Aliens applying for permanent residency and naturalization are required to submit completed fingerprint cards with their applications. INS is to send each fingerprint card to the FBI to determine if an alien has a criminal history. Aliens with criminal history records may be denied benefits depending on the severity of the offenses. During fiscal year 1993, the FBI ran 866,313 fingerprint checks at a cost to INS of $14.7 million. In addition to the aliens’ fingerprints, the fingerprint cards are to contain background information on the alien, such as name and date of birth. Aliens applying for permanent residency or naturalization are to be scheduled for hearings after they submit their applications. According to INS officials, the hearing dates are to be set to allow adequate time for the FBI to complete criminal history checks and to return the results (for aliens with arrest records) to INS. According to INS officials, aliens can have their fingerprints taken at several locations including, private businesses, the offices of voluntary organizations, police departments, and some INS district offices. INS officials said that prior to the time of the enactment of the Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986, all INS offices provided fingerprinting services for aliens requesting benefits. However, according to INS officials, most INS offices have discontinued fingerprinting services for a number of reasons, including a lack of staff. After INS accepts aliens’ applications, clerks in INS’ district offices are to separate the fingerprint cards from the applications and mail the cards to the FBI. According to the FBI, it checks the fingerprint cards to determine if data on the alien’s name, gender, date of birth, and the originating INS district office have been completed. If any of the information is missing, the FBI rejects the card and returns it to the originating INS office, if known, with an explanation for the rejection. If the background information on the fingerprint card is complete, the FBI checks the fingerprints against its criminal record history database, which contains the names of over 30 million people. If a match is found, the criminal history record is attached to the fingerprint card and mailed to the INS district office that requested the check. At the request of INS, the FBI does not notify INS if no criminal history record was found. The FBI rejects fingerprint cards if one or more of the prints are illegible and returns the rejected cards to INS offices with an explanation for their rejection. Even if the fingerprints are illegible, the FBI will run a name check comparing the aliens’ name, including background information, to the names in its criminal history database. If no positive identification is found, the rejected fingerprint card is returned to the INS requesting district office. INS officials are to submit a new fingerprint card to the FBI if the original fingerprint card is rejected. According to the FBI, it takes about 10 to 14 days to complete a name and fingerprint check for INS (from its receipt of the fingerprint card to the mailing of the results to INS). According to INS officials, INS offices usually receive rejected fingerprint cards or criminal history reports in the mail room. The cards are then taken to the Examinations Branch or Records Department, where they are to be placed in the aliens’ files. Criminal history reports are to be placed in the aliens’ files before their hearings with INS examiners. INS offices are to allow at least 60 days from the date an alien submits an application until the scheduled hearing date to allow the FBI adequate time to complete a criminal records check, return any adverse results, and allow INS to place those results in the alien’s file. In commenting on a draft of this report, INS officials provided some perspective on the significance of failure to check aliens’ fingerprints. According to INS, the ideal situation would be to check the fingerprints of every applicant. Any fingerprint not checked potentially belongs to a criminal or terrorist. However, INS stated that the actual probability that a properly obtained and checked set of fingerprints will result in an alien’s application being denied and the alien being deported is very remote. INS pointed out that only 5.4 percent of fingerprint checks result in the FBI having a record on the alien and only a small portion of the 5.4 percent result in an alien’s application being denied. While INS recognized that even a relatively small number of aliens should not inappropriately receive benefits, it did not want to give the false impression that a criminal or terrorist receives a benefit every time a fingerprint check is not properly conducted. The February 1994 OIG report stated that INS did not verify that fingerprints submitted by applicants for naturalization and permanent residency actually belonged to aliens who submitted them. The OIG report also pointed out that INS examiners had approved applications because they assumed that applicants had no criminal history records. According to the OIG report, this occurred because the FBI criminal history records were not in the aliens’ files when INS examiners adjudicated the cases. The OIG report also found that INS frequently did not submit new sets of fingerprints to the FBI when the original sets of prints were illegible. The OIG recommended that INS (1) institute procedures to verify that fingerprints submitted to INS by all applicants belong to the applicants and (2) instruct district directors