The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE)
Program is responsible for administering programs involving customer access
to information contained in the Verification Information System (VIS) database.
This database is a nationally accessible database of selected immigration
status information on over 60 million records.
The SAVE Program enables Federal, state, and local government
agencies and licensing bureaus to obtain immigration status information
they need in order to determine a non-citizen applicant's eligibility for
many public benefits.
Immigration Status Verification for
Benefit Issuing Agencies
The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE)
Program is an intergovernmental information-sharing initiative designed
to aid eligibility workers in determining a non-citizen applicant's immigration
status, and thereby ensure that only entitled non-citizen applicants receive
Federal, state, or local public benefits and licenses. The SAVE Program
is an information service for benefit issuing agencies, institutions, licensing
bureaus, and other entities. The SAVE Program does not make determinations
on any non-citizen applicant's eligibility for a specific benefit or license,
such as a Driver’s License.
Legal Basis
Congress passed the Immigration Reform and Control Act
of 1986 (IRCA), P.L. 99-603, which required the former Immigration and
Naturalization Service (now Department of Homeland Security (DHS), effective
March 1, 2003) to establish a system for verifying the immigration status
of non-citizen applicants for, and recipients of, certain types of federally
funded benefits, and to make the system available to Federal, state, and
local benefit issuing agencies and institutions that administer such benefits.
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is the DHS agency responsible
for administering the SAVE Program. The IRCA, as amended, mandates the
following programs and overseeing agencies to participate in the verification
of an applicant’s immigration status: the Temporary Assistance to
Needy Families (TANF) Program, the Medicaid Program, and certain Territorial
Assistance Programs (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services); the
Unemployment Compensation Program (U.S. Department of Labor); Title IV
Educational Assistance Programs (U.S. Department of Education); and certain
Housing Assistance Programs (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development).
The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation
Act of 1996 (PRWORA), P.L. 104-193, 110 Stat. 2168, also required that
the Attorney General establish regulations and interim guidance for the
verification of immigration status of persons applying for “Federal
public benefits”. The Department of Justice issued interim guidance
in 1997. See “Interim Guidance on Verification of Citizenship, Qualified
Alien Status and Eligibility Under Title IV of [PRWORA]”, 62 Federal
Register 6,344-02 (Nov. 17, 1997). This guidance is for any entity administering
a non-exempt Federal public benefit, other than non-profit charitable organizations,
and is not limited to the agencies and programs specified in IRCA.
The PRWORA created a very complex set of eligibility
requirements that cannot be easily summarized. These requirements continue
to be regularly amended by Congress. The PRWORA did not affirmatively make
any person eligible for any benefit. Rather, it placed a new set of limitations
on non-citizen eligibility on top of any program-specific requirements
(some of which may have limited non-citizen eligibility). With certain
exceptions, PRWORA made non-citizens who are not "qualified aliens" ineligible
for Federal public benefits, and aliens who are not qualified aliens, lawful
nonimmigrants, or aliens paroled into the United States under Section 212(d)(5)
of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) for less than one year ineligible
for state or local public benefits. There are also limitations on the eligibility
of qualified aliens for certain benefits, again with exceptions.
The PRWORA, as amended by the Illegal Immigration Reform
and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996 (IIRIRA), P.L. 104-208, and the
Balanced Budget Act of 1997 (BBA), P.L. 105-33, 8 U.S.C. 1642, defines
a "qualified alien" as:
an alien who is lawfully admitted for permanent residence
under the INA;
an alien who is granted asylum under Section 208 of the
INA;
a refugee who is admitted to the United States under
Section 207 of the INA;
an alien who is paroled into the United States under
Section 212(d)(5) of the INA for a period of at least 1 year;
an alien whose deportation is being withheld under Section
243(h) of the INA (as in effect prior to April 1, 1997) or whose removal
has been withheld under Section 241(b)(3);
an alien who is granted conditional entry pursuant to
Section 203(a)(7) of the INA as in effect prior to April 1, 1980;
an alien who is a Cuban/Haitian Entrant as defined by
Section 501(e) of the Refugee Education Assistance Act of 1980; and
an alien who has been battered or subjected to extreme
cruelty, or whose child or parent has been battered or subject to extreme
cruelty.
