The government agency that processes UK visa
applications has reduced by two days the time it takes to have
applicants' identities checked.
UKvisas has announced that it implemented a
service-oriented architecture (SOA) last year to ensure fast
and secure data communications.
The SOA system, which has processed more than a million
applications since its implementation, ensures
biometric data collected at more than 150 UK visa issuing posts
around the world can be compared with information held in the UK in
less than 30 minutes.
Tony Mercer, network operations director at UKvisas, said, "We
had to increase the accuracy of our immigration decisions as well
as ensure visa application turnaround time met our public service
agreement targets."
UKvisas needed a system that was able to meet the expected 10%
increase each year in the number of biometric checks that will be
required.
Legislation to be introduced in 2008 will require all
applications for visas to enter the UK to be supported by biometric
checks using digital photographs and fingerprint scans.
"Checking biometrics by e-mail with the manual processes
involved was incapable of scaling to meet the requirements of the
Home Office," said Mercer.
Implementation of the SOA system using the combined services of
PA Consulting Group and Software AG is the first in the UK
government's identity programmes to be completed.
Andre Pestell, head of procurement for UKvisas, said the
decision to use Software AG was based on the supplier's expertise
and partnership in the government sector with European IT
infrastructure services provider Computacenter.