The new EU Visa Information System and Biometric Matching System

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The new EU Visa Information System and Biometric
Matching System

• Richard Rinkens
• Biometric Matching System Manager
• European Commission
• DG Justice, Freedom and Security / Large-scale IT
  Systems

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Agenda

• A reminder of the VIS
• An introduction to the Biometric Matching System
• Research opportunities

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Schengen visa
Mr Tolstoi goes to French Consulate in Moscow and
receives a Schengen visa.
He can travel freely in Belgium, Denmark,
Germany, Greece, Spain, France, Italy,
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Austria, Portugal,
Finland and Sweden Norway and Iceland
How do we manage this process?
In future Cyprus, Malta, Hungary, Poland, Slovak
Republic, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Czech
Republic, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, Switzerland
we dont really.
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What is the Visa Information System?
Living in an area of justice, freedom and security
Visa Information System VIS

• A central database, supporting Common Visa
  Policy, for the purpose of exchanging visa data
  (including biometrics) between Member States.
• The Commission delivers the Central System, each
  Member State must connect their Consulates and
  border points to the Central System via a
  National System.
• VIS will contain
• Alphanumeric data,
• Digitised photo of the face
• Fingerprint images (10 flat)
• VIS will work alongside a Biometric Matching
  System.

European Commission
Directorate-General Justice, Freedom and Security
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VIS Business Processes
Mr. X
VISA 123456
VIS
BMS
VISA 123456
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Information flow VIS/BMS
Very high availabilityFull backup site
Consulate sends new application details to its
national system. Record then forwarded to and
stored in the central system. Check against BMS
to see if applicant already known. Reply then
sent to Consulate.
Quality Kits
Consulates
Central VIS System
National VIS System
S-TESTA Network
National Interface
Biometric matching system
Border officer sends 4 or 10 fingerprints to
central system for, respectively, one to one
Verification of a visa holder or one to many
identification of someone without documents.
Passport Control
All lights out
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The BMS framework

• Service Orientated Architecture means BMS can be
  used with other systems
• For VIS alone 70 million 10 flat fingerprint
  records
• Implemented by
• Accenture SAGEM Consortium
• (also includes Daon, Bull, Steria, UniqKey, WCC)

Asylum seekers identification
ANSI/NIST encapsulated in SOAP/XML Webservice
All data separated
Prüm complement
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BMS Standards

• ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2000
• Compression WSQ and JPEG2000
• Image resolution 500 dpi -gt 1000 dpi (256 grey
  levels)
• For VIS
• Flat (slap) fingerprints (Ident 4-4-2 and
  Verif4) on live-scan devices, 500 dpi
• Image Quality Assurance at time of enrolment
  (Sagems SW kit)
• Segmenting Sequencing at time of enrolment
  (Sagems SW kit)
• Matching based on fusing Minutiae with an
  additional Image Comparison (Uniqkey)

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BMS How good will it be?

• Fingerprint Matching is not perfect.
• But BMS/VIS will use all 10 fingerprints (or
  those present) taken on modern live-scan
  equipment to extract a maximum of information to
  do extremely good identifications
• BMS/VIS will use 4 fingerprints (proposal, where
  possible) to reduce the number of retries (that
  could lead to longer queues) and to limit the
  number of faults (increased annoyance, reduced
  security)
• First identity claim has nothing to do with
  fingerprints, entirely governed through current
  non-biometric procedures (identity documents,
  interview)
• Fingerprinting is not funny.
• But BMS/VIS will use flat-prints (contrary to
  rolled-prints), no need for ink on live-scans,
  no need for assistance
• BMS/VIS will only require new prints, 48 months
  after the first enrollment (proposal)

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Research Opportunities

• What are the age limits for fingerprinting for
  the VIS/BMS?
• Not defined yet. Technical proposal
• gt6 years for verification purposes only
• gt12 years for identification/verification
• No upper limit
• -gt No objective/academic study on large scale use
  of juvenile fingerprints exists.
• What EU counterpart of NIST, FBI certification,
  WSQ compression, etc. etc. is VIS/BMS using
• Euhhh, next question

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Research Opportunities (2)

• How are Member States going to check Biometrics
  at Land/Sea borders?
• Legal Framework foresees grace period of 3
  years. Hand-held, mobile fingerprinting equipment
  to be used
• -gt No research or EU pilot-project exists in this
  area.
• VIS/BMS urges Member States to use the Sagem
  Software Kits (for local quality control), why
  not use a standard, open-source EU 10-print
  quality control algorithm compatible with all
  major AFIS vendors algorithms?
• -gt Sure! Which one?

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Thank you
Richard Rinkens BMS Manager Unit B/3 Large
Scale IT Systems EU Commission, DG Justice,
Freedom and Security Email Richard.Rinkens_at_ec.eur
opa.eu