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Prepared by: Danielle GieseDate Prepared: 3/14/03Reviewed by: Type reviewer name here

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/ K / SIndex: Type bundle index here

DO C Number: 845755DOC Library: GAOHQ

Job Code:130162

Record of InterviewTitle Interview about NIISPurpose To obtain an overview of the purpose and operations of NIIS

and the limitation of its dataContact Method Telephone InterviewContact Place N/AContact Date 3/5/03\s

Thomas Andreotta, Assistant Chief InspectorDepartment of Homeland SecurityBureau of Citizenship and Immigration Services425 I Street, NWWashington,DC

Phone:

GA PDanielle Giese, Analyst

Comments/Remarks:

I introduced our engagement to Mr. Andreotta and asked him to provide some information aboutthe purpose and operations of the Nonimmigrant Information System and the limitations of thedata from this system. Mr. Andreotta provided the following.

OverviewThe Nonimmigrant Information System (NIIS)was established in January 1983 to collectinformation about the arrivals and departures of nonimmigrants. The data that this systemmaintains is from the 1-94 form, the Arrival/Departure Record. Upon arrival, a section of this form\scomp

the point of entry (POE), e.g. airportXHIjMMi^itoVyand is review along with other necessarydocuments for entry such as passports and visas. The inspector fills out the remaining informationneeded for official purposes, such as the type of visa and length of allowed stay, allows thenonimmigrant to enter (if appropriate), gives the a detached portion of this form to the immigrantand keeps the arrival information. The arrival section of the form is sent to contractors whomanually input the 1-94 information into NIIS. The detached portion of the form is known as a"departure coupon" which is kept by the nonimmigrant until he/she leaves the country. Just beforea nonimmigrant leaves the U.S., he departure coupon is given to the transportation carrier or theimmigrationofficer at a POE and submitted to the contractor in order for them to match thedeparture information with the arrival record. M r.Andreotta stated that, although the BureauofCitizenship andImmigration Services (BCIS)plans to discontinue using NIIS in the next 4-6 years,the agency does not plan to change the operations of this system while it continues to exist. Anonimmigrantwith a visa that allow him/her to leave and reenter freely, such as H-1B workers, willhave completed multiple I-94s an d have multiplearrival/departurerecords.

Pagel R e c o r d of Interview

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Prepared by: Danielle GieseDate Prepared: 3/14/03Reviewed by : Type reviewer name here

Index: Type bundle index hereDOC Number: 845755DO C Library: GAOHQ

Job Code: 130162

A 14 Day Lag Time Exist Before Arrival/ Departure Data is ProcessedM r. Andreotta stated that among the limitations of the data in NIIS is that it does not recordarrivals/departures in real time; BCIS' current processes take 14 days before an arrival is recordedin NIIS. Mr. Andreotta stated that this processing time is an improvement over what it was 6months ago at 30 days. He also stated that the NIIS administrators are continuing to take efforts toshorten this lag. Currently, they are trying to get the 1-94 to the contractors more quickly from fourof the airports that produce 40% of the 1-94workload, and in the future, they hope to improve thecomputer uploading speed.

Arrival Information is Believed to be Incomplete OftenM r. Andreotta believes that another data limitation is that arrival information is often incomplete.Among the lacking information is U.S. addresses and correctly spelled names. He believes thataddresses are missing simply because nonimmigrants do not report them or only report parts ofthem on their I-94s. N a m e misspellings occur because those who input the data have a difficult

time reading some people's handwriting. The only way that NIIScomputer administrators becomeaware of name misspellings is when they are contacted the Social Security Administration (SSA).SSAuses NIIS data that is uploaded to the Alien Status Verification Index (ASVI) to ensure thatnonimmigrants who are applying for Social Security numbers are giving them the correctdocuments related to work authorization. If someone's name in ASVI does not match their paperdocumentation, SSA will not issue a number and will ask NIIS administrators to review paperdocumentation to ensure the proper name spelling in ASVI.

Not All Departure Coupons are CollectedRegarding departure data, Mr. Andreotta stated that a significant number of arrival records aremissing departure records. He attributes this to a lack of departure coupon collection thatoccurred for a variety of reasons, such as overstaying allowed time, a visa status that allowed theperson to stay for multiple years and a change of visa status or citizenship that allowed a person tostay longer that originally allowed. In addition, Mr. Andreotta stated that Canada immigrationinspectors collect departure coupons if they see them, but they are not required to do this.Therefore, if a nonimmigrant left through-aland border and the inspector did not collect thedeparture coupon, a departure record will be missing in NIISfor that person.

The Entry Exit Program Will Address Arrival and Departure Information IssuesM r. Andreotta believes that the planned Entry Exit System will address the issues that currentlyexist with collecting arrival and departure information. Among of the greatest changes that thosedeveloping the system will face are implementing the system at the 355 POEs and havingdocumentation that is as reliable (or more reliable), portable and flexible as the current paper I-

94s. {Auditor's Note: WhenI asked Mr.Andreotta about what immediate efforts were in place toimprove data quality,he only mentioned getting the arrival information inputted more quickly.)

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I;KatherineBrentzel -_Re:JNTE_RVIEWABOUTNIIS __ _ _ Page 1

From: Barbara A GuffyT o: Brentzel, Katherine; Giese, DanielleDate: 4/4/03 2:OOPMSubject: Re: INT ER VIEW ABOUT NIIS

Danielle,

Thanks fo r the ROI, I think it will bevery usefu l to us. Unfortunately, I haven 't documented my discussionwith Tom yet (we'retrying to get the first draft of the report out), but Ijust wanted to highlight a few detailsthat Tom mentioned to me:

--He's implemented his satellite scann ing process at two of the four airports-Miami and Los Angeles. Healso plans to deploy it at Kennedy and San Francisco. However, it is tooexpensive a system to establishat all airports, and certainly at the land POEs. Tom hopes to deploy the less expensive table-top versionsometime in FY2004. (Ididn't get too many details on what the table-top v ersion would entail. Apparentlyit is basically a "turn key" versionof the satellite scanning process.)

--Tom thought the new satellite scanning process now at Miami and LA does help to improve data quality.Under this process, the con tractor is on site to pick u p the l-94s almost as soon asthey're completed;thus, s/he can spot problems an d immediately followup with the inspector about omitted dataor apparenterrors.

-land POEs can implement automated programs that might improve dataquality-for example, El PasoPO E has a program that allows information scan ned by the document readers to be automatically loadedinto an electronic form1-94, leaving the inspector to type in the U.S. add ress information. Unfortun ately,itis impossible for the POEs to send the data directlyto N IIS; because of limitations w/ the systemarchitecture, data must always be keyed in.

N ot much, but it might help. If you have questions, please give me a call I I.

Barbara i

> Danielle Giese 04/04/03 09:30AM> !Kate, |

Here is a opy of our interview with Tom A ndreotta. Sorry it's not reviewe d yet; I will send you an other copywhen it is. He basicallysaid that it takes two weeks to process the l-94s, which is animprovementoverwhat it was be fore at 30 days. Unfortunately, I don't have have procedures or policy documents related tothis. I hope this he lpful. |

--Danielle i

CC : Dino, M ichaelP; Peguero, Eileen; W eiss, LoriA; W ysocki, Anthony !

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