Facilitating Pre-Arrival: Passport and Visa Management

The official documents that facilitate migration are passport combined with visa. These enable the growing mobile world population to travel in a regular fashion across national borders. The role of a passport is to identify citizens of a State for the benefit of foreign countries, and to guarantee their right of return. The passport is also important for the protection and support of a State’s citizens abroad and is a proof of nationality.

Visas are used to facilitate the entry of foreign nationals into a country. A visa allows a non-citizen to travel and request permission to enter a State. Having a visa does not guarantee entry to the State. It does, though, indicate that an official of the State – such as a consular officer at an embassy abroad, the immigration authorities at the borders or another official at the capital – has determined the applicant may be eligible to seek entry for a specific purpose. However, border post inspectors, as guardians of a State’s border, are responsible for the actual admission of travellers to a State for a specified status and period of time. It is possible that a person holding a specific visa might be refused entry if a State official decides circumstances preclude entry.

The security of international travel depends on trustworthy national identity documents as source documents for obtaining passports and visas. A combination of documents can be used to identify the applicant and verify citizenship. Some States have secure databases to confirm identity and citizenship. Others incorporate identity information on a single card issued to citizens, including details of certificates of birth, marriage, citizenship or naturalization.

The movement to standardize passports began during the First World War as both a facilitation and a security measure. Today, greater security measures, including biometrics collection, are being introduced by many States in response to the threat of transnational organized crime. States continually assess the need to upgrade the quality and security of their passport and visa systems in response to global security threats. That said, while migration- and security-related objectives have become increasingly important, it is widely accepted that the vast majority of visa applicants pose no security and/or migratory risk to a State. In fact, rather than being a risk, they convey significant benefits.

Responding to the current security environment, some governments have shifted their attitudes when it comes to facilitating pre-arrival through passport and visa management. In recent decades, States have been working in different ways: some allow visa-free entry of nationals of certain countries on a reciprocal or unilateral basis; others preapprove travellers from visa-exempt countries either through universal visas or electronic travel authorization (ETA). Further, different types of visas in terms of purpose and duration (that is, short visits, temporary or permanent residence) are designed to accomplish specific aims. Thus, a visa regime, while mainly facilitative, is also regarded by States as a key tool to control security risks or the probability of irregular migration. The foundation for international travel security is proof of identity and citizenship as well as well-administered visa issuance.

States are expected to preserve the rights and expectations of visa applicants and holders. At the same time, visa holders are expected to voluntarily comply with their visa conditions. States prefer to place more emphasis on preventing and deterring people from entering irregularly with regard to their visa status rather than fining, detaining and removing them as the default position. Competent border management eases trade, travel and tourism in line with the State’s national security, economic and social interests. A co-dependent facilitation/border management platform encourages the issuance of millions of visas granted through a constructive interaction with migrants and travellers.

Data can be used to assess specific migrant profiles that a government aims to attract based on several parameters (such as age, gender or skillsets). Data can further be used to formulate visa categories in terms of demographic gaps. For instance, data trends related to mortality might highlight the need to attract international nurses and other medical professionals, while data on marital status and dependents have implications for family reunification visas. Data on demographic change – such as changes in per capita indicators, statistics on aging population or other population trends – can provide insights on economic, social and environmental implications. In this sense, national data can be used to inform visa policy and its planning, while evaluating current visa programmes and monitoring trends in relation to other policy fields. For example, data on welfare, social security schemes or medical records can be accessed and cross-referenced with arrival and departure logs in order to determine accurate residence details.

Data can also be used to judge the validity of information provided on passport and visa applications and identify documents such as birth certificates. For instance, a State may cross-check specific information provided on visa applications using, in confidence, reliable online database sources produced by registry offices, employers, schools, banks, passport offices and the like. However, this may pose a challenge when a State has no fraud detection capacity or poor telecommunications and database infrastructure. In such a case, site visits to issuing authorities might be needed for secondary inspection to determine the authenticity of certain travel documents and/or claims. As well, the role of forensic laboratories with specialized equipment – such as microscopes, passport readers, UV lights as well as other sources for image capturing capacity – is key to detect further security features contained in the documents.

