIA provides an extremely limited number of visits annually for approved academic and civic groups. A brief virtual tour is available on this website.

By law, CIA is specifically prohibited from collecting foreign intelligence concerning the domestic activities of US citizens. Its mission is to collect information related to foreign intelligence and foreign counterintelligence. By direction of the President in Executive Order 12333 of 1981 and in accordance with procedures approved by the Attorney General, CIA is restricted in the collection of intelligence information directed against US citizens.
Collection is allowed only for an authorized intelligence purpose for example, if there is a reason to believe that an individual is involved in espionage or international terrorist activities. CIA's procedures require senior approval for any such collection that is allowed, and, depending on the collection technique employed, the sanction of the Director of National Intelligence and Attorney General may be required. These restrictions on CIA have been in effect since the 1970s.

The Central Intelligence Agency's primary mission is to collect, evaluate, analyze, and disseminate foreign intelligence to assist the president and senior US government policymakers in making decisions relating to the national security. CIA does not make policy; it is an independent source of foreign intelligence information for those who do. CIA may also engage in covert action at the president's direction in accordance with applicable law.

Technically, you could say CIA headquarters is in both. "Langley" is the name of the McLean neighborhood in which CIA resides.

Officers hired to work at CIA relocate to the Washington, DC area. However, there are many opportunities to live and work overseas to support CIA’s global mission.

The CIA's primary mission is the collection and analysis of foreign intelligence information for use by our nation's leadership. The CIA was organized pursuant to the National Security Act of 1947. The Agency has no police, subpoena, law enforcement, or internal security functions. In addition to records on foreign intelligence information, the CIA also maintains personnel files on employees and applicants.

► CIA carefully selects well-qualified people in nearly all fields. Scientists, engineers, economists, linguists, mathematicians, administrative professionals, accountants, and computer specialists are but a few of the professionals continually in demand.
► Much of the Agency’s work requires research, careful evaluation, and writing of intelligence reports that end up on the desks of this nation’s policymakers. To carry out our mission and our work, all CIA professionals must live up to the highest standards of integrity. With this in mind, we carefully vet every candidate who hopes to join CIA. For us to consider you for a job at CIA.

CIA supports the overall US government effort to combat international terrorism by collecting, analyzing, and disseminating intelligence on foreign terrorist groups and individuals. CIA also works with friendly foreign governments and shares pertinent information with them.

CIA provides both an Internet-based website and a Dark Web Portal on the Tor Network.To gain access to CIA’s Dark Web Portal on the Tor Network you will need to utilize the Tor Browser which can be found. If you are unable to use the Tor Browser you can also use a commercial VPN service which will mask your originating Internet Protocol (IP) address.

We process FOIA requests on a "first in, first out" basis. However, relatively simple requests may be handled quicker than those requests involving complex and/or voluminous records.