Supporting Statement

Student Assistance General Provisions -- Subpart I

Immigration Status Confirmation

1.  This request is for approval of an extension of reporting
    requirements currently located in the Student Assistance General
    Provisions, 34 CFR 668, Subpart I. This subpart governs the
    Verification of Immigration Status, as authorized by section 484(g)
    of the Higher Education Act of 1965, as amended (HEA) (20 U.S.C.
    1091).

2.  Collection of this information enables the Secretary to determine if
    a noncitizen applicant for Title IV, HEA benefits is an eligible
    student as defined in section 484(a)(5) of the HEA. The ability to
    make this determination reduces the potential for fraud and abuse in
    the Title IV, HEA programs caused by ineligible aliens receiving
    federal student financial assistance. By reducing the potential for
    fraud and abuse, the Secretary is better able to safeguard federal
    student financial aid dollars for the intended purpose of providing
    educational opportunities to U.S. citizens or noncitizens with Title
    IV, HEA -- eligible immigration credentials.

3.  The Secretary uses an automated data matching system in conjunction
    with the Department of Homeland Security's office of Citizenship and
    Immigration Services (CIS) to electronically confirm the eligible
    noncitizen status of a noncitizen applicant for Title IV, HEA
    benefits. The data matching system is operated in full compliance
    with the Computer Matching and Privacy Protection Act of 1988
    (CMPPA) and imposes no reporting burdens on respondents. As required
    by the CMPPA, applicants with immigration statuses that are not
    confirmed as eligible noncitizens by the data matching system are
    not presumed to be ineligible and are instead, subject to a
    secondary automated verification process within CIS. In those
    limited cases where verification is still unconfirmed after the
    automated secondary verification, the noncitizens applicant is
    subject to a manual secondary verification process requiring the
    institution to request written verification through the submission
    of a G 845S Form (as provided by CIS), along with copies of the
    student's immigration status documentation as provided by the
    student. This manual request for information, which we refer to as
    manual secondary confirmation, constitutes the collection of
    information for which approval is requested.

4.  There is no duplication of records or similar information already
    available for use by institutions.

5.  The information collected does not involve small business entities.

6.  If this information is not collected or is collected less
    frequently, the potential for fraud and abuse as described in #2
    increases. Also, section 484(g)(1) provides that the Secretary will
    verify applicant claims of citizenship or eligible noncitizen status
    prior to awarding grants, loans, or work assistance under Title IV
    of the HEA. This provision precludes the Secretary from employing
    any procedure that does not verify U.S. citizenship or eligible
    immigration status of all applicants for Title IV, HEA benefits.

7.  Under 34 CFR 668.135, an institution that receives immigration
    status documents from a student with an immigration status that was
    not confirmed using the CIS/ED data match or the automated secondary
    verification process is required to request written verification
    from the CIS within 10 business days.

> No institution is required to submit more than the original completed
> G 845S Form and one copy of any CIS immigration status document(s).
>
> No institution is required to retain immigration status records for
> more than three years after the end of the award for which Title IV,
> HEA aid was awarded and disbursed.
>
> This information collection does not include a statistical survey.
>
> This information collection does not require the use of a statistical
> data classification.
>
> This information collection does not include a pledge of
> confidentiality that is not supported by authority established in
> statute or regulation, is not supported by disclosure and data
> security policies consistent with the pledge, or which impedes sharing
> of data with other agencies.
>
> This information collection does not require respondents to submit
> proprietary trade secrets or other confidential information.

8.  This information collection is not being submitted in connection
    with a notice of proposed rulemaking. Consultations with members of
    the financial aid community are made regularly to determine if there
    are areas of improvement needed in the secondary confirmation
    process. These consultations have been instrumental in finding ways
    to increase the percentage of noncitizen applicants with immigration
    statuses that are confirmed using the electronic data match and, as
    a result, to reduce the percentage of applicants requiring manual
    secondary confirmation. Consultations with the CIS are conducted
    approximately twice yearly and more often if needed -- these
    consultations are useful in addressing interagency processing
    problems and in discussing how new technologies can be employed to
    perform these functions more efficiently.

