NEWS
Biometric technology has slashed the time taken to process visas for people coming to the UK, the government has said.
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UKvisas, the UK's visa checking agency, said it has cut the time taken to check the identity of visa applicants from two days to less than 30 minutes.
The system speeds up the process by checking a visa applicant's ID and biometrics against a database held in the UK.
It has been rolled out in stages since last year and has already handled more than one million visa applicants.
The link to UK databases also helps to ensure visas are not granted to people previously removed from the country or travelling under a false ID.
Fingerprint scans and a digital photograph have been taken from all UK visa applicants since January 2008 at all of the UK's 150-plus issuing posts.
Tony Mercer, network operations director at UKvisas, said in a statement: "We had to increase the accuracy of our immigration decisions, as well as ensure visa application turnaround time met our public service agreement targets."
He said the system, provided by PA Consulting Group and Software AG, was far more efficient than relying on manually checking biometrics.
Comments
There are 5 comments. Join the discussion
1. Radical Meldrew
Big Deal! Processing may be faster but the visa applicant is required to provide a biometric data sample which is then entered into a central database first. Where is the speed advantage in this and how much extra does this new technology cost over previous methods?
2. Guy Reynolds
So we are not actually security/background checking anybody anymore then, just taking their biometrics.
Has anybody pointed out to these people that until you have a databse of the biometrics with all the undesirables in it you don't have any records to check applicants against.
For this to provide any form of security etc you need to have the biometrics of the world's population or at least that part of the world's population that you don't want to give a visa to.
3. GALLEY SLAVE#41
LETS WAIT FOR THE FIRST COCKUP! (IT WON'T BE A LONG WAIT)
ANY BETS ON WETHER IT WILL BE A FAKE ID OR SOME NUMPTY PUTTING THE WRONG INFO ON THE CARD OR PASSPORT.
4. Richard
"Identity" is not the problem:
I've helped several friends with appeals against refusals of UK student visas - as genuine students paying the full overseas (ie. higher) rate of fees at UK government funded colleges.
Each had (wrongly) been refused a visa; After very lengthy appeals, UK immigration judges have now granted each a visa.
In no case was their "identity" in doubt; none could credibly have been described as "undesirable"; all were well known and respected in their own communities. All will return home to their families and businesses after completing their courses.
The problem was the poor decisions made by UKVisa staff and their contractors, and the frequent loss of important documents; some possibly lost into criminal hands. UKVisa staff and their contractors appeared to have some very strange attitudes to these genuine applicants.
Immigration appeal judges have now ordered UKVisas to issue these student visas, but much damage has been done to the UK's reputation, and to these applicants.
Sadly, the UK media has decided not to report what is being done - supposedly in our name - to applicants for UK visas.
So, rather than crowing about "biometrics," the UKVisas, FCO and Home Office should put more effort into basic administration - including simple filing systems and communications technology - and into better representing the UK's core values overseas.
5. Tim Jackson
This depends on biometrics making a positive identification with a database of undesirables.
Biometrics may be good as identifying that someone is NOT who they claim to be, a negative identification, but I doubt that it is anywhere near as good at identifying that they ARE someone else.
Does anyone have any figures on how reliable this technology when used in this way? I can't imagine the hit rate is very high at all. And it gives the overworked and highly stressed officials an excuse to skip other checks.