Questions and answers

Immigration New Zealand (INZ) is extending its use of biometrics. Photographs may be collected from clients and fingerprints may be collected from high risk immigration applicants.

Fingerprints have been collected by INZ since January 2011, but this has been limited to asylum claimants. Fingerprints have been checked with members of the Five Country Conference (FCC) to help determine individuals’ identity and background.

Who will it affect and what does it involve?

The use of biometrics, as provided for under the Immigration Act 2009, and covers:

• a passport photo of all visa applicants
• a passport photo of all non-New Zealand citizens at the border
• a photo and fingerprints of persons seeking resettlement in New Zealand under the UNHCR Refugee Programme
• a photo and fingerprints of persons suspected to be breaching, or intending to breach, the Immigration Act. Scenarios include people:
  
  • being formally interviewed at the border
  • suspected of remaining unlawfully in New Zealand
  • being deported
  • suspected of using a false identity.

Passport readers will be installed at INZ offices and international airports. These readers will capture a passport-holder’s photo.

INZ will not collect biometrics from New Zealand  passport holders.

No biometric face-matching will be conducted in this phase. 

Why is INZ doing this?

These new measures will enable INZ to deliver faster, high confidence services to migrants and New Zealand. Benefits include:

• better verification that a client is the same person who was issued a visa offshore
• faster and more accurate checking of immigration alerts
• greater ability to prevent high risk persons entering or re-entering New Zealand
• greater public confidence in the integrity of the immigration system through robust identification and background checking of higher risk immigration applicants
• support for the future expansion to non-New Zealanders of the Department of Internal Affairs’ igovt identity verification service that allows people to obtain an igovt ID so that they can prove their identity online.
• assisting INZ to protect clients’ identities and visas from theft or misuse.

Increased use of biometrics also addresses recommendations from the Office of the Auditor General that INZ improve its identity management processes and capability to better maintain the integrity of the immigration system.

Will there be an automatic check each time a person comes into the country?

All passports will be authenticated via an automatic process. If there are indications of forgery the passport and its bearer will be investigated.

Does the collection of photos and other data breach people’s legal rights of privacy?

No. A privacy impact assessment has been conducted in close consultation with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.

All biometrics are handled with very high levels of data security, with strict rules around access of data.

Clients may be given a copy of their biometric information on request.

What do you do with fingerprints collected from high risk clients?

They are stored in a secure Immigration Fingerprint Database housed in the New Zealand Police Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS).

Fingerprints will be searched against existing INZ records and in some cases against our FCC partner records, but not against the Police criminal database.

Will photo collection delay travellers?

No. Clients’ passport photos will be scanned as part of routine processing.