Biometric Brexit EU settlement app successfully onboards most of over 3M applicants, WorldReach says

May 7, 2020 | Chris Burt

Biometric Brexit EU settlement app successfully onboards most of over 3M applicants, WorldReach says

WorldReach’s Know Your Traveller platform and biometrics have been used to successfully conclude the vast majority of 3.1 million applications to the UK Home Office EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). The company calls the effort the world’s largest and most successful digital-onboarding immigration program leveraging ePassport chip reading and liveness detection for remote identity verification.

The service works by IdentityReach reading the security features from the ePassport chip to authenticate the document, which is matched to the applicant’s identity with a live biometric selfie captured on a smartphone camera, with genuine presence technology to mitigate identity fraud attempts. In addition to ePassports, UK biometric residence cards, EU citizen ID cards, and other documents using ICAO standards are supported.

The app allows applicants to prove their identity, show that they live in the UK, and declare any criminal convictions. Home Office has estimated that 3.5 million EEA nationals living in Britain would need to update their status.

The vast majority of applicants chose the digital channel over mail-in or in-person processes, according to WorldReach, and the company says a high percentage were able to complete the process in less than 10 minutes. WorldReach says the program also included the first iOS app in production to read ICAO MRTD-compliant chips with NFC at scale on iPhone 7 and newer models. More than 2,300 different types of Android and iOS mobile devices were used for applications, and IdentityReach served peaks of between 25,000 and 30,000 applicants per day. The app has a 4.1-star satisfaction rating (out of five) in the Google Play Store.

“There has never been a more crucial time for highly trusted, proven-in-use remote identity verification services given the Covid-19 situation, especially for government digital on-boarding and essential services delivery,” comments Gordon Wilson, WorldReach CEO. “The EUSS is a very successful, scalable proof-point of what’s possible and achievable with the right end-to-end processes, technology and collaborative team.”

WorldReach has also published whitepaper titled “Remote Identity Verification: UK Home Office EU Settlement Scheme” sharing further details. The app’s availability exceeded its SLA commitments, and 79 percent of applicants surveyed said it is fairly easy or very easy to use.

In addition to WorldReach’s platform, the app leverages biometric technology from iProov and chip-reading technology from InnoValor.