Over the years, Congress established various requirements for immigrant  and nonimmigrant aliens to report their addresses while residing in the  United States. Because  legacy INS did not inform aliens of change of address notification  requirements when they entered the country, in our November 2002  report, we recommended that legacy INS publicize change of address  notification requirements nationwide. Specifically, prior to the terrorist  attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress mandated that INS improve its  ability to identify nonimmigrant aliens who arrive and depart the United  States and who overstay their visas. The officials estimated that an increase of over 2 million address reporting  forms would increase USCIS’s current annual change of address form  processing costs from about $1.6 million to at least $4.6 million per year. USCIS’s estimate does not include the potentially substantial  cost of enforcing the address reporting requirement, which would include  hiring, training, and compensating additional ICE agents. Nonimmigrant aliens who comply with address reporting requirements or  seek DHS benefits might be found using existing DHS systems or other  information sources. Although almost all of the 17 agents we interviewed stated that self- reported nonimmigrant alien addresses would not be helpful in locating  nonimmigrants, several agents described some possible benefits  associated with an annual nonimmigrant alien address reporting  requirement:    According to one Los Angeles ICE agent, implementing an annual  nonimmigrant alien address requirement could be useful if biometric data  (e.g., fingerprints and digitized photographs) were included with forms  during the reporting process so that nonimmigrant alien registration forms  could be traced to other DHS forms, such as visas, and also linked to a  biometric identifier. If nonimmigrant aliens were required to report their  current address annually and within a specified time period (for example,  between January 1 and 15 of each year), the annual reporting requirement  could allow federal investigators to refer to a list of nonimmigrants  reported to be within the United States on the date the form was  submitted to DHS. Concluding Observations

While implementing an annual registration requirement for nonimmigrants  is feasible, the consensus of the USCIS and ICE headquarters officials and  ICE field office agents we contacted recognized that a self-reporting  system would be of limited use in locating the group of aliens who are not  in compliance with immigration laws or otherwise do not want to be  contacted by the government. Nonimmigrant aliens who do not wish to be  located are not likely to comply with an annual requirement to self-report  address information. Consequently, agents have used other databases to  locate this class of alien and have found such databases to be more  current and reliable than the existing self-reporting system. Potential  benefits cited by law enforcement agents, such as the ability to verify that  the nonimmigrant alien is still in the country and to provide a basis for  detaining noncompliant aliens, might be available with current systems  and law but have seldom been used. For these reasons, it is questionable  whether the usefulness of an annual reporting requirement would  outweigh the cost of implementation and enforcement. DHS reviewed a draft of this report and had technical  comments, which we incorporated as appropriate. We are sending copies of this letter to the Secretary of the Department of  Homeland Security and interested congressional committees.
Why GAO Did This Study

Since 1940, Congress has provided a statutory framework that requires aliens entering or residing in the United States to provide address information. By 1981, aliens who remain in the United States for 30 days or more were required to initially register and report their address information and then to report their change of address only if they move. In the months immediately following the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, federal investigators' efforts to locate and interview nearly one-half of the 4,112 nonimmigrant aliens they attempted to contact were impeded by lack of current address information. Nonimmigrant aliens are defined as those who seek temporary entry into the United States for a specific purpose, including those aliens who are in the country as students, international representatives, or temporary workers, or for business or pleasure. Because of growing concern over the government's need to locate aliens, the Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002 directed GAO to study the feasibility and the utility of a requirement that each nonimmigrant alien in the United States self-report a current address on a yearly basis.

What GAO Found

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) officials told us that while implementing an annual address reporting requirement for nonimmigrant aliens is technically feasible, such a requirement would increase the number of reporting forms DHS would have to process. In turn, this increase would raise form-processing costs from an estimated $1.6 million to at least an estimated $4.6 million per year, according to DHS, which does not include the cost of enforcing the annual reporting requirement. The consensus of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents, who investigate activities that may violate immigration law, was that a self-reporting system would be of limited use in locating aliens who are avoiding contact with the government. Nonimmigrant aliens who do not wish to be located are not likely to comply with an annual requirement to self-report address information. Consequently, agents use other databases to locate this class of alien as well as nonimmigrant aliens who may not be aware of address reporting requirements. Public and private databases that record information concerning benefits, an alien's department of motor vehicle records, or credit bureau information are examples of information sources that agents have used to locate nonimmigrant aliens. Despite the unreliability of self-reported information, some agents did recognize the possibility of limited enforcement benefits for implementing an annual address reporting requirement, such as verifying that compliant nonimmigrant aliens are still in the country and providing a basis for detaining noncompliant nonimmigrant aliens. However, existing systems are available for compliant nonimmigrant aliens to notify DHS of address changes. Also, DHS already has the authority to detain all aliens not in compliance with current change of address reporting requirements but has seldom used the authority. Consequently, it is questionable whether the usefulness of an annual reporting requirement would outweigh the cost of implementation and enforcement. DHS reviewed a draft of this report and had technical comments, which we incorporated as appropriate.