Guidance: Identity, Citizenship/Social Security
Administration Validations

Prior to enrolling a member Subgrantees must check eligibility. A two of those items are the Social Security Number (make an enlarged copy of their card so it is legible if you have to send it to AmeriCorps for any reason) and the Proof of Citizenship (birth certificate, passport, or other allowable documents as explained in this section of the Manual).

Social Security Number/Citizenship Verification must take place prior to enrollment.

  •  The Portal will submit the record to the Social Security Administration (SSA) as soon as the member completes and saves their section of the enrollment form.
  •  By the morning of the next business day, the record will indicate “Verified” or, if not verified, “Returned” in the Portal:
  • If verified by SSA, then the enrollment process will proceed to the next step
    If not verified by SSA, the staff completing the enrollment should receive an email with the next steps. The program will collect required documentation and submit it to the Hotline through a secure link – contact Hotline through the Portal for the secure link. Remember, you don’t want to miss the member’s start date so allow enough time in case the member cannot be verified. This could take three days or more to manually verify, assuming the SSA accepts the submitted documents.

• If additional docs are sufficient to verify eligibility, the record will say “Manually Verified” and show the date and you will continue the enrollment process.
• If the additional documentation is not sufficient, the program will be notified, and the member cannot be enrolled if deemed ineligible.

Note: You must check the member form under Pending Enrollments every day to see if they are “verified” or “returned”. Member’s start date cannot be any earlier than the verification dates.

To submit documents, contact the National Service Hotline at 1-800-942-2677 or via the web-form found at https://questions.nationalservice.gov and request a secure transfer link be emailed to you. The email you receive with the link will include additional submission instructions. If calling the Hotline for any reason, be sure to ask for a “ticket number” so there is a record of your inquiry in case you, TCN staff or our Program Officer needs to check up on the incident. Remember, the Help Desk is closed on Fridays in February, March, April, October, November, and December so plan accordingly.

FAQs – B. 21. Our program got an email from the eGrants Helpdesk that a member was not certified as eligible through the eGrants SSN verification. What is the process for SSN verification?

Note: AmeriCorps has not updated this FAQ since the new Pre-Enrollment process began July 2, 2018.

When a program enrolls a member (or alternatively when a member accepts an invitation to enroll) the SSN verification process is triggered.

The SSN verification is a two-step process. The first part includes the validation of the SSN, and that that SSN is consistent with a person of the given name, gender and date of birth. The second part is a validation of citizenship eligibility. If the first part of the validation fails, the second part is not initiated. If both parts return a successful validation, the member’s record in the portal will indicate eligibility. If either one fails the authorized representative and individual who entered the record (i.e., the site supervisor or program staff person) will receive an email message indicating the record will require manual verification and will generally indicate what types of documents can be used.

In these circumstances programs are supposed to collect necessary documents and confirm the member is, in fact, eligible. Programs need to do this to ensure any costs associated with engaging the particular member are not questioned during an audit. Neither the program nor the member need to take any other action with respect to the Helpdesk unless otherwise directed. At the time benefits are to be distributed (i.e., loan forbearance or disbursement of the education award) the Trust will require confirmation of eligibility. The Trust will either contact the program or the member and request they submit copies of documentation that will satisfy the eligibility concern. In the case of loan forbearance that might happen right after enrollment but in the case of the education award, it might happen several years after the member exits.

Additional Guidance on Returned Enrollments:
  1.  If you receive a letter, the program should double-check the member’s name, SSN, date of birth, and gender. Usually, the reason that they are not verified is that one of these doesn’t match what is in the Social Security Administration records. Make corrections if needed.
  2.  It is a warning that the program needs to verify that the member is eligible to serve and needs to keep copies of that verification in the member files.
  3.  If the member is not applying for loan forbearance, they can ignore the reminder emails and do not need to fax in documentation. We are no longer trying to verify all members eligible in our system up front. If they do not pass the SSA check, they will need to provide the trust with the needed documents at the time they want to use their award.
  4.  One part of the problem may be that faxed copies are difficult to decipher. If they do need to verify someone is eligible for loan forbearance, perhaps they should consider scanning and using a secure email transfer to submit the documents.
The Process

When a program enrolls a member the Social Security Number (SSN) verification process is triggered. The SSN verification is a two-step process.

  • Part 1: Validation of the SSN and verification that the SSN is consistent with the potential member’s given name, gender and Date of Birth (DOB).
  • Part 2: Validation of citizenship eligibility.

If both parts return a successful validation, the member’s record in eGrants will indicate eligibility.

If the first part of the validation fails, the second part is not initiated.

If either part fails, the TCN staff and the Subgrantee staff person who entered the record will receive an email message indicating the record will require manual verification and will generally indicate what types of documents can be used. In these circumstances Subgrantees are supposed to collect necessary documents and confirm the member is, in fact, eligible. Subgrantees must do this to ensure any costs associated with engaging the particular member are not questioned during an audit.

