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Reference.org
Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements
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<p>Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) is a program managed by <a href="/facts/United_States_Citizenship_and_Immigration_Services/1l5yJL2e">United States Citizenship and Immigration Services</a> (USCIS), a branch of the <a href="/facts/U.S._Department_of_Homeland_Security/jwz5gLfa">U.S. Department of Homeland Security</a> (DHS). SAVE was created in 1986 and facilitates lookups on the immigration and <a href="/facts/Nationality/pK1x6rjn">nationality</a> status of individuals in the <a href="/facts/United_States/P0sCdLe5">United States</a>. It is an intergovernmental initiative designed to help <a href="/facts/Federal_government_of_the_United_States/VJCxUaf7">federal</a>, <a href="/facts/U.S._state/PFwcRIYQ">state</a>, tribal, and local government agencies, or by a contractor acting on the agency's behalf, to determine eligibility for benefits, licenses or grants, government credentials, or to conduct background investigations. It is one of two programs that uses the Verification Information System (VIS). The other program is the Electronic Employment Eligibility Verification Program, also known as <a href="/facts/E-Verify/tAxjo9mw">E-Verify</a>, and is used by employers to verify the immigration status of employees. For additional verification (in cases where VIS proves inadequate), SAVE relies on the Person Centric Query System (PCQS). Over time, the use of SAVE has been increasingly mandated for various federal and state programs. In March 2025, Trump executive order <a href="/facts/Executive_Order_14148/6rffygSq">14148</a>[ws] on "enforcing restrictions of non-citizens from registering to vote or voting through use of databases maintained by the Department of Homeland Security" laid the base for <a href="/facts/DOGE/B1mM3wqI">DOGE</a> to integrate SAVE with data from the Social Security Administration to enable cross checking voter registration and citizenship status via social security numbers. </p>