US-VISIT is a governmentwide program intended to enhance the security of U.S. citizens and visitors, facilitate legitimate travel and trade, ensure the integrity of the U.S. immigration system, and protect the privacy of our visitors. The scope of the program includes the pre-entry, entry, status, and exit of hundreds of millions of foreign national travelers who enter and leave the United States at over 300 air, sea, and land ports of entry, as well as analytical capabilities spanning this overall process. To achieve its goals, US-VISIT uses biometric information (digital fingerscans and photographs) to verify identity and screen persons against watch lists. In many cases, the US-VISIT process begins overseas, at U.S. consular offices, which collect biometric information from applicants for visas, and check this information against a database of known criminals and suspected terrorists. When a visitor arrives at a port of entry, the biometric information is used to verify that the visitor is the person who was issued the visa or other travel documents. Ultimately, visitors are to confirm their departure by having their visas or passports scanned and undergoing fingerscanning. (Currently, at a few pilot sites, departing visitors are asked to undergo these exit procedures.) The exit confirmation is added to the visitor’s travel records to demonstrate compliance with the terms of admission to the United States. Other key US-VISIT functions include ● 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 admission; (2) may be eligible to 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 within the immigration and border management community. In July 2003, DHS established a program office with responsibility for managing the acquisition, deployment, operation, and sustainment of the US-VISIT system and its associated supporting people (e.g., Customs and Border Protection officers), processes (e.g., entry/exit policies and procedures), and facilities (e.g., inspection booths and lanes). As of October 2005, about $1.4 billion has been appropriated for the program, and according to program officials, about $962 million has been obligated to acquire, develop, deploy, operate, and maintain US-VISIT entry capabilities, and to test and evaluate exit capability options. DHS plans to deliver US-VISIT capability in four increments, with Increments 1 through 3 being interim, or temporary, solutions that fulfill legislative mandates to deploy an entry/exit system, and Increment 4 being the implementation of a long-term vision that is to incorporate improved business processes, new technology, and information sharing to create an integrated border management system for the future. In Increments 1 through 3, the program is building interfaces among existing (“legacy”) systems, enhancing the capabilities of these systems, and deploying these capabilities to air, sea, and land ports of entry. These first three increments are to be largely acquired and implemented through existing system contracts and task orders. In May 2004, DHS awarded an indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity prime contract to Accenture and its partners. According to the contract, the prime contractor will help support the integration and consolidation of processes, functionality, and data, and it will develop a strategy to build on the technology and capabilities already available to produce the strategic solution, while also assisting the program office in leveraging existing systems and contractors in deploying the interim solutions. Increment 1 concentrates on establishing capabilities at air and sea ports of entry. It is divided into two parts—1A and 1B. ● Increment 1A (air and sea entry) includes the electronic capture and matching of biographic and biometric information (two digital index fingerscans and a digital photograph) for selected foreign nationals, including those from visa waiver countries. Increment 1A was deployed on January 5, 2004, through the modification of pre- existing systems. These modifications accommodated the collection and maintenance of additional data fields and established interfaces required to share data among DHS systems in support of entry processing at 115 airports and 14 seaports. ● Increment 1B (air and sea exit) involves the testing of exit devices to collect biometric exit data for select foreign nationals. Three exit alternatives were pilot tested at 11 air and sea ports of entry. These alternatives are as follows. ● Kiosk—A self-service device (including a touch screen interface, document scanner, finger scanner, digital camera, and receipt printer) that captures a digital photograph and fingerprint and prints out an encoded receipt. ● Mobile device—A hand-held device that is operated by a workstation attendant and includes a document scanner, finger scanner, digital camera, and receipt printer to capture a digital photograph and fingerprint. ● Validator—A hand-held device that is used to capture a digital photograph and fingerprint, which are then matched to the photograph and fingerprint captured via the kiosk and encoded in the receipt. Increment 2 focuses primarily on extending US-VISIT to land ports of entry. It is divided into three parts—2A, 2B, and 2C. ● Increment 2A (air, sea, and land entry) includes the capability to biometrically compare and authenticate valid machine-readable visas and other travel and entry documents at all ports of entry. Increment 2A was deployed on October 23, 2005, according to program officials. It also includes the deployment by October 26, 2006, of the capability to read biometrically enabled passports from visa waiver countries. ● Increment 2B (land entry) redesigned the Increment 1 entry solution and expanded it to the 50 busiest land ports of entry. The process for issuing entry/exit forms was redesigned to enable the electronic capture of biographic, biometric (unless the traveler is exempt), and related travel documentation for arriving travelers. This increment was deployed to the busiest 50 U.S. land border ports of entry on December 29, 2004. Before Increment 2B, all information on the entry/exit forms was hand written. The redesigned process provides for electronically capturing the biographic data on the entry/exit form. In some cases, Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers enter the data electronically and then print the completed form. ● Increment 2C (land entry and exit) is to provide the capability to automatically, passively, and remotely record the entry and exit of covered individuals using radio frequency (RF) technology tags at primary inspection and exit lanes. This tag includes a unique ID number that is to be embedded in each entry/exit form, thus associating a unique number with a US-VISIT record for the person holding that form. One of DHS’s goals in using this technology is to improve the ability to collect entry and exit information. In August 2005, the program office deployed the technology to three land ports of entry to verify the feasibility of using passive RF technology to record traveler entries and exits from the number embedded in the entry/exit form. The results of this demonstration are to be reported in February 2006. Increment 3 extended Increment 2B (land entry) capabilities to 104 land ports of entry; this increment was essentially completed as of December 19, 2005. Increment 4 is the strategic US-VISIT program capability, which program officials stated will likely consist of a further series of incremental releases or mission capability enhancements that will support business outcomes. The program reports that it has worked with its prime contractor and partners to develop this overall vision for the immigration and border management enterprise. All increments before Increment 4 depend on the interfacing and integration of existing systems, including the following: ● The Arrival and Departure Information System (ADIS) stores ● noncitizen traveler arrival and departure data received from air and sea carrier manifests, ● arrival data captured by CBP officers at air and sea ports of ● I-94 issuance data captured by CBP officers at Increment 2B land ● departure information captured at US-VISIT biometric departure pilot (air and sea) locations, ● pedestrian arrival information and pedestrian and vehicle departure information captured at Increment 2C port of entry locations, and ● status update information provided by SEVIS and CLAIMS 3 (described below). ADIS provides record matching, query, and reporting functions. ● The passenger processing component of the Treasury Enforcement Communications System (TECS) includes two systems: Advance Passenger Information System (APIS), a system that captures arrival and departure manifest information provided by air and sea carriers, and the Interagency Border Inspection System, a system that maintains lookout data and interfaces with other agencies’ databases. CBP officers use these data as part of the admission process. The results of the admission decision are recorded in TECS and ADIS. ● The Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT) collects and stores biometric data about foreign visitors. ● The Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS) and the Computer Linked Application Information Management System (CLAIMS 3) contain information on foreign students and foreign nationals who request benefits, such as change of status or extension of stay. Some of these systems, such as IDENT, are managed by the program office, while some systems are managed by other organizational entities within DHS. For example, TECS is managed by CBP, SEVIS is managed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement, CLAIMS 3 is under United States Citizenship and Immigration Services, and ADIS is jointly managed by CBP and US-VISIT.