Alien Registration
Usefulness of a Nonimmigrant Alien Annual Address Reporting Requirement Is Questionable Gao ID: GAO-05-204 January 28, 2005Since 1940, Congress has provided a statutory framework that requires aliens entering or residing in the United States to provide address information. By 1981, aliens who remain in the United States for 30 days or more were required to initially register and report their address information and then to report their change of address only if they move. In the months immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, federal investigators' efforts to locate and interview nearly one-half of the 4,112 nonimmigrant aliens they attempted to contact were impeded by lack of current address information. Nonimmigrant aliens are defined as those who seek temporary entry into the United States for a specific purpose, including those aliens who are in the country as students, international representatives, or temporary workers, or for business or pleasure. Because of growing concern over the government's need to locate aliens, the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 directed GAO to study the feasibility and the utility of a requirement that each nonimmigrant alien in the United States self-report a current address on a yearly basis.
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told us that while implementing an annual address reporting requirement for nonimmigrant aliens is technically feasible, such a requirement would increase the number of reporting forms DHS would have to process. In turn, this increase would raise form-processing costs from an estimated $1.6 million to at least an estimated $4.6 million per year, according to DHS, which does not include the cost of enforcing the annual reporting requirement. The consensus of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who investigate activities that may violate immigration law, was that a self-reporting system would be of limited use in locating aliens who are avoiding contact with the government. Nonimmigrant aliens who do not wish to be located are not likely to comply with an annual requirement to self-report address information. Consequently, agents use other databases to locate this class of alien as well as nonimmigrant aliens who may not be aware of address reporting requirements. Public and private databases that record information concerning benefits, an alien's department of motor vehicle records, or credit bureau information are examples of information sources that agents have used to locate nonimmigrant aliens. Despite the unreliability of self-reported information, some agents did recognize the possibility of limited enforcement benefits for implementing an annual address reporting requirement, such as verifying that compliant nonimmigrant aliens are still in the country and providing a basis for detaining noncompliant nonimmigrant aliens. However, existing systems are available for compliant nonimmigrant aliens to notify DHS of address changes. Also, DHS already has the authority to detain all aliens not in compliance with current change of address reporting requirements but has seldom used the authority. Consequently, it is questionable whether the usefulness of an annual reporting requirement would outweigh the cost of implementation and enforcement. DHS reviewed a draft of this report and had technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.
GAO-05-204, Alien Registration: Usefulness of a Nonimmigrant Alien Annual Address Reporting Requirement Is Questionable
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Report to Congressional Committees:
United States Government Accountability Office:
GAO:
January 2005:
Alien Registration:
Usefulness of a Nonimmigrant Alien Annual Address Reporting Requirement
Is Questionable:
GAO-05-204:
GAO Highlights:
Highlights of GAO-05-204, a report to Congressional Committees:
Why GAO Did This Study:
Since 1940, Congress has provided a statutory framework that requires
aliens entering or residing in the United States to provide address
information. By 1981, aliens who remain in the United States for 30
days or more were required to initially register and report their
address information and then to report their change of address only if
they move. In the months immediately following the terrorist attacks on
September 11, 2001, federal investigators‘ efforts to locate and
interview nearly one-half of the 4,112 nonimmigrant aliens they
attempted to contact were impeded by lack of current address
information.
Nonimmigrant aliens are defined as those who seek temporary entry into
the United States for a specific purpose, including those aliens who
are in the country as students, international representatives, or
temporary workers, or for business or pleasure. Because of growing
concern over the government‘s need to locate aliens, the Enhanced
Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 directed GAO to study
the feasibility and the utility of a requirement that each nonimmigrant
alien in the United States self-report a current address on a yearly
basis.
What GAO Found:
Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told us that while
implementing an annual address reporting requirement for nonimmigrant
aliens is technically feasible, such a requirement would increase the
number of reporting forms DHS would have to process. In turn, this
increase would raise form-processing costs from an estimated $1.6
million to at least an estimated $4.6 million per year, according to
DHS, which does not include the cost of enforcing the annual reporting
requirement.
