Confirmed: Biometrics System Failure

Confirmed.  The biometrics system for processing entry clearances is crashing intermittently.  It is an internal IT issue and not a case of external hacking.  No security breaches.  No one can be issued an entry clearance without biometrics clearance, and the biometrics system is a single point of failure in the processing stream.

Accordingly, you will now need to recalibrate your expectations about the turn-around time for your application. 

They will be getting back to me later today or early tomorrow with an indication of when service can be fully restored.  That's *IF* they can get an indication themselves.  I have the impression (but no confirmation), that the problem is quite serious.

A full explanation and estimates of repair time should appear in the VSD site as soon as they can get the copy written and approved.  Maybe tomorrow or maybe the day after.  The BHC Ottawa is going to get spanked for sending such a flakey email.

A tip of the hat to Kitson for convincing me that this was not a prank.

I'll post new events into this thread if they are not already mounted on the VSD site.

Thanks.

Is this a global issue or just Canada?

Any idea why there is nothing about this on any consulate / worldbridge etc wedbsite?

Vicky

Inexplicably, it appears to be North America.  Entry clearances are flowing in the 3 Russian consulates, it's ok in Almaty, also Kiev, also Minsk, also in the middle east and North Africa region there's nothing reported. 

We would be solely relying upon people posting about it cuz VSD would *NEVER* admit to a global failure. 

Great, yet another thing to worry about in this already stressful process. How come a couple of people on here have got their approvals through, are they still working on the applications or is everything on hold for now?

Susie, they need to be spanked because they are out of line.  Bang out of line.

For those who recently joined the immigration scene, it seems terribly counterintuitive that I'm comming down on a consulate/BHC that's only trying to help.  But in reality, they are not supposed to be doing that and it was the ADVOCACY side who fought to make it that way.

Practitioners who can look back to the old days when ECO's were engaging the public on the telephone, or putting up their own local websites, or going to local events without supervision created total *CHAOS* when it was vectored on the net.  It was devastating and actually brought tragedy to people's lives when they acted on something that was vectored erroneously from an 'official' source. 

So ECO's have already been ring-fenced from the outside world, and all those TOTALLY ROGUE websites run by individual consulates have to be removed by the end of this year.  And email from a consulate needs to be drawn from formulae which has been composed by professional writers and approved by the English usage team.

Seem bureaucratic?  Yes.  But otherwise there's disaster.

To the case at hand, an advisory on the UKBA site within HOURS of when it first happened along with a general press release, along with a followup to the practitioners, along with scripts sent to Worldbridge, etc etc. 

Jakeone, there should be no repercussions at all to the information your provided, so don't worry.

When Garry says "getting spanked" he is talking about the fact the UK Visa Department of the Home Office will remind the Canadian department about the right way to communicate via e-mail so as not to cause confusion.  I have to admit that e-mail was one step away from looking like a phishing scam.  If they had provided a link that had said "click here to re-enter your information" a few people would have easily given it up.  It was bad form and should be addressed, but it has nothing to do with you.  Garry can often sound a bit more direct on the forums then he does in person, trust me on that one.

In fact you should be proud that you helped highlight a significant issue with the system that will likely benefit others in the future as well as all those waiting now.

You can, if you are concerned, go back and delete or remove any former posts.  Just find it and click the delete button.

Also, there are 30 million people in Canada, only 1/2 the size of the UK, so not that small of a population, but I understand your concern.

jakeone, I'm not empowered to remove stuff.  And I don't want to be.  The last time I was a moderator on here, I banned the entire membership.

Further to kitson's words and to your concerns.  Has anybody in UKY ever endured vengeance?  Any threads about it?  Does anybody *know* of a case where they took vengeance on some poor sod?

Has anybody ever seen a post/article anywhere worldwide that even *accused* them of inflicting vengeance and had reasonable grounds for making the accusation?

Any media stories where the reporter referred to revenge?  Anywhere?  Any urban legends about it even?

For sure they would LOVE to get me.  And to a lesser extent, Vicky.  But that's a whole nother ball game. 

Best advice is to worry about something else.

For sure they would LOVE to get me.  And to a lesser extent, Vicky.  But that's a whole nother ball game. 

That is true, if there is anyone who would have a hit out for a posting on UKY it would be garry, and UKBA does have his name an address...

Also, no one should be afraid, because of repercussions from UK immigration by sharing infromation here.  In fact there have been several examples (including some of my own I have found out) where that sharing has actively gone to making things better.  While sometimes we may seem rather direct around our crticisms, it is because we love the country we live in (garry is a US immigrant like the rest of us and Vicky might have been as damn well born in some other country because I think she is more passionate about foreigners then I am) and passionate about immigration.  We want the system to work, because so many of our collective lives depend on it working.

So I am afraid the thing you have to really worry about jakeone is how long is it going to take to get the Biometrics issue resolved so they can get on with issuing you your visa, and to that, no one has a good answer.

 garry is a US immigrant like the rest of us and Vicky might have been as damn well born in some other country because I think she is more passionate about foreigners then I am

We're all descended from immigrants, remember...mine are only two generations back on my dad's side, and three on my mums.

