diff --git a/apps/user_management/management/__init__.py b/apps/user_management/management/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
diff --git a/apps/user_management/management/commands/__init__.py b/apps/user_management/management/commands/__init__.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e69de29bb2
diff --git a/apps/user_management/management/commands/import_users.py b/apps/user_management/management/commands/import_users.py
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..b02d08d5b4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/apps/user_management/management/commands/import_users.py
@@ -0,0 +1,83 @@
+from __future__ import absolute_import
+
+import csv, os, sys
+from optparse import make_option
+
+from django.core.management.base import BaseCommand, CommandError, LabelCommand
+from django.utils.simplejson import loads, dumps
+from django.contrib.auth.models import User
+from django.db.utils import IntegrityError
+
+
+def unicode_csv_reader(unicode_csv_data, dialect=csv.excel, **kwargs):
+    # csv.py doesn't do Unicode; encode temporarily as UTF-8:
+    csv_reader = csv.reader(utf_8_encoder(unicode_csv_data),
+                            dialect=dialect, **kwargs)
+    for row in csv_reader:
+        # decode UTF-8 back to Unicode, cell by cell:
+        yield [unicode(cell, 'utf-8') for cell in row]
+
+def utf_8_encoder(unicode_csv_data):
+    for line in unicode_csv_data:
+        yield line.encode('utf-8')
+
+        
+class Command(LabelCommand):
+    args = '<filename>'
+    help = 'Import users from a CSV file with the field order: username, firstname, lastname, email.'
+    option_list = LabelCommand.option_list + (
+        make_option('--noinput', action='store_false', dest='interactive',
+            default=True, help='Do not ask the user for confirmation before '
+                'starting.'),
+        make_option('--password', action='store', dest='password',
+            help='The default password to assign to each new user.'),
+        make_option('--skip-repeated', action='store_true', dest='skip_repeated',
+            default=False, help='Don\'t exit if the user already exists.'),
+    )
+        
+    def handle_label(self, label, **options):
+        if not os.access(label, os.R_OK):
+            raise CommandError("File '%s' is not readable." % label)
+
+        if options['password']:
+            default_password = options['password']
+        else:
+            default_password = None
+
+        if _confirm(options['interactive']) == 'yes':
+            print 'Beginning import...'
+            with open(label, 'rb') as f:
+                reader = unicode_csv_reader(f)
+                try:
+                    for row in reader:
+                        print 'Adding: %s' % ', '.join(row)
+                        try:
+                            user = User(
+                                username=row[0],
+                                first_name=row[1],
+                                last_name=row[2],
+                                email=row[3]
+                            )
+                            user.set_password(default_password)
+                            user.save()
+                        except IntegrityError:
+                            print 'Repeated user entry: %s' % ', '.join(row)
+                            if options['skip_repeated']:
+                                print 'Ignoring.'
+                            else:
+                                sys.exit()
+
+                except csv.Error, e:
+                    sys.exit('file %s, line %d: %s' % (label, reader.line_num, e))            
+                else:
+                    print 'Finish.'
+        else:
+            print 'Cancelled.'
+
+
+def _confirm(interactive):
+    if not interactive:
+        return 'yes'
+    return raw_input('You have requested to import a number of users from a CSV file.\n' 
+            'Are you sure you want to do this?\n'
+            'Type \'yes\' to continue, or any other value to cancel: ')
diff --git a/apps/user_management/views.py b/apps/user_management/views.py
index b9c9a6c9e8..85fea6a198 100644
--- a/apps/user_management/views.py
+++ b/apps/user_management/views.py
@@ -42,8 +42,11 @@ def user_list(request):
                 {
                     'name': _(u'active'),
                     'attribute': encapsulate(lambda x: two_state_template(x.is_active)),
-                }
-
+                },
+                {
+                    'name': _(u'has usable password?'),
+                    'attribute': encapsulate(lambda x: two_state_template(x.has_usable_password())),
+                },
             ],
             'multi_select_as_buttons': True,
         },
@@ -82,7 +85,9 @@ def user_add(request):
     if request.method == 'POST':
         form = UserForm(request.POST)
         if form.is_valid():
-            user = form.save()
+            user = form.save(commit=False)
+            user.set_unusable_password()
+            user.save()
             messages.success(request, _(u'User "%s" created successfully.') % user)
             return HttpResponseRedirect(reverse('user_set_password', args=[user.pk]))
     else:
diff --git a/docs/releases/0.12.rst b/docs/releases/0.12.rst
index 621145bdee..965e12617e 100644
--- a/docs/releases/0.12.rst
+++ b/docs/releases/0.12.rst
@@ -97,12 +97,31 @@ follow::
 
 **Optional arguments**
 
-* The ``--noinput`` argument skips confirmation and starts the upload inmediately.
+* The ``--noinput`` argument skips confirmation and starts the upload immediately.
 * The ``--metadata`` argument allows specifing what metadata will be assigned
   to the documents when uploaded.
 * And the ``--document_type`` applies a previously defined 
   document type to the uploaded documents.
   
+Out of process user import
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+A management command has been added to import a large number users
+from a CSV file.  The command line options for this feature are as
+follow::
+
+  $ ./manage.py import_users --noinput --password=welcome123 --skip-repeated user_list.csv 
+
+The CSV field order must be: username, first name, last name and email, any other 
+column after those is ignored.
+
+**Optional arguments**
+
+* The ``--noinput`` argument skips confirmation and starts the import immediately.
+* The ``--password`` argument allows specifing what default password will be assigned
+  to all the new users that are imported.
+* The ``--skip-repeated`` tells the importedr to not stop when finding
+  that a user already exists in the database.
+
 
 Upgrading from a previous version
 =================================