State’s $162 million Biometric Visa Program is designed to work hand-in- hand with the DHS multibillion-dollar US-VISIT program. Both programs aim to improve U.S. border security by verifying the identity of persons entering the United States. Both programs rely on the DHS Automated Biographic Identification System, known as IDENT, which is a repository of fingerprints and digital photographs of persons who either have applied for U.S. visas since the inception of the program in September 2003, have entered the United States at one of 115 air or 14 sea ports of entry since January 2004, or are on a watch list—whether for previous immigration violations or as part of the FBI’s database of terrorists and individuals with felony convictions. The process for determining who will be issued a visa consists of several steps. When a person applies for a visa at a U.S. consulate, a fingerprint scan is taken of his right and left index fingers. These prints are then transmitted from the overseas post through servers at State to DHS’s IDENT system, which searches its records and sends a response back through State to the post. A “hit” response—meaning that a match to someone previously entered in the system was found—prevents the post’s computer system from printing a visa for the applicant until the information is reviewed and cleared by a consular officer. According to State data, the entire process generally takes about 30 minutes. If the computer cannot determine if two sets of prints match, IDENT refers the case to DHS fingerprint experts, who have up to 24 hours to return a response to State (see fig. 1). US-VISIT aims to enhance national security, facilitate legitimate trade and travel, contribute to the integrity of the U.S. immigration system, and adhere to U.S. privacy laws and policies by collecting, maintaining, and sharing information on certain foreign nationals who enter and exit the United States; identifying foreign nationals who (1) have overstayed or violated the terms of their visit; (2) can receive, extend, or adjust their immigration status; or (3) should be apprehended or detained by law enforcement officials; detecting fraudulent travel documents, verifying traveler identity, and determining traveler admissibility through the use of biometrics; and facilitating information sharing and coordination among appropriate agencies. The process by which a foreign national is screened for entry is as follows: When a foreign national arrives at a port of entry to the United States, a DHS inspector scans the machine-readable travel documents. Existing records on the foreign national, including biographic lookout hits are returned. The computer presents available biographic information and a photograph and determines whether IDENT contains existing fingerprints for the foreign national. The inspector then scans the foreign national’s fingerprints (left and right index fingers) and takes a photograph. This information is checked against stored fingerprints in IDENT. If no matching prints are in IDENT, the foreign national is enrolled in US-VISIT (i.e., biographic and biometric data are entered). If the foreign national’s fingerprints are already in IDENT, the system performs a comparison of the fingerprint taken at the port of entry to the one on file to confirm that the person submitting the fingerprints is the person on file. If the system finds a mismatch of fingerprints or a watch list hit, the foreign national is held for further screening or processing. State’s implementation of the technology aspects of the biometric visa program is currently on schedule to meet the October 26, 2004, deadline. According to State officials, a well-planned rollout of equipment and software and fewer technical problems than anticipated led to smooth implementation of the technological aspects of the program at the 201 posts that had the program operating as of September 1, 2004. But amid the fast pace of rolling out the program to meet the deadline, DHS and State have not provided comprehensive guidance for consular posts on how the information about visa applicants made available through the Biometric Visa Program should best be used to help adjudicate visas. Indeed, we found several significant differences in the implementation of the biometric program during our visits to San Salvador, El Salvador, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. State acknowledged that posts may be implementing the program in various ways across the 207 consular posts that issue nonimmigrant visas. According to State officials, the implementation process for the biometric program led to far fewer technical problems than expected. Early on, State had a few difficulties in transmitting data between the posts and DHS’s IDENT, primarily related to server and firewall (computer security) issues. According to State, most issues were resolved within a few days. In fact, 201 nonimmigrant visa (NIV)-issuing posts out of 207 had the software and hardware installed and were transmitting prints to IDENT for analysis as of September 1, 2004. State anticipates the completion of the installation by the October 2004 deadline. According to State’s data, from February to August 2004, the total biometric visa process averaged about 30 minutes for an applicant’s prints to be sent from an overseas post to the State server, and on to DHS for