Australian Immigration Daily News

The Migration Amendment (Streamlining Visa Processing) Bill 2018 (the Bill) amends the Migration Act 1958 (the Act) to enable the Minister to specify groups of visa applicants who are required to provide one or more personal identifiers to make a valid application.

A biometric (termed ‘personal identifier’ in the Act), is a unique identifier that is based on individual physical characteristics, such as a facial image or a set of fingerprints, which can be digitised into a biometric template for automated storage and checking. Once ‘anchored‘ to a person’s biographic information, such as name, nationality and date of birth, a biometric adds significantly to verifying that a person is who they claim to be, and to linking an individual to security, law enforcement, and immigration information.

The Department’s biometric program has been progressively introduced over time. It commenced in 2006 with collecting facial images and fingerprints of illegal foreign fishers, and was extended in 2010, when the Department commenced collecting facial images and fingerprints from offshore visa applicants in specified higher risk locations and onshore protection claimants.

Source:

Migration-Amendment-Streamlining-Visa-Processing-Bill-2018.pdf

and

Migration-Amendment-Streamlining-Visa-Processing-Bill-2018-Explanatory-Memo.pdf

and

Migration-Amendment-Streamlining-Visa-Processing-Bill-2018-Second-Reading-Speech.pdf