The PRWORA restrictions do not apply to all Federal,
state, and local funded activities or programs; they apply only to non-exempt "Federal
public benefits" and "state and local public benefits." Therefore, benefit
providers should first determine whether the particular program they administer
is providing a "Federal public benefit" or a "state and local public benefit" for
which Title IV of PRWORA or other applied laws requires non-citizen eligibility.
For example, emergency medical care and certain forms of disaster relief
are exempt, as are other key benefits. If an agency requires further assistance
in determining whether a specific benefit it administers is a Federal,
state, or local public benefit, it should contact the overseeing Federal,
state, or local Government agency, as that agency would be in the best
position to make that determination.
With certain exceptions, the PRWORA
defines "Federal public benefit" as:
any grant, contract, loan, professional license, or commercial
license provided by an agency of the United States or by appropriated funds
of the United States; and
any retirement, welfare, disability, public or assisted
housing, post-secondary education, food assistance, unemployment benefit,
or any other similar benefit for which payments or assistance are provided
to an individual, household, or family eligibility unit by an agency of
the United States or by appropriated funds of the United States.
The PRWORA’s definition of "state and local public
benefit" parallels the definition of Federal public benefit, except that
it substitutes "state or local government" for "the United States." State
or local public benefits do not include Federal public benefits; therefore,
a benefit cannot meet both definitions. If a benefit qualifies as a "Federal
public benefit," it is not a "state or local public benefit" regardless
of whether state or local funding is also involved.
The IIRIRA requires the former Immigration and Naturalization
Service, now Department of Homeland Security, to respond to inquiries by
Federal, state, and local benefit issuing agencies and institutions seeking
to verify or determine the citizenship or immigration status of any individual
within the jurisdiction of the agency for any lawful purpose. The SAVE
Program’s automated and manual verification processes provide Federal,
state, and local benefit issuing agencies and institutions with information
which will assist them in determining an individual’s eligibility
under Title IV of PRWORA.
The REAL ID Act of 2005, Division B of Public Law 109-13,
May 11, 2005, established certain minimum standards for the issuance of
state-issued driver's licenses and state-issued identification cards in
order for those documents to be acceptable for Federal purposes. To meet
the requirements of the REAL ID Act, by May 11, 2008, states must, among
other things, verify the lawful status of every driver's license and identification
card applicant. Section 202(a) of the Act prohibits federal agencies from
accepting for any official purpose after May 11, 2008, driver's licenses
and identification cards issued by States not in compliance with the Act.
Section 202(c)(3)(C) of the Act mandates that all States
enter into a Memorandum of Understanding with the SAVE Program by September
11, 2005. The Act also requires that states be in full compliance by May
2008, in order to have their state-issued driver's licenses and state-issued
identification cards recognized by the Federal government for official
purposes. One provision is the routine verification of lawful status through
the SAVE Program of all non-citizen applicants for a driver's license or
state-issued identification card.
Other Agency SAVE Participants
While IRCA, as amended, only mandates selected programs
to participate in SAVE, any Federal, state, or local benefit-granting authority
or licensing bureau that requires verification of an applicant's/recipient's
immigration status may apply for participation in the SAVE Program. The
following are examples of agencies that presently participate in the SAVE
Program with respect to non-mandated programs:
Department of Defense Manpower Data Center
Social Security Administration (SSA)
Driver's Licensing Agencies in Arkansas, California,
Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey,
New York, South Dakota, Virginia, and Wyoming
Mohegan Tribal Gaming Commission
City of New York Human Resources Administration
Palm Beach County Property Appraiser
Transportation Security Administration, HAZMAT Program
Office of Personnel Management
Federal Protective Service
Status Verification Process
Verification Information System (VIS), Customer Processing
System (CPS)
The SAVE Program has reengineered the way it delivers
immigration status verification information to Federal, state, and local
benefit issuing agencies and licensing bureaus. This allows the user to
make faster benefit eligibility determinations, which can result in cost
savings to the Government and better service.
Available Access Methods
VIS-CPS Web 1
Once VIS-CPS Web 1 is accessed, the user enters the non-citizen's
A-number to do the initial query against the VIS database, and within seconds,
the system will respond with the non-citizen's immigration status/employment
eligibility statement or a system message to "Institute Additional Verification." If
the non-citizen's immigration status/employment eligibility statement is
returned and no material discrepancies exist between the information returned
from the VIS database and that on the non-citizen's immigration document,
the verification is complete. The user can print the verification case
data for its records, and close the case to remove it from its workload.
