Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) Summary
USAID operates the TraiNet/Visa Compliance System (VCS) under the authority of the Mutual Educational and Cultural Exchange Act of 1961 (P.L. 87‐256), as amended (22 U.S.C. 2460 (f) and (g)), the Act’s implementing “Exchange Visitor Program” regulations (CFR Title 22, Part 62), and Executive Order 13055 (“Coordination of United States Government International Exchanges and Training Programs”). The purpose the Act is to increase mutual understanding between the people of the U.S. and the people of other countries by means of educational and cultural exchanges. International educational and cultural exchanges are one of the most effective means of developing lasting and meaningful relationships. At present, the U.S. Department of State (DOS) has fifteen categories of exchange. Foreign national participating in Exchange Visitor (EV) programs may only engage in activities authorized for their program.
USAID functions as one of the founding, statutory members of the Interagency Working Group (IAWG) on U.S. Government‐Sponsored International Exchanges and Training. In addition, USAID establishes and administers policy and procedures (see ADS 252 and ADS 253).
TraiNet‐VCS is a major application/database used by USAID to capture and store data from Agency exchanges, training, and educational activities of foreign nationals. The database tool, which has been designated by USAID Senior Leadership as an Enterprise System, is also used for maintaining compliance with U.S. Government Visa requirements. TraiNet‐VCS enables the Agency to meet its requirement to report to Congress and DOS on all Agency training activities. TraiNet‐VCS is also used by the Agency’s Washington, DC area operations and its field missions to capture and report on their training numbers, costs and various fields of training, whether in the U.S., the foreign national’s home country, or a third country. TraiNet is a webbased application, and there is no single “form” used to collect data.
