Background

The SAVE Program requires participating agencies and institutions to submit secondary verification requests to the INS under specified circumstances. The INS conducts thorough searches of applicable INS databases and paper files, as necessary, to respond to such secondary verification requests. A combination of both the primary and secondary components of the SAVE Program are used by a large number of SAVE users. However, status verification involving only the secondary process is available to benefit issuing agencies and institutions that have a very small number of non-citizen applicants for benefits.

The purpose of the secondary verification process is two-fold. First, it allows agencies to participate in the SAVE Program when access to the automated system would not be cost effective. Second, it provides a thorough search of all applicable INS automated databases and paper files when questions arise during the visual verification of documentation or the primary verification.