When a user receives the "Institute Additional Verification" message or
when material discrepancies exist between the immigration document, the
user is provided a data entry screen to submit additional information electronically
from the non-citizen's immigration document to an Immigration Status Verifier
(ISV) for processing. Upon receipt of this information, the ISV processes
the request for status verification and electronically transmits the results
to the User Agency. Internet access and a supported web browser (Internet
Explorer 5.5 or newer, or Netscape 4.7 or newer, but not Netscape 7.0)
are required to access the VIS-CPS database using the Web 1 access method.
the Web 1 access method establishes a secure Internet connection to VIS-CPS.
VIS-CPS Web 2
VIS-CPS Web 2 is very similar to VIS-CPS Web 1 except
that the User Agency must enter the additional information from the non-citizen's
immigration document up-front with the initial query. This includes the
non-citizen's A-Number, first, middle, and last names, date of birth, user
case number, and the immigration document type and its expiration date.
If the non-citizen's immigration status can be verified through the VIS
database, the system will provide the status to the user within seconds.
If the non-citizen's status cannot be verified through the VIS database
and additional verification is required it is automatically electronically
sent to an ISV for processing. The ISV retrieves and responds to the additional
verification request the same way as they do for VIS-CPS Web 1. VIS-CPS
Web 2 also allows a user to request additional verification when material
discrepancies exist between the information returned from the VIS database
and that on the non-citizen's immigration document. As with Web 1, Internet
access and a supported web browser (Internet Explorer 5.5 or newer, or
Netscape 4.7 or newer, but not Netscape 7.0) are also required to access
the VIS-CPS database using Web 2. The Web 2 access method also establishes
a secure Internet connection to VIS-CPS.
VIS-CPS Web 3 (This is what a majority
of DMVs use)
VIS-CPS Web 3 is also very similar to VIS-CPS Web 1.
The only difference is that the user can run initial queries using A-Numbers
or I-94 Arrival/Departure Numbers. The additional verification process
works exactly the same as with VIS-CPS Web 1. Internet access and a supported
web browser (Internet Explorer 5.5 or newer, or Netscape 4.7 or newer,
but not Netscape 7.0) are also required to access the VIS-CPS database
using Web 3. The Web 3 access method also establishes a secure Internet
connection to VIS-CPS.
VIS-CPS SFTP Priority Batch
VIS-CPS Secure File Transfer Protocol (SFTP) Priority
Batch is another access method currently available and is a computer match
between the VIS database and the User Agency and is only available to very
high-volume users. Batch is similar to PC System 2 in that if the applicant's
immigration status cannot be provided by the VIS database in the initial
computer match, the additional verification request is automatically elecronically
sent to an ISV for processing. The ISV then retrieves and responds to the
additional verification request the same as he or she does for all other
VIS access methods, and the results file is transmitted back to the User
Agency during the next hourly computer match upload. VIS-CPS SFTP Priority
Batch requires Internet access, SFTP connectivity, and custom software
for formatting queries and interpreting the output file.
VIS-CPS Web Services
VIS-CPS Web Services is the last available access method
and functions like VIS-CPS Web 1 and 3. It allows user agencies to submit
initial queries by A# or I# and to request additional verification when
directed by a VIS/CPS system message, or when material discrepancies exist
between the information returned from the VIS database and that on the
non-citizen's immigration document. The additional verification process
works exactly the same as with all other VIS-CPS access methods. VIS-CPS
Web Services is program-to-program communication between the user agency
and VIS-CPS using a secure protocol over the Internet, allowing the user
agency's program to submit verification requests and receive responses.
Internet access and commercial off-the-shelf software that enables development
of a client web service application is required.
Manual Verification
SAVE verification is also available through a manual
process if the use of VIS/CPS is not cost-effective. The SAVE Program also
requires participating agencies, institutions, and other entities to use
manual verification when directed by an VIS/CPS system message, or when
the automated check or initial inspection of an applicant's/recipient's
documentation, or information provided from such documentation, reveals
material discrepancies. To conduct a manual verification, user agencies
complete the Document Verification Request (Form G-845), attach copies
of the non-citizen's immigration documentation, and mail it to their local
immigration status verification office. Once the immigration status verification
office receives and processes the Form G-845, it is returned to the User
Agency via the U.S. Postal Service.
