Office of Biometric Identity Management: Biometrics and Identity Services

Biometrics captured by frontline operators and submitted to OBIM can be linked to specific biographic information enable a person's identity to be established, then verified, by the U.S. Government. With each encounter, from applying for a visa to seeking immigration benefits to entering the United States, OBIM:

• Compares a person's biometrics against a watch list of known or suspected terrorists, criminals, and immigration violators
• Checks against the entire Automated Biometric Identification System (IDENT), the central, DHS-wide biometric repository that compares, stores, and shares biometric and associated biographic information, to determine if a person is using an alias and attempting to use fraudulent identification.
• Compares a person's biometrics against those associated with the identification document presented to ensure that the document belongs to the person presenting it and not someone else.

OBIM provides the results of these comparisons to decision makers when and where they need it.

These services help prevent identity fraud and deprive criminals and immigration violators of the ability to cross our borders. Based on fingerprint, face, and iris comparisons, OBIM has helped, OBIM has helped stop thousands of people who were ineligible to enter the United States.

Biometrics are biological and behavioral characteristics of an individual from which distinguishing, repeatable biometric features can be extracted for the purpose of biometric recognition. Biometrics form the foundation of OBIM's biometric and identity capabilities because they are reliable, convenient, and extremely difficult to forge.

Many agencies utilize OBIM services to accurately identify people and determine whether they pose a risk to the United States. Learn more about how U.S. Government agencies are using OBIM's services.