IDENT analysis and then for the response to be returned through State’s server to the posts. IDENT response time could affect visa issuance times because a visa cannot be issued until the post has received and reviewed the IDENT response. Our observations at posts in San Salvador and Santo Domingo demonstrated the importance of the length of time required to receive an IDENT response. We observed that most interviews average only a few minutes, but the IDENT response time currently is 30 minutes. Thus, if interviewing officers collect prints during the interview, the interview would be completed before the IDENT response would be available to consular officers. Since the visa cannot be issued until the IDENT information is considered by the consulate, potential delays in the IDENT response times could have a major effect on the visa issuance process and inconvenience visa applicants. State has encouraged consular officials to issue visas the day after interviews since part of the visa process now relies on another agency’s system. This will require significant changes for posts such as Santo Domingo, which still issues same-day visas. State has focused on implementing the Biometric Visa Program by the mandated deadline; however, our report identifies certain lags in guidance on how the program should be implemented at consular posts. State and DHS have not yet provided to posts details of how all aspects of the program will be implemented, including who should scan fingerprints, where and who should review information about applicants returned from IDENT, and response times for the IDENT system. In addition, DHS and State have not provided comprehensive guidance for consular posts on how the information about visa applicants made available through the Biometric Visa Program should be used to help adjudicate visas. We believe that it is important for State and DHS to articulate how the program could best be implemented, providing a roadmap for posts to develop implementation plans that incorporate the guidance. We recognize, however, that the workload, personnel and facility resources vary considerably from post to post. As a result, each post may not be able to easily implement the Biometric Visa Program according to a precise set of guidelines. However, posts could develop procedures to implement the guidance, identify resource and facility constraints, and implement mitigating actions to address their own unique circumstances. Therefore, we have recommended that DHS and State provide comprehensive guidance to consular posts on how information about visa applicants that is now available from IDENT should be used to help adjudicate visas. In responding to our recommendation, DHS generally concurred and State acknowledged that there may be a lag in guidance. Our work at two posts shows that, because they lack specific guidance on the system’s use, consular officers at these overseas posts are uncertain how they should implement the Biometric Visa Program and are currently using the returned IDENT responses in a variety of ways. For example, we found that, in cases in which the IDENT response information is available to the overseas post by the time of the visa applicant interview, some consular officers who conduct interviews review information before the interview, some review it during the interview, and some rely instead on a designated officer or the line chief to review the information after the interview is completed and before affected visas are printed. We found several differences in the visa operations at two posts—San Salvador, El Salvador, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic—that handle a large volume of visa applications. For example, San Salvador, one of the first posts to begin implementing the program in September 2003, has a large new embassy complex that allowed the post great flexibility in implementing the collection of biometrics. Applicants are led through outdoor security screening before entering the interview waiting room. Once in the waiting room, they immediately proceed to a fingerprint scanning window where an American officer verifies their names and photographs and scans their fingerprints. By the time they arrive at their interview windows, usually the interviewing officer has received their IDENT responses. However, the post has designated one officer to review all of the IDENT responses, so some interviewing officers do not take the time to review IDENT information on those they interview even if the information is available at the time of the interview. Santo Domingo’s consular section is hampered by significant facility constraints. The NIV applicant waiting area is very cramped and has been even more restricted over recent months due to construction efforts. Some of the NIV applicants are forced to share space in the immigrant visa waiting area. Santo Domingo has fewer interviewing windows than San Salvador and cannot easily spare one to designate for fulltime fingerprint scanning due to high interview volume. Some interviewing officers scan applicants’ fingerprints at the time of the interview, so the interview ends before the IDENT response has been returned from DHS. One consular officer is designated to review the IDENT responses for all of the applicants, and interviewing officers may not see IDENT information on the applicants they interview.