HWO SupStatement 8-11-14 Final

SUPPORTING STATEMENT FOR
PAPERWORK REDUCTION ACT SUBMISSION

OMB Number 1405-0102 Refugee Biographical Data Sheet

A. JUSTIFICATION

1. The U.S. Immigration and Nationality Act, as amended by the Refugee Act of 1980, allows for the admission as refugees of persons of special humanitarian concern to the United States who can establish that they have suffered past persecution or have a well-founded fear of persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion. See INA §§ 101(a)(42) and 207. The law also provides for resettlement assistance to be provided to arriving refugees, including initial reception and placement with a voluntary public or private nonprofit agency serving as a sponsor. See INA §§ 411-14. Biographical information is collected from each refugee applicant in order to place him or her with a resettlement agency at an appropriate resettlement site if admitted to the United States.

2. This information is collected at refugee processing locations abroad during a personal intake process with the applicant. The recipient of the information is either an embassy consular officer or, at locations with a large number of applicants, an employee of a nonprofit or international organization that has a cooperative agreement with the State Department to perform this service for us as a Resettlement Support Center. The data collected includes a refugee applicant’s personal characteristics such as date and place of birth, sex, marital status, religion, ethnic group, education, occupation, and English language ability. While most of the information is collected through the intake process with DOS, there is additional data, such as skills, language ability and case cross references that are needed by the resettlement agencies in the United States. The data is transmitted to the Refugee Processing Center in Rosslyn, Virginia, and is given to resettlement agencies at a weekly allocation meeting. Resettlement agencies use the data to place each refugee in an appropriate resettlement location in the U.S. If the data were not collected, the resettlement agencies would not be able to provide appropriate initial reception and placement services as provided for in the Refugee Act.

3. There is currently no form associated with this data collection. The applicants

provide the information during the refugee intake process. Providing screen shots of the Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System (WRAPS) database is not practical, due to the number of screens in which the data is stored; therefore, a DOS intake script is provided as a supplemental. The State Department has developed an automated data capture system called the Worldwide Refugee Admissions Processing System (WRAPS) that is in use at processing locations for electronic transmission of the data to the Refugee Processing Center, which permits faster dissemination of the information to the resettlement agencies. The Department has designed this data collection to make most efficient use of digital data capture. While this does not represent a complete end-to-end electronic process, it equates to paperwork reduction by incorporation of the electronic entry of intake responses.

4. There is no duplication of information collection. Information is collected once in the WRAPS database and populated to the appropriated forms necessary for resettlement.. It is more efficient to collect the complete data needed by the resettlement agencies in one instance than it would be to collect partial data and then search other completed forms for the remaining information.

5. The information collection does not involve small businesses or other small entities.

6. Failure to collect these data would seriously detract from the ability of the

resettlement agencies to place refugees in appropriate resettlement locations in the United States.

7. The data is collected only once for each refugee.

8. The State Department (Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration) published a 60-day Notice in the Federal Register requesting public comments. Thus far, one comment has been received, but is not germane to the collection. The State Department has consulted with resettlement agencies that sponsor refugees and they are satisfied that we are collecting the appropriate biographic information. Consultation with refugees or applicants, from whom we collect the information, is not feasible due to their physical location outside of all U.S. territories.

9. Respondents receive neither payments nor gifts for providing their biodata. However, the level of resettlement benefits which refugees receive in the United States is based in part upon needs that are identified through a review of the data provided.

10. Respondents are notified that the information in their files is released to State Department personnel, officers of other federal agencies including Health and Human Services and the Department of Homeland Security, and resettlement agency employees on a need to know basis. Guidelines for the disclosure of information are attached to the cooperative agreements between the resettlement agencies and the State Department.

11. Information on religion and ethnic group is provided at the option of the respondent, but it can be useful in determining which resettlement agency or resettlement site is appropriate for a refugee. For example, a Jewish refugee from the former Soviet Union might prefer to be sponsored by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and located in a city with a synagogue. This placement could not be assured if the applicant had not indicated his or her religion during the collection of biographical data.

12. Based upon current refugee admission numbers set by Presidential

Determination 2014-01 for FY14 signed on October 2, 2013, up to 70,000 individuals will provide biographical information. Each individual provides the information only once. Based upon our experiences in collecting data, we estimate that 70,000 individuals will participate. It takes approximately one-half hour per individual to input the necessary data for the Department. Total hour burden is estimated to be 35,000 hours (70,000 respondents x one-half hour estimated completion time = 35,000). Please note, due to refugee applicants’ circumstances, the vast majority of them do not work and therefore, PRM is unable to calculate the monetized time burden because the refugees are unemployed.

13. There is no cost to the individual to provide information requested.

14. Annualized cost to the Federal Government is approximately $700,000. Please see chart below. This is based upon an average hourly salary of a Resettlement Support Centers’ worker of $20; data collection time of one-half hour per refugee; and 70,000 total refugees estimated for admission in FY-14.

Refugee Admissions	RSC Hourly Salary	Biographic Data Gathering Time	Total
70,000	$20/per hour	30 minutes (one-half hour)	$700,000

15. The number of hours reported on our last submission was 37,500, based on FY-10 projected refugee admissions of 75,000. The number of approved refugee admissions is estimated to be 70,000 in FY 14 resulting in an adjusted burden of 35,000 hours.

16. The results of this collection will not be published.

17. Relevant officers and employees will inform applicants of the expiration date of the collection.

18. There are no exceptions to this certification statement.

B. Collections of Information Employing Statistical Methods

This collection does not employ statistical methods.