The consensus of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who
investigate activities that may violate immigration law, was that a
self-reporting system would be of limited use in locating aliens who
are avoiding contact with the government. Nonimmigrant aliens who do
not wish to be located are not likely to comply with an annual
requirement to self-report address information. Consequently, agents
use other databases to locate this class of alien as well as
nonimmigrant aliens who may not be aware of address reporting
requirements. Public and private databases that record information
concerning benefits, an alien‘s department of motor vehicle records, or
credit bureau information are examples of information sources that
agents have used to locate nonimmigrant aliens. Despite the
unreliability of self-reported information, some agents did recognize
the possibility of limited enforcement benefits for implementing an
annual address reporting requirement, such as verifying that compliant
nonimmigrant aliens are still in the country and providing a basis for
detaining noncompliant nonimmigrant aliens. However, existing systems
are available for compliant nonimmigrant aliens to notify DHS of
address changes. Also, DHS already has the authority to detain all
aliens not in compliance with current change of address reporting
requirements but has seldom used the authority. Consequently, it is
questionable whether the usefulness of an annual reporting requirement
would outweigh the cost of implementation and enforcement.
DHS reviewed a draft of this report and had technical comments, which
we incorporated as appropriate.
Types of Database Systems Containing Nonimmigrant Alien Addresses:
[See PDF for image]
[End of figure]
www.gao.gov/cgi-bin/getrpt?GAO-05-204.
To view the full product, including the scope and methodology, click on
the link above. For more information, contact Richard M. Stana at (202)
512-8777 or stanar@gao.gov.
[End of section]
Contents:
Letter:
Results in Brief:
Scope and Methodology:
Background:
USCIS Officials Believe Implementing an Annual Nonimmigrant Alien
Address Reporting Requirement Is Technically Feasible:
Most ICE Agents Believe Annual Nonimmigrant Alien Address Reporting
Would Be of Limited Utility:
Concluding Observations:
Agency Comments:
Figures:
Figure 1: Evolution of Nonimmigrant Alien Address Reporting
Requirements:
Abbreviations:
CLAIMS: Computer-Linked Application Management System:
DHS: Department of Homeland Security:
DOJ: Department of Justice:
FBI: Federal Bureau of Investigation:
FTTTF: Foreign Terrorist Tracking Task Force:
ICE: Immigration and Customs Enforcement:
INS: Immigration and Naturalization Service:
NIIS: Nonimmigrant Information System:
ORS: Office of Records Services:
USCIS: U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service:
US-VISIT: United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator
Technology:
United States Government Accountability Office:
Washington, DC 20548:
January 28, 2005:
The Honorable Arlen Specter:
Chairman:
The Honorable Patrick J. Leahy:
Ranking Minority Member:
Committee on the Judiciary:
U.S. Senate:
The Honorable F. James Sensenbrenner, Jr.:
Chairman:
The Honorable John Conyers, Jr.:
Ranking Minority Member:
Committee on the Judiciary:
House of Representatives:
Since 1940, Congress has provided a statutory framework that requires
aliens entering or residing in the United States to provide address
information under certain circumstances. This information was
historically provided to the Immigration and Naturalization Service
(INS), which was abolished and whose functions were transferred into
the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on March 1, 2003. By 1981,
aliens who remain in the United States for 30 days or more were
required to initially register and report their address while in the
country and then report their change of address only if they move. In
the months immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11,
2001, Department of Justice (DOJ) investigators attempted to locate and
interview 4,112 nonimmigrant aliens by calling upon INS, as the federal
agency responsible for maintaining address information for aliens who
are in the United States, to provide current addresses for the
aliens.[Footnote 1] However, federal investigators were only able to
contact slightly over one-half of the nonimmigrants they attempted to
locate because of INS's lack of current address information.
Because of growing concern over the government's need to locate aliens,
the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 directed
us to study the feasibility and the utility of a requirement that each
nonimmigrant alien in the United States report a current address on a
yearly basis.[Footnote 2] To address this requirement, we reviewed
available documents concerning nonimmigrant alien address reporting
requirements and interviewed headquarters officials from
USCIS[Footnote 3] and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
(ICE).[Footnote 4] We performed our work between June and November 2004
in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards.
