I-9 Requirement and Database Matches

Current Law: 

All students working on campus must complete the I-9, an INS requirement, in order to prove that they are U.S. citizens or permanent residents eligible to work in the United States. Students who apply for financial aid complete the federal FAFSA required by the Department of Education. The federal FAFSA matches databases in INS and the Social Security Administration that satisfy the citizenship requirements for federal aid, including Federal Work-study.

Issue:

The present system of clearing students for work on campus is duplicative, costly, and inefficient.

Most students who work on campus are Federal Work-study students. Their citizenship status has already been established through the FAFSA database matches. Nevertheless, hundreds of students (at a small college), thousands (at a large university), must appear in person and present original documents establishing their citizenship to campus officials at the start of school. This creates lines, confusion, and delays for students.

The labor-intensive, manual method of establishing citizenship is at odds with processes that are increasingly done electronically.

Proposal:

INS should recognize that students whose eligibility to work has been established through database matches with Social Security and its own database, should satisfy the I-9 requirement in order to work on campus or through the Federal Work-Study program.  The examination of paper documents should be reserved for students who do not file the FAFSA or whose data does not match electronically.

Possible Objections:

INS would have to accept an electronic verification process instead of a manual examination of each person's paper documents.

Counter Argument:

Database matches and electronic certifications are a fact of American life.  The data in this case is already being matched with INS data in the first place; accepting a "match" of your own data to satisfy the I-9 requirement seems logical.  The Department of Education recognizes these database matches as sufficient to allow students to qualify for federal funds.