Biometric data collection for visa applicants

The Government's five-year strategy for asylum and immigration entitled 'Controlling our borders: Making migration work for Britain' published on 7 February 2005 announced that UK Visas will be collecting biometrics data from all visa applicants, irrespective of their nationality. In the foreword to the strategy the Prime Minister wrote:

We will fingerprint visitors who need visas, and those planning longer stays, before they arrive.

By the end of 2007, all applicants will be required to supply 10-digit finger scans and a digital photograph when applying for a UK visa.

Why?
We live in a constantly changing world. More travellers, greater mobility, new security threats and new technologies mean we must find new ways of working which keep us all secure but which also benefit customers.

Identity theft is a major and growing problem globally. It helps terrorism and organised crime and undermines national economies. To protect the integrity of the visa system and to protect our customers, we want to ask every visa applicant around the world to enroll their fingerprints digitally and to have a digital photograph taken, when they make a visa application.

We are not alone in doing this. Biometrics is becoming the industry standard for identity management. Very soon, we will be able to withdraw money from our bank accounts using finger scans or iris scans. Increasingly, all passports will have a unique biometric identifier, whether it is finger scans or an iris scan or a digital photograph. All EU countries are introducing finger scan biometrics into their visas.

Biometrics is the next natural step in a progression of identifiers from signatures to photographs.

What does it mean for the visa applicants?
Biometrics will bring lots of benefits. The immediate impact is that, whereas applicants were previously able to apply for a visa by post or through a travel agent without having to come to a visa section, we will be asking them to come once to the offices of the nearest British mission overseas to enroll their biometric data; we will ask online applicants to do the same.

It will be simple and quick
Enrollment will simply mean presenting fingers on a glass screen, plus having a digital photograph taken; no ink, no mess; it will take a minute or so.

It will be discreet
We are extremely aware of the need to protect the dignity, privacy and modesty of our applicants; there will be special arrangements for our lady customers where required.

It will not delay your visa application
We guarantee that biometric enrollment will not slow down visa applications; it will add about two minutes to the length of the processing time. There will be no additional delay, and no extra security procedures.

The British High Commission will not require personal interviews of all the visa applicants.

What will you do with the information?
The biometric data will be stored on a central government database in the UK and checked against UK government records. It will be handled in accordance with the UK's strict data protection laws.

What are the benefits to visa applicants?

• It helps protect applicants and their family from identity theft.
• It helps keep visa applicants and their family safe from crime and terrorism through ensuring that we can make travelling to, and being in the UK more secure.
• Visa applicants won't be accidentally mistaken for another person with the same or similar name.
• In the long run, applicants' biometric data will be used to facilitate fast passage through automatic gates of entry at UK ports and airports.

Where are we doing it?
UK Visas has been collecting biometric data (2-finger scan) from visa applicants in certain countries since 2003. We will be introducing biometric data collection (10-finger scan and a digital photograph) globally over the next year. It will be introduced gradually with the system going live in a country as soon as it is installed rather than have one global start date.

Biometric data is currently collected from all visa applicants (irrespective of their nationality) when they apply for a UK visa in the following countries:

Albania, Angola, Argentina, Armenia, Belgium, Bolivia, Bosnia, Botswana, Bulgaria, Burma, Cameroon, Chile, Democratic Republic of Congo, Croatia, Cuba, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Estonia, Ethiopia, Finland, The Gambia, Georgia, Greece, Guyana, Hungary, Iran, Iceland, Kenya, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Mauritius, Mexico, Moldova, Morocco, The Netherlands, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Sweden, Syria, Taiwan, Tanzania, Trinidad and Tobago, Tunisia, Turkmenistan, Uganda, Uruguay, Venezuela, Vietnam and Zambia.