Results in Brief:
DHS officials told us that implementing an annual nonimmigrant alien
address reporting requirement, while technically feasible, would add
costs with little return in benefits, given the unreliability of self-
reported address information. According to USCIS officials, the NIIS
system for processing change of address forms could be upgraded to
process the increased number of reporting forms USCIS would have to
process. In turn, this increase would raise form-processing costs from
an estimated $1.6 million to at least an estimated $4.6 million per
year, which does not include the cost of enforcing the annual reporting
requirement.
Sixteen of the 17 headquarters and field ICE agents we interviewed said
that implementing an annual nonimmigrant alien address reporting
requirement would have limited utility in assisting them in locating
nonimmigrant aliens because the basis for annual registration is self-
reported information. According to the agents, on the basis of their
experience with nonimmigrant address reporting under current change of
address requirements, nonimmigrants who intentionally are not in
compliance with immigration or other laws or otherwise do not want to
be contacted by the government are not likely to accurately self-report
their address information to DHS. However, these nonimmigrants might
still be found using non-DHS information systems. Other nonimmigrant
aliens, such as those who may not be aware of address reporting
requirements or forget to file, might also be found through other
existing systems. For nonimmigrant aliens generally, agents say they
have relied on databases other than DHS's self-reporting system for
accurate address information. Public and private databases that record
information concerning benefits or an alien's department of motor
vehicle records, credit bureau information, or court filings are
examples of information sources that agents have used to locate
nonimmigrant aliens. Despite the general unreliability of self-reported
information, some agents did recognize the possibility of limited
enforcement benefits for implementing an annual address registration
requirement, such as verifying that compliant nonimmigrant aliens are
still in the country and providing a basis for detaining noncompliant
aliens. However, they said existing systems are already available for
compliant nonimmigrant aliens to notify DHS of address changes, and DHS
already has the authority to detain all aliens not in compliance with
current change of address reporting requirements but has seldom used
the authority.
DHS reviewed a draft of this report and had technical comments, which
we incorporated as appropriate.
Scope and Methodology:
To determine the feasibility and utility of implementing a requirement
that each nonimmigrant alien annually report a current address, we
reviewed available documents concerning nonimmigrant alien address
reporting requirements and interviewed headquarters officials from
USCIS and ICE. At USCIS headquarters, we interviewed senior officials
who were responsible for alien records management and benefit
administration. At ICE headquarters, we interviewed two senior
officials who were responsible for ICE compliance enforcement
activities related to aliens. We also interviewed 15 ICE Assistant
Special-Agents-in-Charge, supervisors, and special agents who are
responsible for immigration enforcement activities in their Detroit,
Michigan; Houston, Texas; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; and
New York, New York field offices.[Footnote 5] These offices, according
to DHS data, are located in geographic regions where almost half of
nonimmigrants likely to be subject to an annual address reporting
requirement reside. The results of our interviews with agents in these
five field offices may not be representative of the views and opinions
of those in other field offices nationwide. We also interviewed an
official from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Foreign
Terrorist Tracking Task Force (FTTTF).
USCIS's ORS staff provided cost estimates for existing change of
address processing costs and for an annual nonimmigrant alien address
reporting requirement. We attempted to obtain supporting explanations
and documentation to verify these estimates, but were not provided
information on all. On the basis of our efforts to determine the
reliability of the estimates for which supporting information was
provided, which included verifying calculations and bringing any
discrepancies we found to their attention, we believe that they are
sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this report. We did not use
cost estimates for which supporting information was not provided.
