Immigration Law: What is a Biometric Screening?

Bilingual Virginia Attorney Sam McTyre

Video Transcript:

Rob Rosenthal:

How is biometric screening used in immigration law? Let's ask Virginia lawyer Sam McTyre for this Ask the Lawyers Quick Question.

Sam McTyre: 

Biometrics includes three elements. Typically, when you go in for a biometric screening, they get your picture, they get your fingerprints and get your signature, so that's how the immigration authorities will identify you as a person who has the permanent residence or has the immigration benefit. The fingerprints have another purpose, they are used for background check. They can check your fingerprints against the FBI files and see if you've ever been arrested. They can also see, if you've worked in the United States, some place where they required your fingerprints, or they can also tell you if you cross the border and were detained after crossing the border illegally, so it gives them a world of information about your background, and that's probably the most important part of the biometric screening.

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