Procedural Instruction: Biometrics for Offshore Visa Processing

Written by Claude Haiku 5.5 from the extracted text on 21 Oct 2026. It can miss or misread redacted and scanned pages. Check the source before relying on it.

This is a procedural instruction (document ID IIB-1486, approved 18 February 2020) governing the collection of biometrics, including fingerprints and facial photographs, from visa applicants at overseas posts and onshore processing centres under the Offshore Biometrics Collection Program. The excerpt traces the legislative history from 2010 amendments to regulations 2.04 and 2.08AC through to the Migration Amendment (Strengthening Biometrics Integrity) Act 2015, which introduced section 257A of the Migration Act 1958. It covers exclusions (such as permanent residents and New Zealand citizens), exemptions (including diplomats, minors under five and persons physically incapable of providing prints), and compliance periods of 14 days for temporary and 28 days for permanent visa applications. It also addresses consequences of non-compliance and attached forms and letter templates. The excerpt contains no operational statistics, detention data, or cyber assessments.