After holding a variety of pastoral and curial positions, Cicognani was appointed Apostolic Delegate to the United States and Titular Archbishop of "Laodicea in Phrygia" on 17 March 1933. He received his episcopal consecration on the following 23 April from Cardinal Raffaele Rossi, with Archbishops Giuseppe Pizzardo and Carlo Salotti serving as co-consecrators, in the Roman church of Santa Susanna. Cicognani would remain Apostolic Delegate to the United States, serving as liaison between the American hierarchy and the Vatican, for the next 25 years.