Vicky

I tried to delete the post.. it wont let me.. it has had its title changed and posted notes stuck to it and none of this was done by me.. so its really not that simple.. and Im not sure where your living but when i did my biometrics appointment in my area,, i had to pick a 15 minute period in the course of a 7 hour day out of mon to tues.. I was the only one !! yes the only one that week with an appointment. think about it.. and i had to travel 500km to get to that world bridge location.. you went population comaparison  here but man you cant ignore the land mass.. the province i live in is almost the size of the uk and we dont have a million people.. so thats the reality of it..

So, here's a hint when making a mod request.  If you can't actually report the post you're  talking about (such as a post you made yourself) then PM a mod and include a link.  Because with 300-600 new posts a day we do not have a chance to read everything-especially as we are busy people with jobs and families  and this is not a job for us.  It is purely volunteer.  And maybe instead of saying 'do this' over and over it might be an idea to say please or thank you.  Just a thought.  

Now, if you want to PM me with a link to what you're talking about I will see if I can sort it out.

We're all descended from immigrants, remember...mine are only two generations back on my dad's side, and three on my mums.

Yeah, but for some reason my Great Great Grandfather on my mom's side who was Welsh or my Great Grandfather who was Irish on my dad's side didn't seem to please the IO as my justification for my right to stay in the UK...    And to top it off Great Grandad Henry had to skip out of Country Cork to Scotland because he set fire to a tree and it got out of hand and burned down the whole hill and he met Great Grandmother Mary who was Scottish on the boat over from Glasgow.

My family got kicked out for poaching   

Hi, I'm a Brit in London and my girlfriend in Chicago is suffering from the situation described here.

I spoke with a case officer and line manager in the Chicago British consulate last week after a courier gave me a phone number and email address amongst the confusion. I also got in touch again today.

Furthermore I have done some digging around online being a web professional myself.

Here is what I know:

The biometrics system began having problems on Thursday 9th October, it had been due to go live in early October as part of the F3G/Firecrest project to update FCO IT infrastructure. The FCO and this project have come in for much criticism over the last few years. There has been a National Audit Office report which identified openness and transparency issues with the FCO board particularly over sustainability of passports/visa technology. newcomer link: http://www.kablenet.com/kd.nsf/Frontpage/EB0A9ECAEE4BBEBE802570C30040D5C8?OpenDocument [nonactive] . Tony Mather is the FCO Chief Information Officer.

According to the case officers' line manager the UKBA are responsible for the system problems. He advised contacting them. He also told me that this problem is worldwide as it is the London servers affected thereby knocking onto all consulates and embassies around the globe. As of today the case officer told me NY, DC and Chicago have been given absolutely no information on timescale or progress.

The couriers I speak to say they have received 2 visas since the 9th October, 12 days ago.

For my own 2 cents I have posed questions to David Miliband (UK Foreign Secretary) about this debacle at newcomer link: http://www.yoosk.com/fco/question/1290/I_understand_the_FCOs_notoriously_unstable_serv.aspx [nonactive] . Since none of the other posts have comments I doubt this will receive much attention, but you never know.

Frankly as a British person this whole situation is embarrassing. It's one thing for civil servants to be incompetent in their budgeting, procurement, management and delivery of crucial IT systems. We almost expect that nowadays. But when it goes wrong to simply pull down the shutters and put their fingers in their ears is inexcusable. This kind of misery damages diplomatic relations around the world, an information blackout only makes it worse.

If there is sufficient interest from forumers I will provide contact details for complaints as and when they become available to me. Peter Ricketts (Permanent Under Secretary) and Tony Mather (CIO)  might be a good place to start. newcomer link: http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/about-the-fco/how-we-are-organised/structure/fco-board/ [nonactive] . Typical email format follows firstname.lastname@fco.gov.uk.

Good luck one and all.

Wow, I am impressed linguinigenie, and I am sure Garry will be as well.  Brow beating a courier into giving up contact information for the Chicago Consulate is amazing.

I am afraid that your frustation should be more directed at the Right Honourable Mister Phil Woolas as he is now Minister of State for Border and Immigration.  If you really get your dander up, contact your MP to make representations on your behalf to Phil Woolas, though Gary feels that this is somewhat limited in its effectiveness, but it is the proper procedure.

As Gary has mentioned, the ILPA (http://www.ilpa.org.uk/) is all over this as well as Gary personally, so there may not be much we need to do outside of continue to provide as much detail like you have.

Also, I am afraid that the case officer, though he may not feel that way, now works for UKBA...  They all do with the reorg.  No more UKVisas.  At least we are getting consistant information now that it is some servers in London that are having issues and may not be WorldBridge at all.

Linguinigenie, welcome to the forum...I think that you are going to be a big asset!!!!!

 


Vicky