United States Visitor and Immigrant Status Indicator Technology (commonly referred to as US-VISIT) is a

U.S. Customs and Border Protection United States Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is the largest federal law enforcement agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security. It is the country's primary border control organization, charged with regulating and facilit ...

(CBP) management system. The system involves the collection and analysis of

biometric Biometrics are body measurements and calculations related to human characteristics. Biometric authentication (or realistic authentication) is used in computer science as a form of identification and access control. It is also used to identify in ...

data (such as

fingerprint A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...

s), which are checked against a database to track individuals deemed by the United States to be

terrorist Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

s, criminals, and illegal immigrants. US-VISIT is accessed by 30,000 users from federal, state, and local government agencies. Upon Presidential approval of the 2013

Continuing resolution In the United States, a continuing resolution (often abbreviated to CR) is a type of appropriations legislation. An appropriations bill is a bill that appropriates (gives to, sets aside for) money to specific federal government departments, ag ...

the US-VISIT program officially became the "Office of Biometric Identity Management" (OBIM), save for portions of the agency which performed overstay analysis being transferred into

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from the cross-border crime and illegal immigration tha ...

and biometric Entry and Exit operations which became a part of

Purpose and overview

The U.S. government states that the purpose of US-VISIT is to advance the

security" \n\n\nsecurity.txt is a proposed standard for websites' security information that is meant to allow security researchers to easily report security vulnerabilities. The standard prescribes a text file called \"security.txt\" in the well known locat ...

of both the United States and worldwide travel, through the use and sharing of

information for identity management. U.S. Department of State consular officers and U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers collect biometric information (digital fingerprints and a photograph) from all non-U.S. citizens between the ages of 14 and 79, with some exceptions, when they apply for visas or arrive at major U.S. ports of entry. CBP officials have the ability to instantly check the person seeking entry against several "lookout" databases using the Interagency Border Inspection System. In 2009, DHS announced that it had completed an upgrade from two-fingerprint to ten-fingerprint scanners at major U.S. ports of entry. The upgrade, which began in 2007, is intended to make the entry process faster and more accurate. Initially, only visitors who required a

visa Visa most commonly refers to: *Visa Inc., a US multinational financial and payment cards company ** Visa Debit card issued by the above company ** Visa Electron, a debit card ** Visa Plus, an interbank network *Travel visa, a document that allows ...

inserted in their passport were included in the US-VISIT program. However, since September 30, 2004, visitors eligible for the

Visa Waiver Program The Visa Waiver Program (VWP) is a program of the United States federal government that allows nationals of specific countries to travel to the U.S. for tourism, business, or while in transit for up to 90 days without having to obtain a visa. I ...

have also been required to use the US-VISIT program. Beginning January 18, 2009, most non-U.S. citizens (including lawful permanent residents) are subject to US-VISIT requirements. The United States and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

have special agreements for visa-free travel, and currently most Canadians are not subject to US-VISIT. U.S. citizens are not required to be digitally fingerscanned or photographed when they enter United States territory. The Department of State began issuing

biometric passport A biometric passport (also known as an e-passport or a digital passport) is a traditional passport that has an embedded electronic microprocessor chip which contains biometric information that can be used to authenticate the identity of the pa ...

s to its citizens in 2006. The program has been funded by Congressional appropriations of $330 million in fiscal year 2004, $340 million in 2005, $340 million in 2006, and $362 million in 2007. For fiscal year 2010, Congress appropriated $373.7 million and directed that $50 million be used to implement a biometric air exit capability.

Statistics

In fiscal year 2007: *A total of 46,298,869 entries recorded at air and sea ports. *Of these, 236,857 were identified as possible overstays. *The manual vetting system led to 273

arrests. *The databases resulted in 25,552 hits for consular officers overseas adjudicating visa applications. *There were 11,685 biometric watch-list hits at the ports of entry, which included individuals with criminal histories. *

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalizati ...

used the system to screen those who apply for immigration benefits, creating 31,324 hits.

Controversy

Critics contend that the system is too inaccurate to be an effective solution. Barry Steinhardt, director of the American Civil Liberties Union's Program on Technology and Liberty, states that the watch list is "bloated and full of inaccuracy", calling the policy a "total failure". He stated, "Whether or not the loss of liberty is worth the security gained is not a question — because no security is gained." The consulting company Accenture is the lead contractor for US-VISIT. The selection of Accenture in 2004 was controversial due to the location of the company's headquarters. In 2000, Accenture was created and incorporated in Bermuda, as a separation of global business consulting services from the financial consulting services of Andersen Consulting. Because Accenture was created in 2000, and because Andersen was not previously incorporated, Accenture was never previously considered to be incorporated in the United States.

Similar systems in other countries

The following list shows countries who fingerprint and photograph foreigners and citizens.

References

External links