World’s Most Successful Remote Identity Verification Programme for Immigration

Digital verification in 3 steps

Applicants need only to complete three steps:

1. Prove their identity 
2. Show that they live in the UK
3. Declare any criminal convictions

As the Home Office wanted to make the application process as easy as possible for the estimated four million EEA nationals who would need to apply, they sought out new innovative and effective capabilities to include in an optional end-to-end digital application channel. Together with our partner WorldReach Software (acquired by Entrust in 2021), we were selected to allow for a smooth application process.

WorldReach Software (now Entrust) is an organisation focused on highly trusted digital public services for immigration, passport, border management, consular and citizen service organisations.

WorldReach Software was selected by the Home Office for the operation and management of the digital verification capability supporting the EU Settlement Scheme (EUSS). Together with WorldReach and iProov, we managed to create the world’s largest, most successful digital onboarding immigration programme using remote identity verification.

"Using NFC we can remotely determine the authenticity of the identity document at the trust level that is needed for.”

This innovative service is powered by ReadID, which reads the ePassport chip’s security features to authenticate the legitimacy of the document, as part of WorldReach’s Know You Traveller platform. Also part of the identity verification is selfie matching. This is achieved by comparing the secure reference image from the ePassport chip to a live selfie captured by a smartphone camera. This service supports not only ePassports but also UK biometric residence cards and EU citizen eID cards, which all comply with ICAO standards. 

Using NFC we can remotely determine the authenticity of the identity document at the trust level that is needed. In addition, the high-resolution face image from the chip enables secure facial matching. This use case clearly demonstrates why NFC First is the best approach in remote identity verification.