Patent ID: 7140535

Claim:
A distributed customs and immigration system for authorizing a visitor's stay in a country, comprising: a) a smartcard; b) a plurality of first computers comprising: i) a means for capturing a plurality of first biometric data from said visitor, ii) a means for entering first textual data, iii) a means to communicate in a multiplicity of foreign languages on said first computers, wherein said visitor selects a preferred visitor language to communicate with said first computers, from said multiplicity of languages, iv) a means to translate said first textual data from said multiplicity of foreign languages to a first language used by said visited country, said translation of said first textual data are second textual data; v) a means for storing said first biometric data and said second textual data on said smartcard; c) a first computer server remotely located from said first computers comprising: i) a first database system, ii) a plurality of programs for interacting with said first database system; d) a first communications network interconnecting said first computers to said first computer server; e) wherein said smartcard includes a first unique identifier; f) wherein said first computers store said first biometric data, said first textual data and said second textual data in said first database system located on said first computer server system using said first communications network; g) wherein said first textual data and said second textual data include information about said visitor's stay in said country.