Filing an Incomplete Online Application

We now have six State agencies that have one or more counties in which an applicant can go online, and submit an application for food stamp certification by computer. The counties are listed at http://www.fns.usda.gov../applicant_recipients/apply.htm  on our website.

We have received a question on whether a State agency may require an applicant to fill out the entire online application form before submitting it to the agency. The answer is no.

The rule on filing an application [at 7 CFR 273.2(c)] applies to both online and paper applications. The rule states that “[t]he household…may file an incomplete application form as long as the form contains the applicant’s name and address, and is signed by a responsible member of the household or the household’s authorized representative.” We can understand the impulse to simplify the programming of the application process, and to induce the applicant to complete the process promptly, but State agencies need to comply with the rule. This is an access issue, and it is necessary, in order to give proper service to clients.

Some State agencies have simplified their compliance with this requirement for paper application forms by designing the form with a tear-off first page, which explains this option, the right to file on the same day the applicant contacts the State agency and the benefits of applying as soon as possible to establish the date of application, and which contains a place to put the name, address and signature of the applicant.

A State agency that is designing an online application form may use an electronic version of this device. We suggest that the first screen contain the information that is on the first page of the State agency’s paper application form. The system software should allow the applicant to submit this incomplete application to the State agency electronically.

The State agencies that already have electronic application systems on their websites need to modify their electronic forms to comply with this requirement if they do not do so already. Those State agencies that are currently preparing electronic application systems to install on their websites need to incorporate this feature in the forms and the systems they are designing.

Please share this guidance with all the State agencies in your region.

Arthur T. Foley
Director
Program Development Division

Last modified: 02/16/2012