Biometrics Field Trial Evaluation Report

Section 2. Introduction

Canada is facing the challenge of having to manage the growing transnational movement of people brought about by the increasingly global economy, the advent of low‑cost air travel and the growing wealth in emerging economies. Greater mobility means increased irregular migration facilitated through identity and document fraud, and therefore, more concern about criminals and would‑be terrorists exploiting weaknesses in identity systems to travel between countries.

Around the world, governments and industry have been developing new tools geared to better managing the growing flow of people and to mitigating the attendant risks to health and security. Many of these new tools involve biometrics—the automated recognition of individuals based on their behavioural and biological characteristics.

One factor driving the implementation of biometrics at CIC is the need to link a record created in one office with a subsequent application in CIC’s or in the CBSA’s operations. Managing a client’s identity by recording biometric data can help verify that client’s identity when he or she interacts with CIC or the CBSA later on. When verification is required, it could be performed as a simple check of the computer and, when in question, be reviewed by a qualified forensic specialist.

Using biometrics for identity management could help achieve a number of program and security objectives:

  • Reduce visa fraud. Clients would become known under one unique identifier and therefore could not apply again under a different name. Repeat applications under fraudulent identities would be vastly reduced.
  • Provide a link between visa and refugee programs. CIC processes thousands of refugee protection claimants annually who appear in Canada with no identity documents but who would have needed a visa to enter Canada. Understanding the migration link, tracking misrepresentation in visa applications and confirming the identity of undocumented claimants is a program integrity priority. Searching by the name and date of birth that is provided by the client has proven insufficient.
  • Ensure entitlement to enter Canada. The CBSA has no automated way of ensuring that a client arriving in Canada and seeking entry is the same person as the client who was approved for a visa. Biometric verification upon entry to Canada offers a fast and effective way to facilitate the entry decision process.
  • Speed up background checks. Searching by name is a cumbersome way to perform background checks, and it often produces poor results because of changes in client names or different spellings of similar names. Biometrics would significantly improve the speed and accuracy of immigration and criminal background checks.
  • Enhance identity management to improve client service. With biometric‑based identity management, a broad range of client service options become feasible with no negative impacts on program integrity. For example, using a biometric to secure a client’s identity during the first interaction with that person could enable the client to conduct subsequent interactions through a secure Internet channel.

Many countries have already adopted new measures to improve border security and to facilitate migration flows, including the following:

  • E‑passports: Over 30 countries are issuing passports containing secure chips in order to automate reading of the document on entry.
  • Advance passenger information: Canada and the United States (US) were at the forefront of advance passenger screening.
  • Electronic travel authorities: Australia leads the world in electronic pre‑clearance.
  • Biometric visas and entry: The US has captured biometrics as part of their visa and entry process since 2004, the United Kingdom began in 2006, and Europe will be introducing biometrics in their visa process in the coming years.

Australia has predicted that most entries into that country will soon be automated through the use of biometrics and entry kiosks. The US, under the US‑VISIT program, has been collecting two fingerprints from all foreign nationals (except most Canadians) when they apply for a visa and when they enter the US at both land border crossings and at airports since 2004. The United Kingdom (UK) now uses a biometric visa, which was implemented for nationals of all countries in 2006, and it has announced that by 2010 all entries into the country will involve a biometric check. These success stories show that biometric technologies, which are reshaping travel, can help strengthen the integrity of migration management.

CIC and CBSA have long recognized the need to mitigate against the entry into Canada of persons who pose a security risk. CIC and the CBSA have invested significantly in enforcement measures that use biometric technology to identify people: the refugee and immigration enforcement programs both use an automated fingerprint identification system (CIC/CBSA LiveScan) that is linked to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). The CBSA was also one of the first organizations to use biometrics to facilitate the entry of low‑risk, frequent travellers, through the CANPASS Air/NEXUS programs, which use iris recognition.

Building on that expertise, CIC implemented a limited, six‑month operational field trial in October 2006 to assess the broad impacts of biometric technology on CIC and CBSA employees, clients and processes.

This evaluation report describes the findings of the field trial and the lessons learned from it, based on the original field trial objectives in the following areas:

  • Program integrity
  • Client service
  • Organization and procedures
  • Costs

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