Background:
Through initial registration and change of address notifications, all
aliens are to provide their identity and an address where they can be
located while in the United States.[Footnote 6] USCIS receives and
maintains alien address information for benefits administration and
immigration law enforcement, and can share this information to help
other law enforcement agencies identify and locate aliens for national
security purposes.[Footnote 7]
Generally, nonimmigrant aliens provide their identity and address
information at the time of their entry and during their stay in the
United States using 1 of 12 different forms. For example, nonimmigrant
aliens arriving in the United States are generally required to complete
the two-part Arrival and Departure Record (Form I-94). The first part
records nonimmigrant aliens' arrivals and includes the nonimmigrant
alien's address in the United States. The second part is to be
surrendered when nonimmigrant aliens leave the country. DHS is to match
the first and second parts of the Form I-94 to identify those
nonimmigrant aliens who have left the country. However, as we reported
in May 2004 and DOJ's Inspector General reported in 1997 and 2002,
legacy INS lacked many Form I-94 departure records, and as a result,
INS could not identify all of the nonimmigrant aliens who had left the
country.[Footnote 8]
Over the years, Congress established various requirements for immigrant
and nonimmigrant aliens to report their addresses while residing in the
United States. Currently, aliens are generally required to report their
change of address to USCIS within 10 days of moving. Failure to report
a change of address can result in an alien being taken into custody and
placed in removal proceedings before an immigration judge. The alien
can be fined, imprisoned for not more than 30 days, or removed. Because
legacy INS did not inform aliens of change of address notification
requirements when they entered the country, in our November 2002
report, we recommended that legacy INS publicize change of address
notification requirements nationwide.[Footnote 9] According to USCIS
officials, as of November 2004 this recommendation was not implemented
because USCIS was in the process of revising the change of address form
used by aliens and did not want to begin publicity efforts until the
revised form was finalized. Figure 1 shows the evolution of
nonimmigrant alien reporting requirements, beginning with the
establishment of the Alien Registration Act of 1940 to the present,
with the 1981 amendments marking when annual reporting requirements of
nonimmigrant aliens were repealed.
Figure 1: Evolution of Nonimmigrant Alien Address Reporting
Requirements:
[See PDF for image]
[A] Eliminated by regulation 8 C.F.R. 265.1 (1983).
[B] An alien is to be removed from the United States unless the alien
establishes to the satisfaction of the Attorney General that the
violation was reasonably excusable or was not willful.
[C] Required by regulation 8 C.F.R. 119.3 (1950).
[D] The requirement to report an address every 90 days was by
regulation (8 C.F.R. 119.3) a condition of entry. Violation of a
condition of entry could result in an alien's deportation.
[End of figure]
Although Congress, in 1981, eliminated the requirements that all aliens
annually report their addresses and that nonimmigrants report their
address every 90 days, Congress, through various acts, reinforced the
importance of the government being able to identify the lawful entry of
nonimmigrants into the United States. Specifically, prior to the
terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress mandated that INS
improve its ability to identify nonimmigrant aliens who arrive and
depart the United States and who overstay their visas. The Illegal
Immigration Reform and Immigrant Responsibility Act of 1996, for
example, authorized the Attorney General to establish an electronic
student tracking system to verify and monitor the foreign student and
exchange visitor information program and develop an entry and exit
control system to collect arrival and departure records for every alien
entering and leaving the United States.[Footnote 10] After September
11, 2001, the USA PATRIOT Act, enacted in October 2001, re-emphasized
the speedy implementation of an entry-exit system for U.S.
visitors.[Footnote 11] In August 2002, DOJ issued a rule that became
effective September 11, 2002, concerning the registration and
monitoring of certain nonimmigrants.[Footnote 12] Under this rule, DOJ
imposed special requirements on nonimmigrants from designated
countries.[Footnote 13] For nonimmigrant aliens arriving in the United
States, these requirements included being fingerprinted and
photographed at the port of entry. The rule also required nonimmigrant
aliens to reregister after 30 days and annually. In December 2003, DHS
issued an interim rule suspending the 30-day and annual reregistration
requirements that were in effect prior to that date.[Footnote 14] DHS
determined that its United States Visitor and Immigrant Status
Indicator Technology (US-VISIT) program and other new processes being
implemented would meet the national security needs.
Consistent with the above registration requirements, US-VISIT is part
of the U.S. security measures for all visitors (with limited
exemptions) holding nonimmigrant visas, regardless of country of
origin. Specifically, US-VISIT's program objectives include (1)
collecting, maintaining, and sharing information (including address
data) on aliens who enter and exit the United States; (2) identifying
aliens who have violated the terms of their visit; and (3) detecting
fraudulent travel documents, verifying traveler identity, and
determining traveler admissibility through the use of biometrics.