to ensure that fingerprint cards are mailed promptly and criminal history reports are placed in the aliens’ files before final adjudication. INS concurred with the OIG findings and recommendations. In May 1994, INS formed a working group to address problems identified by the OIG. The group is composed of representatives from various INS service components and advisers from the FBI and OIG. To achieve our objectives, we (1) discussed the fingerprinting process with INS officials at INS headquarters in Washington, D.C., and INS’ Baltimore, Chicago, and Philadelphia District Offices and (2) reviewed INS records regarding changes to its fingerprinting process. We also observed fingerprinting procedures at these district offices. We selected the Baltimore and Chicago District Offices because they were included in the OIG report, and, therefore, we could evaluate INS’ responses. To provide perspective on the problems the OIG identified, we selected a district office not included in the OIG review. We selected the Philadelphia District Office because of its proximity to Washington, D.C. Specifically, we evaluated INS’ actions and plans in response to the problems identified in the OIG report, including the timely mailing of fingerprint cards to the FBI, the timely filing of FBI criminal history reports, and the procedures used to follow up on fingerprint cards rejected by the FBI. Further, we discussed the future impact of automated fingerprinting identification systems with INS and FBI officials. We discussed FBI processing procedures for alien fingerprints submitted by INS with FBI officials in Washington, D.C. We relied on information in the OIG report and did not verify data provided by INS and the FBI. We conducted our review from July 1994 to October 1994 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. We obtained oral comments on a draft of this report from INS and the FBI. Their comments are discussed in the agency comments section of this report. INS’ fingerprinting working group has recommended that INS implement a certification program that would increase control over fingerprint providers. INS headquarters is finalizing a new regulation to establish and implement the certification program. INS expects the regulation to be published by March 1995. According to INS, after a 6-month transition period following publication of the regulation, INS will accept only fingerprints taken by organizations it has certified. Under the proposed certification program, all organizations, except police departments and the U.S. military, who want to provide fingerprint services to aliens will have to apply for INS certification. Fingerprint providers will have to pay an application fee (currently estimated at $370). Under the certification process, INS will require that employees, volunteers, directors, and owners of the organizations providing fingerprint services undergo fingerprint checks to determine if they have criminal histories. Depending on the results of the fingerprint checks, an applicant may not be certified. If an application is accepted, INS will certify the provider for 3 years. INS plans to require certified fingerprint providers to inspect aliens’ photo identification and have aliens sign their fingerprint cards at the time the fingerprints are taken. The proposed regulation also will require fingerprint providers to be trained in fingerprinting procedures by INS. All approved organizations are to be given a stamp that is yet to be developed by INS. The stamp is to serve as a method for notifying INS that prints were taken by an approved provider. The stamp is also to allow INS to identify problematic providers—such as producers of large numbers of illegible prints. INS plans to monitor fingerprint providers using INS district employees to spot-check local certified providers to ensure that INS procedures are being followed. Under the current draft of the regulation, INS will have the authority to revoke fingerprinting privileges if the agency discovers that a provider is not following INS guidelines. INS plans to use the fees from organizations applying for certification to pay for the monitoring program. According to the draft regulation, INS will monitor one-third of all fingerprint providers each year. INS considered other alternatives to the certification program. The working group rejected the option of having the district offices do the fingerprinting because of resource shortages and the potential for overcrowding in the district offices. Other options included using contractors, police departments, and voluntary groups. The use of contractors was rejected because of potential difficulty in managing nationwide or regional contracts. Using police departments for fingerprinting was not considered feasible because many police departments do not provide fingerprinting services to the public, including aliens. Also, according to INS, some police departments were believed to have a higher rate of rejections than other providers. INS decided not to depend on voluntary groups because there are not enough voluntary groups to do all the fingerprinting. However, these groups may apply for certification. INS said that its long-term solution to the fingerprinting processing problems will be the use of electronic fingerprinting. In this regard, the FBI is developing an Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS) that will allow the electronic submission and processing of fingerprints. IAFIS is expected to dramatically reduce turnaround time for fingerprint processing.