Immigration New Zealand to Use Biometrics at Entry Points

Immigration New Zealand has installed necessary equipment at all the entry points to the country for scanning photographs and fingerprints of all the non New Zealanders entering the country in order to strengthen border security and speed up the processing of the visa applications.

The step has been taken as a part of a biometric program that involves immigration authorities of five countries including New Zealand, Canada, the US, Australia and the UK. The immigration agencies in these five countries can share the biometric data to verify the identities.

Immigration minister Jonathan Coleman says in a press release,” Biometrics provides better tools which allow Immigration to confirm an individual’s identity and protect New Zealand’s border.”

He further added, “The changes will protect people from identity theft and prevent the misuse of passports or visas by fraudsters and criminals. A further benefit is that the new technology will speed up visa application processing as we are more readily able to confirm who we are dealing with.”

Photographs of the applicants will be scanned during the processing stage of the visa application as well as at the border. In certain cases, instead of scanning the photographs, cameras will be used to capture the photographs of the applicants. Electronic scanners will be used when the fingerprints will be required.

Tags: Biometrics, fingerprint scanning, immigration New Zealand, New Zealand, photograph scanning