USCIS Officials Believe Implementing an Annual Nonimmigrant Alien
Address Reporting Requirement Is Technically Feasible:
USCIS officials told us that it would be technically feasible to
implement an annual nonimmigrant alien address reporting requirement.
The officials said that the current NIIS system for processing alien
change of address forms could be upgraded to facilitate the nearly
fourfold increase in processing volume that likely could result from
implementing an annual nonimmigrant alien address reporting
requirement. USCIS currently processes about 550,000 nonimmigrant
change of address forms each year, and the officials estimated that
about 2.6 million nonimmigrants could be required to report under an
annual requirement.[Footnote 15]
The officials estimated that an increase of over 2 million address
reporting forms would increase USCIS's current annual change of address
form processing costs from about $1.6 million to at least $4.6 million
per year.[Footnote 16] The estimate of the cost increase includes
computer operations and maintenance, printing of address reporting
forms, and additional data entry staff. USCIS's estimate does not
include the potentially substantial cost of enforcing the address
reporting requirement, which would include hiring, training, and
compensating additional ICE agents.
USCIS is considering incorporating the current NIIS change of address
system into the US-VISIT program. On October 4, 2004, officials from
USCIS formally requested that DHS move responsibility for all alien
change of address registration from USCIS's ORS to the US-VISIT
program. Although US-VISIT officials told us that placement of
nonimmigrant change of address information responsibility within US-
VISIT might be a viable option, the program is not currently designed
to monitor aliens during their stay in the United States. These
officials told us that incorporating address change data into the US-
VISIT program would require a change in US-VISIT program requirements,
including changes in US-VISIT's budget and technical requirements. As
of November 2004, DHS officials had not made a decision whether to
integrate address change data into US-VISIT.
Most ICE Agents Believe Annual Nonimmigrant Alien Address Reporting
Would Be of Limited Utility:
Sixteen of the 17 ICE agents we contacted in headquarters and in the
field said that implementing an annual nonimmigrant alien address
reporting requirement would have limited utility in assisting them in
locating nonimmigrant aliens because the annual registration is based
on self-reported information.[Footnote 17] ICE agents in Houston,
Texas; Los Angeles, California; Miami, Florida; and New York, New York,
responsible for immigration enforcement activities said that when
conducting investigations, they do not use the NIIS change of address
data currently submitted by nonimmigrants to help locate nonimmigrants
as part of their investigations. They said that because the change of
address information is self-reported data, it is often less reliable
than data from other databases. According to the agents, nonimmigrants
who intentionally are not in compliance with immigration or other laws
or otherwise do not want to be contacted by the government are not
likely to accurately self-report their address information to DHS under
an annual requirement. However, these nonimmigrants might be found
using non-DHS information systems. Nonimmigrant aliens who comply with
address reporting requirements or seek DHS benefits might be found
using existing DHS systems or other information sources. Still other
nonimmigrants who may not be aware of address reporting requirements or
forget to file might also be found using other existing systems.
ICE agents said that they consider the data found in existing public
source database systems such as department of motor vehicle records,
credit bureaus, court filings, and Internet search engines that compile
address and other information to be more current and reliable than
self-reported change of address data housed in NIIS. Typically,
nonimmigrants are located through public source databases because they
have been involved in financial transactions, have driver's licenses,
and may participate in other activities (e.g., submitting an
application to rent an apartment) resulting in information that can be
tracked by investigators. For example, a nonimmigrant alien applying
for credit from a financial institution is required and has an
incentive to provide accurate address information. Because of data-
sharing arrangements among financial institutions and credit bureaus,
the address information provided by the nonimmigrant alien to the
financial institution also is available through other public source
databases, according to the agents.
