A Monday announcement by Governor Robert Bentley relayed news about the availability of a new web-based system that will enable county license plate issuing officials and their staffs to meet the residency verification requirements set out in Alabama’s new immigration law in processing motor vehicle registration and title transactions.
At a press conference in Montgomery, Governor Bentley along with Department of Revenue Commissioner Julie Magee and Department of Public Safety Director Colonel Hugh McCall demonstrated the new system, ALVerify.
ALVerify was developed by the Center for Advanced Public Safety at the University of Alabama and is the result of a collaborative effort between the Alabama Department of Revenue and the Alabama Department of Public Safety. The system links the agencies’ motor vehicle and driver license databases into an electronic application that can be securely and easily accessed to check citizenship verification.
“ALVerify is a much needed solution to the citizenship requirements required by the new immigration law,” Bentley said. “By working together, the Alabama Department of Revenue and the Alabama Department of Public Safety have interfaced parts of their agencies’ data bases that can now be accessed by county licensing officials to complete licensing and motor vehicle registration duties.”
The new online system provides a much needed solution to the residency verification requirements of Alabama’s new immigration law that counties must complete in processing mail-in and online vehicle registration renewals. ALVerify is also compliant with federal Driver’s Privacy Protection Act laws regarding the non-disclosure of personal information.
To complete the residency verification requirements for license plate renewals and other similar transactions, the customer will present his or her Alabama driver license or Alabama non-driver’s license identification card. County licensing officials and their staffs will then enter the driver license or non-driver identification card number, expiration date and last name into ALVerify. The information will be verified against the Department of Public Safety’s database and will return an “information successfully validated” response with a verification code, used by the county to document the residency verification, if all of the information matches and the Alabama driver license or non-driver identification card is not expired. The program will return a “failure” response if all data elements do not match or if the Alabama driver license or non-driver identification card is expired.
Alabama Department of Revenue Commissioner Julie P. Magee commented that the partnership with the Alabama Department of Public Safety was instrumental in making ALVerify possible.
“ALVerify would not exist today without the cooperation of the Alabama Department of Public Safety,” Magee said. “I want to thank Colonel McCall and his team at the Department of Public Safety for working with us on this much needed solution.”
The secure website to access ALVerify is http: www.mvtrip.alabama.gov