The Arizona Board of Regents approved amendments to board policies regarding resident status and financial aid to comply with Proposition 300, which went into effect in December.

Proposition 300 affects students who are not citizens, legal residents of the U.S. or without lawful immigration status, and does not allow them to be classified as in-state students.

Students who have filed a verified Free Application for Federal Student Aid are in compliance with Prop. 300 and will not have to provide any further documentation, said Johnny Cruz, UA spokesman.

“”If we didn’t have that, it would be more of a logistical problem,”” Cruz said. “”Every student at the university that either receives in-state tuition or any type of state subsidized financial aid has to be verified.””

Not only does this immediately affect continuing students, but all future students as well.

President Robert Shelton said about 12,000 continuing students will need to provide documentation, but only 100 will actually be affected by the propsition.

“”Thankfully, our registration forms and related admissions documents, by and large, were already in compliance with the new law,”” Cruz said.

The biggest change will be requesting additional verification of citizenship, Cruz said.

The ultimate cost to comply is unknown, but administrators have already begun to develop implementation policies, said Nancy Tribbensee, general counsel for the Arizona University System.

“”At some point, we’re going to ask all the universities to give us the actual cost of doing this and implementing the statutes, and then we’ll all be able to assess the value added,”” said Regent Gary Stuart.

Stuart said finding students who need to provide additional verification is not an easy process, and the list of students changes every month.

Working with the registrar, admissions and financial aid offices, Stuart hopes to find the least expensive way to comply and document the process in a way that can be audited.

“”The theoretical goal is that we will save money by identifying students who do not have proper legal status, either immigration or citizenship, and identifying them and making them pay out of state tuition,”” Stuart said.

Currently, approximately 27 percent of students are classified as out-of-state, Cruz said.

Arizona is the only state in the country that must verify students’ citizenship status, Stuart said.