In some cases, nonimmigrant aliens find it to their advantage to keep
DHS apprised of any address changes. According to agents we contacted,
nonimmigrant aliens must provide correct and current address
information to USCIS to request benefits such as a change in
immigration status from visitor to student or from nonimmigrant to
permanent resident status. The DHS databases that house address
information on nonimmigrants seeking benefits are of some use for
finding accurate address data. For example, USCIS uses the Computer-
Linked Application Information Management System (CLAIMS) system to
process requests for immigration benefits and enters updated address
information into CLAIMS. The agents said that, consequently, they rely
on CLAIMS as one source of nonimmigrant address information within DHS.
However, address information in CLAIMS and NIIS are not linked in a
manner such that an address change in one would update an address in
the other database. In our November 2002 report, we recommended that
legacy INS remedy this type of problem by ensuring that alien address
information in all DHS databases is consistent and reliable. As of
November 2004, this recommendation had not been implemented.[Footnote
18]
Although almost all of the 17 agents we interviewed stated that self-
reported nonimmigrant alien addresses would not be helpful in locating
nonimmigrants, several agents described some possible benefits
associated with an annual nonimmigrant alien address reporting
requirement:
* According to one Los Angeles ICE agent, implementing an annual
nonimmigrant alien address requirement could be useful if biometric
data (e.g., fingerprints and digitized photographs) were included with
forms during the reporting process so that nonimmigrant alien
registration forms could be traced to other DHS forms, such as visas,
and also linked to a biometric identifier. The agent stated that
linking nonimmigrant address information with biometric data included
with forms, rather than with names entered on reporting forms, would
assist in ensuring accuracy of the address information. However,
current alien address notification plans do not address the potential
costs or the feasibility of implementing such a biometric approach or
any reengineering required to link any biometric indicators gathered by
US-VISIT to alien address systems.
* The FBI's FTTTF official we interviewed stated that an annual
nonimmigrant alien address reporting requirement could provide a useful
list of nonimmigrants the task force could refer to during
investigations of potential terrorists. If nonimmigrant aliens were
required to report their current address annually and within a
specified time period (for example, between January 1 and 15 of each
year), the annual reporting requirement could allow federal
investigators to refer to a list of nonimmigrants reported to be within
the United States on the date the form was submitted to DHS. Federal
investigators would, consequently, be able to use the annual address
report as a source of data, supplemental to other sources of address
information, according to the official. It is important to note that
address information entered by nonimmigrants on the I-94 entrance form
or US-VISIT information, coupled with compliance with the current
change of address notification requirements, would provide this
information, making an annual registration requirement redundant,
assuming the alien provides accurate address information.
* Agents in ICE's Detroit, Michigan, and Houston, Texas, field offices
and one ICE headquarters official told us that violation of an annual
address registration requirement could be used to allow ICE, in the
absence of other charges, to temporarily detain nonimmigrant aliens to
allow for questioning regarding other potential crimes. However, as we
reported in November 2002, violation of the current address
notification requirements by aliens also provides a basis for temporary
detention and questioning, but historically legacy INS infrequently
enforced address reporting requirements.[Footnote 19]
Concluding Observations:
While implementing an annual registration requirement for nonimmigrants
is feasible, the consensus of the USCIS and ICE headquarters officials
and ICE field office agents we contacted recognized that a self-
reporting system would be of limited use in locating the group of
aliens who are not in compliance with immigration laws or otherwise do
not want to be contacted by the government. Nonimmigrant aliens who do
not wish to be located are not likely to comply with an annual
requirement to self-report address information. Consequently, agents
have used other databases to locate this class of alien and have found
such databases to be more current and reliable than the existing self-
reporting system. Potential benefits cited by law enforcement agents,
such as the ability to verify that the nonimmigrant alien is still in
the country and to provide a basis for detaining noncompliant aliens,
might be available with current systems and law but have seldom been
used. For these reasons, it is questionable whether the usefulness of
an annual reporting requirement would outweigh the cost of
implementation and enforcement.
Agency Comments:
We requested comments on a draft of this report from the Secretary of
Homeland Security. DHS reviewed a draft of this report and had
technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.
We are sending copies of this letter to the Secretary of the Department
of Homeland Security and interested congressional committees. We will
also make copies available to others upon request. In addition, the
letter will be available at no charge on the GAO Web site at http://
wwww.gao.gov.