Save Program Administration
To join the SAVE Program and acquire access to VIS-CPS
to perform immigration status verification, an agency must first establish
a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the SAVE Program, and then establish
a purchase order with the SAVE Program contractor to pay for VIS-CPS transaction
fees. Access to SAVE is subject to USCIS resource limitations or other
legal or policy criteria. To request participation in SAVE and to begin
the MOU process, please access the following website to register: https://www.vis-dhs.com/agencyregistration
For
additional information regarding the SAVE Program, please call 1-888-464-4218,
or write to:
David
H. Bounds
Chief, SAVE Program
USCIS Verification Division
U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
470 L'Enfant Plaza East, SW Suit 8017
Washington, DC 20024
For more information on the SAVE Program at 1-888-464-4218
or email us at SAVE.HELP@DHS.gov
SAVE
Program
Frequently Asked Questions
BENEFITS/ENTITLEMENTS
Q:
What is the SAVE Program?
Answer:
The Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) Program is
an intergovernmental, information-sharing initiative designed to aid
Federal, state and local benefit-issuing agencies and licensing bureaus
in verifying a non-citizen applicant's immigration status, thereby ensuring
that only eligible non-citizens receive public benefits and licenses.
Q:
What is the cost of the SAVE program to the user?
Answer:
The cost of access to the Verification Information System (VIS) Customer
Processing System (CPS) varies by access method. There are currently
five access methods available: Web-Based (Web-1, Web-2, Web-3); Computer
Matching (SFTP Priority Batch); and Web Services. The transaction cost
varies from $.20 to $.26 per query for an Initial Verification and from
$.24 to $.48 for an Additional Verification.
Q:
What is the system’s response time?
Answer:
For agencies using VIS-CPS, the response time for an Initial Verification
is 3-5 seconds, and for an Additional Verification request, in most cases,
is within 3-5 Federal government workdays.
For
agencies using the manual verification method (Form G-845), the response
time for mandated agencies is within 10 Federal government workdays from
receipt by an Immigration Status Verification Unit and is negotiable
with all other user agencies, usually within 20 working days.
Q:
What safeguards exist in the SAVE system to prevent benefit granting
agencies and licensing bureaus from erroneously denying a benefit?
Answer:
Under the SAVE program, a non-citizen is never denied a benefit or license
based solely upon the response from an Initial Verification. An Additional
Verification (automated or manual) procedure is in place as a precautionary
measure.
Q:
Does the SAVE Program provide information to Federal, state, and
local benefit-issuing agencies and licensing bureaus to assist them
in understanding the SAVE Program's role in the immigration status
verification process?
Answer:
Yes. The SAVE Program provides participating benefit issuing agencies
and licensing bureaus with user manuals, and conducts periodic user meetings
to discuss the SAVE Program's role and address the Users' concerns. In
addition, SAVE Program staff is available to answer questions either
in writing or by telephone.
Q:
Is the VIS-CPS database capable of providing the information that
states and agencies will need?
Answer:
The current SAVE Program can electronically verify the status of most
lawful permanent residents as well as aliens in many other categories.
For certain groups of non-citizens or when status cannot be verified
immediately through an Initial Verification, the Additional Verification
procedure (manual or automated) should be instituted. This additional
verification ensures that all available DHS records systems can be checked
and that benefits or licenses are not denied to eligible persons.
Q:
For what programs do benefit providers have to verify an applicant’s
immigration status?
Answer:
Verification is mandatory for Federal public benefit programs. State
and local agencies may choose to verify immigration status for applicants
for state and local public benefit programs.
Q:
What can states do to verify status before a final regulation is
issued on the new verification system?
Answer:
The law does not address this issue; states can decide whether to rely
on self certification, document review, or contacting the SAVE Program
to explore the possibility of signing up with the SAVE Program which
administers the current status verification system. States can also refer
to the Interim Guidance on Verification published in the Federal Register
on November 17, 1997.
Q:
Can the SAVE Program verify sponsorship information?
Answer:
Yes, the SAVE Program can supply state agencies with information that
sponsors provided on the original Affidavit of Support, Form I-864, when
requested through the VIS-CPS or by submitting the Document Verification
Request, Form G-845S, along with the Document Verification Request Supplement,
Form G-845 Supplement, to their local USCIS office.
David H. Bounds
USCIS/NSRV/VER
Systematic Alien Verification
for Entitlements (SAVE)
Program Chief
490 L’Enfant Plaza
East, S.W. Suite 8017
Washington, DC 20024-2135
202-358-7807
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