9.  There has been no payment or gift to respondents.

10. These requirements do not prescribe any assurance of confidentiality
    to institutions except as required under the provisions of the
    CMPPA.

11. These regulations do not include any questions of a sensitive
    nature, such as sexual behavior and attitudes.

12. Of the 777,496 applications from noncitizen applicants processed in
    the 2003-2004 award year, 167,954 were not confirmed using the data
    match. Of the 167,954, we estimate that approximately half or 87,336
    applicants did not match with the CIS database submitted by 6,160
    institutions/respondents. The 87,336 applicants are further reduced
    by the show-up rate for the Pell Grant Program of 75% or 65,502. The
    remaining applicants either dropped out of the application process
    or were not subjected to manual secondary confirmation because
    regulatory provisions in 34 CFR 668.133(b) exempt respondents from
    this requirement if manual secondary confirmation was successfully
    used to confirm a student's eligible noncitizens status in a
    previous year. The reporting burden for the information collection,
    therefore, is calculated in the following manner:

> 6,160 (number of respondents)

X 11 (average annual responses per respondent --

> 65,502 divided by 6160 = 10.81 rounded to 11)
>
> = 67,760 (total annual responses)

X .25 (response burden per response in hours)

= 16,940 hours

The annual cost burden attributable to staff is as follows:

> \$3.75 (respondent salary cost: \$15/hr
>
> X 15 minutes)
>
> X 16,940 (estimated annual frequency)

= \$63,525

13. There are no capital or start-up costs associated with this
    information collection. The annual cost burden is calculated as
    follows:

> \$0.37 (postage)
>
> \+ \$0.50 (photocopying and student interview)
>
> X 16,940 (estimated annual frequency)
>
> = \$14,738 (total annual cost to respondents)

14. The cost to the government is comprised of cost to the U.S.
    Department of Education (ED) and on-going costs to the Department of
    Homeland Security's office of Citizenship and Immigration Services
    (CIS). The costs to ED are for central processing system costs, the
    cost of leasing telephone lines for the transmission of data used in
    the match to and from CIS, as well as the cost of administering the
    match. Costs incurred by CIS include on-going costs for processing
    all applicant records that are transmitted to CIS by ED. We
    calculate this costs as follows:

> ED's CPS Processing Cost
>
> 777,496 (records sent to CIS)
>
> X .01 (processing cost per record)
>
> = \$7,775 (application processing)
>
> 167,954 (no match records)
>
> ED's correction
>
> processing costs X .25 (percent returning as corrections)

X .084 (cost per record for history correction reprocessing)

> = \$3,527 (application record processing)
>
> Cost to ED \$7,775 (application record processing)
>
> \+ \$3,527 (history correction reprocessing)
>
> \+ \$9,072 (leased phone lines)
>
> \+ \$37,980 (ED administration cost)
>
> Total ED Cost = \$58,354 (annual cost to ED)
>
> CIS Costs \$60,659 (personnel costs including fringe benefits)
>
> \+ \$28,022 (contractor costs)
>
> \+ \$42,677 (program funding costs)
>
> \+ \$24,045 (database matching costs)
>
> Total CIS Cost = \$155,403 (annual cost to CIS)
>
> Total cost to
>
> government \$213,757 (total annual cost)

15. We had previously reported governmental costs on the OMB 83-I form,
    Item 14. Since there are no start-up costs for the respondent, the
    cost to respondents has been reduced to zero.

> Program adjustments reported in #13 and #14 of the Supporting
> Statement are the result of an increase in postage and a decrease in
> the total number of institutions participating in the program, along
> with fewer records where manual secondary confirmation is required as
> a result of the successful primary and secondary automated
> confirmation by CIS.

16. There are no plans to publish the results of this information
    collection.

17. The Department of Education is not seeking approval to not display
    the expiration date for OMB approval.

18. The Department of Education is not seeking an exception to the
    certification for Paperwork Reduction Act submissions.