The U.S. government will soon mandate that all non-citizens, including Canadians, be photographed when entering and leaving the country. This requirement is part of new regulations from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) aimed at enhancing security measures. The initiative seeks to create a comprehensive biometric data collection system to improve identity verification, reduce visa overstays, and combat passport fraud.

Facial recognition technology will be employed to match live images of travelers with government records at all entry and exit points, including airports, seaports, and land borders. The new regulations emphasize that “the best tool to combat passport fraud is to utilize the digital photos contained in e-passports to biometrically verify that a person who presents a travel document is the true bearer of that document.” Additionally, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has stated that biometric tests using facial comparison technology “support this conclusion.”

The DHS is required by various federal statutes to develop an integrated, automated biometric entry and exit system. This system will record the arrival and departure of non-citizens, verify their identities through biometric data, and authenticate travel documents. The regulations reference the ongoing threat of global terrorism, citing a United Nations Security Council resolution from 2017 that urges member nations to enhance aviation security and implement biometric data collection systems to identify potential terrorists.

The CBP plans to create galleries of individual photographs using these systems. However, for individuals crossing on foot or in private vehicles, this may not be feasible. In such cases, the agency may compile galleries using photographs of non-citizens who frequently cross specific entry points, which will then become part of a localized photographic gallery. Biometric data collected at land borders will be stored for future verification.

The new regulations, set to take effect on December 26, will also allow U.S. authorities to request additional biometrics, such as fingerprints or DNA. This requirement will apply to all non-citizens, including minors under 14 and seniors over 79, who were previously exempt from some biometric requirements. The CBP has been collecting biometric data from certain non-citizens upon their arrival in the U.S. since 2004, but this new rule represents a significant expansion of that data collection.

Advancements in facial comparison technology will enable the agency to conduct broader inspections for both entry and departure. The new regulations will eventually extend to Canadian travelers at vehicle border crossings. However, the DHS is still addressing technical challenges related to this implementation. The regulations note that “CBP has not analyzed the costs and benefits for implementing a facial comparison-based biometric entry-exit program for vehicles at land ports and private aircraft, or for exit at sea ports and pedestrians at land ports because CBP is still in the process of determining the best way to implement biometric entry-exit within each of these unique environments.”

Canadians who stay in the U.S. for more than 30 days, including snowbirds, are already subject to fingerprinting and registration requirements. Public comments submitted in response to the proposed regulations in 2021 largely opposed the measures, with many expressing privacy concerns. Despite this, the final rule released by the DHS does not significantly alter the initial proposal. A new public comment period will open for 30 days following the regulation's publication in the U.S. Federal Register on October 27.