International students might be wondering if they can take advantage of the SNAP benefits. They might also be curious about what to do when they receive a notice to register for the Selective Service System.
In addition, some F-1 and J-1 visa international students might be asked to be e-verified by their employers. Are they eligible for SNAP benefits/ Selective Service System registration/E-verify?
Click each section to learn if international students are eligible for each program. The post will also provide a step-by-step guide to register for MyE-verify (E-verify employee).
Contents
Can international students take advantage of SNAP benefits?
SNAP stands for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and it provides food benefits to low-income families. For this reason, international students who would like to save some money on food might be interested in knowing if they can take advantage of SNAP benefits.
One of the factors to consider is the “public charge rule” which works as a test for the U.S. government to see if the visa applicants are likely to depend on the government as their main source of support in the future.
International students who would like to pursue further immigration/non-immigration visas are advised to not take advantage of public benefits that could be factored in when the public charge determinations are made.
The good news is SNAP benefits are not considered for public charge determinations. That being said, international students are not eligible for SNAP.
On page 8 of SNAP Non-citizen Guidance, it says “…Non-citizens like tourists and students are generally not eligible.” To learn more about the “qualified alien,” check out the SNAP Non-citizen Guidance and go to page 8.
Do international students need to register for the Selective Service System?
Selective Service registration is how the U.S. government keeps track of the list of names of men in case they need to draw for Armed forces amid a national emergency.
As you can tell, Selective Service requires all male U.S. citizens and male immigrants including undocumented students to be registered. To learn more about who must register, please check out the Selective Service- Who Must Register document.
In other words, international students do not need to register themselves to the Selective Service System. The “Who Needs to Register” page also confirms this:
The few individuals who are exempt from this requirement are those on current non-immigrant visas.
Who Needs to Register
What if you received a notice that you are required to register for the Selective Service registration? Based on the “List of Acceptable Documents,” F-1 and J-1 international students can submit the following documents to be exempted:
- Entire mail that you received from the Selective Services System
- A scanned copy of your passport photo page
- A scanned copy of the visa page and admission stamp page
- I-94
- I-20/DS-2019 forms
It currently says the documentation for exemption can be sent to P.O. Box 94638, Palatine, Illinois 60094-4638. Please double-check by looking at the Selective Service System website.
Can I enroll in the E-verify employee program?
If you have applied for STEM OPT or if you are interested in applying for STEM OPT, you would know that one of the requirements for STEM OPT is to be employed by an e-verified employer.
Related blog post: STEM OPT eligibility, process, required documents
But what if your employer asks you to be e-verified? Can you, as an international student, be e-verified?
Some employers, mostly federal/state employers, might require their employees to be e-verified. What E-verify does is that it matches your information in the employment form I-9 to other records to confirm your identity and that you are authorized to work in the United States.
E-Verify is an internet-based system that compares information from your Form I-9, Employment Eligibility Verification, to records available to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Social Security Administration (SSA) to confirm your identity and that you are authorized to work in the United States.
E-verify Employees
According to the myE-verify webpage, about 1 million employers use E-verify to “quickly confirm the eligibility of new employees.”
Therefore any international students who are asked to be e-verified can start the myE-verify process by going to the myE-verify webpage. To learn how to be an e-verified employee, follow the steps below.
How to enroll in myE-verify
- Go to myE-verify and sign in if you already have a USCIS account or create an account
Related blog post: Step by step guide to create the USCIS account for OPT online application
- Sign up or sign in to My USCIS Account page
- Click the “myE-verify“
- Read through “Our Policy,” check the box and click the “Next” button
- Enter your Personal Information and Address and click the “Next” button
- Confirm your Personal Information and click the “Next” button
- Answer the “Identity Proofing Quiz“
- Now you are done! When your employer uses E-verify, you will receive a letter that includes the E-Verify-Case Verification Number. You can use this number to track E-verify cases.
- Or, you may click the “Verify with Self Check” button to confirm your employment eligibility and get the case number.
How to self-check your employment eligibility
- Confirm your identity information and click the “Next” button or “Edit Personal Information” if it shows incorrect information
- Select your citizenship status and click the “Next” button
- Select a document and provide documentation detail
- Review the information and click the “Submit” button to self-check your employment eligibility
- You can confirm if you are authorized to work in the U.S.! If you are requested by your employer, click the “Print Result” and send it to your employer
- You can copy the case number to check the employment eligibility and send it to your employers upon request
Additionally, you can lock your SSN by clicking the “Manage my SSN” button. By doing so, you can lock your SSN so no one can look you up using the SSN if this is something you are interested in doing.
Hope this helps international students to confirm if they are eligible for SNAP benefits if they have to register for the Selective Service Registration, and if they can be enrolled in myE-verify.
To learn more about what F-1 visa holders are eligible for, go to the F-1 visa page.