Neither the program nor the member need to take any other action with respect to the Hotline unless otherwise directed.*

At the time benefits are to be distributed (i.e., loan forbearance or disbursement of the education award) the Trust will require confirmation of eligibility. They will either contact the Subgrantee or the member or request they submit copies of documentation that will satisfy the eligibility concern.

In the case of loan forbearance that might happen right after enrollment but in the case of the education award, it might happen several years after the member exits.

*You may find this a little confusing as the guidance says to send the documents and wait to send the documents at the same time. If you think it is in the best interest of your member, then fax the documents as soon as you receive the email notification. And keep checking the member’s eGrants home page to ensure they are listed as verified or manually verified.

Where in eGrants can I locate the status of an individual’s social security number and citizenship review?

Go to the member’s homepage and check the status.

  • Verified
  • Returned
  • Manually Verified
  • Everything is fine with the member’s SSN and Citizenship status.
  • There was a problem with either the SSN or Citizenship or both.
  • AmeriCorps verified the status after the Subgrantee submitted the appropriate documentation for the member.

Advice from our Program Officer when submitting any sensitive info to AmeriCorps: Remember, when submitting the required verification documents, it is important to use secure modes of submission (i.e. fax not email) since it is “Personal Identifying Information” that needs to be protected. It might make sense for the program to submit this information earlier but generally, if it hasn’t happened and the member has been exited, the trust will go to the member for the documentation. They go to the program if the member is still serving. Of course some members never use their award so it never has to be done.

Sample Email from myamericicorps@americorps.gov AmeriCorps Verification There are two different emails sent to programs re: verification issues. Note: TCN’s grants are State and National. You may receive two different emails for one member verification as they are requesting multiple forms of eligibility verification.

Example 1
AmeriCorps was unable to automatically verify the citizenship status of this applicant:
Katharine XXX
NSPID:161XXXX

Please have the individual provide you with the required government authorized documentation (see list below). Review the documentation and send a copy of the documentation to the National Service Hotline. To submit documents, contact the AmeriCorps Hotline at 1-800-942-2677 or via the web-form or chat at https://questions.americorps.gov/app/ask to request a secure transfer link. The link will be emailed to you and will include additional submission instructions.

Please do not send any documentation via email. If you have questions, please contact the National Service Hotline at 1-800-942-2677.

Required Government Authorized Documentation: Please submit one of the following documents and a signed Social Security Card. Any of the documentation below that does not have a picture ID must be accompanied by a government issued photo ID.* Acceptable Documents for U.S Citizens and U.S. Nationals:

  1.  United States Passport
  2.  Birth Certificate showing that the individual was born in one of the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, or the Northern Mariana Islands*
  3.  Report of Birth Abroad of a U.S. Citizen (FS-240) issued by the State Department*
  4.  Certificate of Birth-Foreign Service (FS 545) issued by the State Department*
  5.  Certification of Report of Birth (DS-1350) issued by the State Department*
  6.  Certificate of Naturalization (Form N-550 or N-570) issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services
  7.  Certificate of Citizenship (Form N-560 or N-561) issued by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services Acceptable Documents for Lawful Permanent

Resident Aliens of the United States:

  1.  Permanent Resident Card, Form I-551
  2. Alien Registration Receipt Card, Form I-551
  3. Passport indicating that the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has approved it as temporary evidence of lawful admission for permanent residence
  4. Departure Record (Form I-94) indicating that the USCIS or U.S. Customs and Border Protection has approved it as temporary evidence of lawful admission for permanent residence*

Verification Process Information:

  •  Documentation must be clear and legible
  • All documentation is securely stored electronically
  •  Contact the National Service Hotline at 1-800-942-2677 with any questions
  • Please do not respond to this email address as it is not monitored

Example 2

The Corporation for National and Community Service was unable to automatically match the name to the application records for this applicant:
Katharine XXX
NSPID:161XXXX

Please contact the individual and instruct them to send copies of two government authorized documents to the National Service Hotline. One of these documents must be a copy of their social security card and the other can be one of the following: state issued ID, federally issued ID, driver’s license, passport, or birth certificate.

To submit documents, contact the National Service Hotline at 1-800-942-2677 or via the web-form found at https://questions.nationalservice.gov and request a secure transfer link be emailed to you. The email you receive with the link will include additional submission instructions. On the cover letter, please write the subject heading “Verification check” and include the person’s name and NSPID or NSAID as shown in this email. Please include contact information in case the copies in the fax are not readable.

If the individual was recently married or divorced and their information is up to date in the My AmeriCorps portal, their name might not be up to date with the Social Security Administration. If this is the case, they will need to contact the Social Security Administration to update their information: https://faq.ssa.gov/link/portal/34011/34019/Article/3749/How-do-I-change-or-correct-my-name-on-mySocial-Security-number-card