Yes, eligibility documents can be kept as hard copies or stored electronically as long as security and confidentiality measures are taken to keep information secure with restricted access. 

The file should include:  

a. Documentation of services performed (type and date) and demographic data 

b. Copy of the acceptable eligibility documentation (this applies to student and family member participants)

c. If they are a family member, which eligible student they are related to 

All ORR-funded recipients must have their immigration documentation collected in order to show the dates of entry that grant them eligibility to the ARSI—S2S or URSI programs. See PL 16-01. Documentation Requirements for the Refugee Resettlement Program | The Administration for Children and Families

Participants must provide immigration documents that show their eligibility before enrollment in ORR-funded benefits and services. It is a requirement for enrollment into programs. Please note that before a student or family member can be counted for reporting purposes, their eligibility documents must be verified and collected. 

No, collecting eligibility documentation for staff participating in the Community of Practice or receiving other training under this grant is not required.  

Via I-94 Official Website.  

Organizations should reach out to the client and request the documentation required. Staff should explain to the client that copies documents will be kept in a safe and confidential space and are required to continue services.

If they receive services and you count them toward your deliverable, the answer is “Yes”. All fields in the ORR-5 reporting template including the Alien # and eligibility documentation (e.g., documents showing proof of “Alien #”, “Arrival Date”, “County of Origin”, “Status”, and “Date of Birth”) are required to be collected for family member participants who receive services/activities under your ARSI-S2S/URSI programs. (The “ORR-5 reporting template” is your Smartsheet individual-level data collection workspace). If services are provided and family members are counted toward your project goals, grantees/sub-grantees are required to collect the family member participant’s eligibility documentation (as done for student/youth participants). Upon collection of these documents, please enter their Alien # and demographic information of the family member participant into the required, pre-built data fields of your Smartsheet workspace. The actual hard copies of the eligibility documents (e.g., scanned copy of passport, printed I-94) can be kept in a secure file cabinet or online platforms; it is optional to upload the copies of the eligibility documents in your Smartsheet workspace. 

**For any active family member participants (meaning they are still receiving service/activities), grantees/sub-grantees are required to collect their Alien # and eligibility documentation. Moving forward, only family member participants whose Alien #, eligibility documentation, and ORR-5 data (Smartsheet individual-level data collection workspace) are collected will be included for Semi-Annual and Quarterly Progress Reporting .  

If a participant refuses to provide their Alien # and eligibility documentation, they cannot be counted as a client for the purpose of reporting and meeting deliverables. It is up to the organization’s discretion to continue providing services using other funding sources. If you choose to continue services, please keep the individual’s information on your Smartsheet individual-level data collection workspace and note as “Exit”. Grantees/sub-grantees can keep all participants served on their Smartsheet individual-level data workspace in order to ensure all efforts are quantified. 

Organizations who have shared participants with sub-contractors/partnering entities, who are also ARSI—S2S- and/or URSI-funded organizations, will need to coordinate to ensure that the same services are not duplicated between ORR-eligible participants served by the awardee/sub-awardee and a partnering organization named in the awardee/sub-awardee's lower tier budget. Organizations can count shared participants with their sub-contractors/partnering entities as long as each organization provides a different service to the participant. 

For additional guidance see: Dual Enrollment Involving ORR-Funded Refugee Programs

Separate documentation to verify ORR ARSI—S2S/URSI eligibility AND date of arrival (also called “date of entry”) may be required. If a particular document listed in Exhibit D already includes both the eligibility status documentation and the date of arrival, then a separate document to verify date of arrival is not required. But if a document listed in Exhibit D only shows eligibility status without date of arrival, then another source document such as an I-94, or passport stamp would be required to show proof of date of arrival.