New European Visa Information System utilizes biometrics
20 October, 2011
category: Biometrics, Government
The European Visa Information System (VIS) launched in October giving participating states the opportunity to collect and store third-country travelers’ visa information using biometrics.
The European VIS hopes to simplify visa processing for issuing and checking authorities. The system collects and stores personal data, a facial image and fingerprint data. With this level of data, border control visa applications can take on average ten seconds to process.
In Germany and Austria, the biometric middleware is provided by secunet software. The middleware enables a modular use of biometric system components and ID readers. These may be used in either biometric or eID applications.
As the VIS program expands, the secunet software will be used on over 1,000 clients in 330 German and Austrian diplomatic representations.