If you or your staffs have any questions about this letter, please
contact Darryl W. Dutton at (213) 830-1086 or me at (202) 512-8777. Key
contributors to this letter are Samuel Van Wagner, Ben Atwater, Grace
Coleman, Nancy Finley, and David Alexander.
Signed by:
Richard M. Stana:
Director, Homeland Security and Justice Issues:
FOOTNOTES
[1] DHS's U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service (USCIS) defined
nonimmigrant aliens as those who seek temporary entry into the United
States for a specific purpose. The alien must have a permanent
residence abroad (for most classes of admission) and qualify for the
nonimmigrant classification sought. The nonimmigrant classifications
include foreign government officials, visitors for business and for
pleasure, aliens in transit through the United States, treaty traders
and investors, students, international representatives, temporary
workers and trainees, representatives of foreign information media,
exchange visitors, fiancé(e)s of U.S. citizens, intracompany
transferees, NATO officials, and religious workers. Immigrants are
aliens who intend to permanently reside in the United States. For a
discussion of how address reporting requirements have applied to
nonimmigrant and immigrant aliens over time, see GAO, Homeland
Security: INS Cannot Locate Many Aliens because It Lacks Reliable
Address Information. GAO-03-188. (Washington, D.C.: Nov. 21, 2002), 8-
11.
[2] Sec. 602, P.L. 107-173 (2002). For the purposes of this report, we
define feasibility as the technical capability to collect and
electronically store nonimmigrant alien annual address information. We
define utility as how useful the information would be in locating
nonimmigrant aliens.
[3] The USCIS Office of Records Services (ORS) manages the current
nonimmigrant alien address reporting program. Nonimmigrant aliens are
required to mail change of address forms to a processing center in
London, Kentucky, where the information is scanned into and stored in
the Nonimmigrant Information System (NIIS).
[4] ICE is the largest investigative arm of DHS and is responsible for
investigating vulnerabilities in U.S. border, economic,
transportation, and infrastructure security.
[5] ICE personnel are referred to as agents in this report.
[6] The requirements for alien registration and change of address are
codified at 8 U.S.C. 1301-1306.
[7] Benefits administration includes handling citizenship, adjusting
the status of immigrants to permanent residence, providing employment
authorization, and granting asylum.
[8] GAO, Overstay Tracking: A Key Component of Homeland Security and a
Layered Defense. GAO-04-82. (Washington, D.C.: May 21, 2004) and DOJ,
Office of the Inspector General, Immigration and Naturalization Service
Monitoring of Nonimmigrant Overstays, Report Number I-97-08
(Washington, D.C.: Sept. 1997) and Follow-Up Report on INS Efforts to
Improve the Control of Nonimmigrant Overstays, Report No. I-2002-006,
(Washington, D.C.: Apr. 2002).
[9] See GAO-03-188, 25-26.
[10] P.L. 104-208 (1996).
[11] P.L. 107-56 (2001).
[12] 67 Fed. Reg. 52584 (August 12, 2002).
[13] Subsequently, DOJ made aliens from additional countries subject to
these requirements.
[14] 68 Fed. Reg. 67578 (December 2, 2003).
[15] ORS officials said that if an annual requirement was mandated, not
all classes of nonimmigrants should be required to report their
addresses annually. The officials believed that those nonimmigrant
aliens who are generally in the United States for short periods of time
and move frequently, such as tourists, should be excluded from the
requirement, as they are excluded from the current reporting
requirement. Other classes, such as students, temporary workers, and
trainees, could be processed under an annual reporting requirement,
according to the officials.
[16] ORS officials estimated that in addition to the cost increases
cited here, approximately $1,000,000 in information system upgrades
would be necessary to process the increased number of address reporting
forms. However, the officials were not able to provide any supporting
explanations for this amount. Therefore, we did not include the
$1,000,000 figure in the estimated cost increase cited in this report.
[17] Nonimmigrant aliens are required to initially register their
address and employer information with USCIS when they enter the United
States.
[18] GAO-03-188, 25-26.
[19] GAO-03-188, 17.
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