Biometrics Testing

[bowierose 0]

Hi everyone,

I am wondering about biometrics testing and having trouble finding a description of what happens at these appointments. What information do they collect? It is required to do all of this testing? Are there optional tests that they don't necessarily tell you are optional? Do both the petitioner and the beneficiary do these tests? Do all applicants do them? My concerns mainly lie around privacy invasion. The issue of biometrics definitely has a lot of debate surrounding it, but I'm not really up to speed. Anyone have any answers or comments?

[JimVaPhuong 4,863]

Hi everyone,

I am wondering about biometrics testing and having trouble finding a description of what happens at these appointments. What information do they collect? It is required to do all of this testing? Are there optional tests that they don't necessarily tell you are optional? Do both the petitioner and the beneficiary do these tests? Do all applicants do them? My concerns mainly lie around privacy invasion. The issue of biometrics definitely has a lot of debate surrounding it, but I'm not really up to speed. Anyone have any answers or comments?

You have to be more specific about what point in the process you are in. For a green card biometrics appointment, the process is usually the same as when you enter the country - they scan your fingerprints and take your picture.

[Alcheringa 39]

Well, Biometrics will always involve digital fingerprinting, which allows the files to be bounced off of the inter-agency databases for hits and serve to identify you. If you are the foreign beneficiary, expect that much. At the embassy, finger slaps will be taken.

If you are the USC petitioner, normally you will not have to undergo Biometrics -- but, in some cases, the USC does have to submit to it during the adjudication process.

As for being concerned about privacy, I understand completely. But is anything really private? If I knew your name I could discover nearly everything about you for $25 on the internet. And while in the Army I gave a DNA sample; forget records, there is no hiding for me.

What I'm saying is that the Biometrics are rudimentary, and largely meant to either assist the investigators with your background check or simply for identification purposes. Nothing too nefarious, all things considered. Particularly if you are not concealing anything.

Case in point, there was this Canadian fellow in Iraq that was a nice guy and all, but when we ran his Biometrics he came up persona non grata for a murder in Vancouver years before. Biometrics were problematic for him, whereas the other 200,000 people we ran rarely had an issue. Well, non-Iraqi's, that is.