I may ask Ms. Estabrooks to supplement what I'm about to tell you, but essentially the collection overseas of the fingerprint and the taking of the photograph will lock in the identity of individuals as soon as they come into contact with Citizenship and Immigration overseas. The fingerprints will be sent to the RCMP for checks on previous infringements and whether or not there are matches with previous applicants. If there are no adverse concerns, then our officers will be able to issue the visa overseas.
At the port of entry though.... We've all been at Pearson, for example, when an international flight has come in. The volume of travellers—many of whom don't have a NEXUS card—are lined up in front of the BSOs to be examined for admission to Canada.
What we are foreseeing with this system is that the border services officer would verify the individual's face with the photograph that was taken overseas to match identity, and if there are no concerns during the examination, the individual would be waved on. If there are questions or if there are discrepancies, at that point the border services officer may refer the individual to secondary examination. At that point their fingerprints would be taken again and checked against the database.