At the international and regional levels, specific data can be used to inform decisions on visa waivers. Although some governments waive visa requirements for citizens of certain countries based on reciprocity, other governments seek to facilitate the mobility of trusted travellers based on data. The primary factor is usually the percentage of visa refusals from certain countries (typically less than 3 per cent) drawn from national data. But other useful indicators include migration trends, trade interests and security concerns related to counter-terrorism and document security. In this regard, these international and regional data sources can be of use:

• Mixed Migration Monitoring Mechanism Initiative (4Mi) is an innovative, low-cost approach to collecting and analysing data on irregular migration flows, initially out of the Horn of Africa.
• Displacement Tracking Matrix (DTM) is a system used to track and monitor natural and human-caused disaster displacement and population mobility. It usefully collects data on the movements and evolving needs of displaced populations and migrants at both national and regional levels. Data are collected before, during and in the aftermath of disasters. For correct use of these data, it is key to understand how the data were collected and processed.
• INTERPOL Stolen and Lost Travel Documents Database contains 84 million records of lost, stolen and revoked travel documents, such as passports, identify cards, visas and United Nations laissez-passer as well as stolen blank documents.
• Migration Data Portal offers timely, comprehensive migration statistics and reliable information about migration data globally. This page specifically summarizes key data on the theme of irregular migration, providing a list of reliable statistics on stocks or flows per region.
• The European Union’s statistical office, Eurostat, collects relevant data on refused entry at external borders, and on third-country nationals found to be irregularly present and ordered to leave. Further, the European Border and Coast Guard Agency, Frontex, publishes quarterly and annual risk analyses and reports on irregular border crossings, detections of irregular stay and forced/voluntary returns.
• In the Americas, Pew Research Center produces annual estimates of irregular migration stocks from 2000 to 2016, while the US Department of Homeland Security does the same covering the period from 1990 to 2012.

See also Data, research and analysis for policymaking.

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is considered the principal source of standards for international travel and its attendant documentation. The foundation for passport and visa standards, production, and issuance worldwide has been constructed through an ICAO Doc 9303 (2021), which is the most widely accepted international legal instruments (see Air law).

The issuance of travel documents facilitates the exercise of the human right to leave any country and to return to one’s own country. This right was first articulated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights but is now part of other core human rights instruments, as listed in the table below. There are circumstances, though, in which States can exercise their rights to stop movements across the border, even of their own citizens (Harvey and Barnidge, 2005). Freedom of movement can be restricted insofar as the restriction is provided by law, is necessary to protect national security, public order, public health, public morals or the rights and freedoms of others, and is consistent with the other rights recognized in international law.

Further, as sovereign entities, States have a right to decide who is allowed to enter and stay in their country. This right comes with a set of legal responsibilities and obligations under international law. In most cases, States will enact their domestic legislation and execute immigration policies in a way that upholds the principles of international instruments. In human rights law, freedom of movement is a human right, although it does not entail a right to enter and remain in a State which is not the individual’s own country, except when the State has an obligation to admit the person under international law (such as in application of the principle of non-refoulement).

2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Some key issues covered in the 2030 Agenda in the context of passport and visa management include safe, orderly, and regular migration (Target 10.7). The 2030 Agenda also recognizes the impact of the non-financial contributions of migrants and diasporas to sustainable development in countries of origin and destination. These contributions include knowledge and skills transfer, social and civic engagement, and cultural exchange. To achieve this end, strong and evidence-based visa issuance structures are necessary . Passport and visa management is also inked to target 16.9 which underlines the commitment of Member States to provide legal identity for all, including birth registration.

The security of international travel depends on trustworthy documents and systems of international and regional cooperation in passport and visa management. Accordingly, facilitating pre-arrival is frequently discussed as part of an effort to achieve regional cohesion and to avoid weak links that can be exploited by travellers seeking to enter by irregular pathways. These are often the thematic focus of a number of Inter-State consultation mechanisms on migration (ISCM), including: