Division 3.1.2 Facial Image

CS-EES shall store the live facial image captured at the border crossing point and submitted as part of a NIST container to the CS-EES as specified by the ANSI/NIST-ITL 1-2011: Update 2015 standard (or newer version).

In exceptional cases, where it is impossible to obtain a facial image of sufficient quality from the live subject, enrolment from the document chip of an electronic Machine Readable Travel Document (eMRTD) is requested, where it is technically accessible and after successful electronic verification according to the process that shall be described in the practical handbook referred to in Article 71 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226.

Images scanned from the biographic page of the travel document shall be not used and shall not be transmitted to the CS-EES.

The photographs of visa applicants stored in the Visa information System (VIS) established pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 767/2008 of the European Parliament and of the Council^f1 shall not be used for carrying out any electronic biometric verification or identification with the CS-EES.

Due to practical reasons, the quality threshold of facial images captured from live persons solely for the purposes of verification against those stored in the CS-EES are not compulsory. Successful verification according to the agreed matching score thresholds would however require images with sufficient quality even in these cases.

In order to meet the set quality threshold, particularly when it is impossible to extract electronically a facial image from the chip of an electronic eMRTD^f2, the following measures shall apply:

1. (1)

   In cases where the face capture unit enrols images in a continuous stream, re-capture shall be taken over sufficient amount of time, so that the optimal image obtained within the capture stream is transmitted to the CS-EES. A lower-quality sample sent shall be flagged as such by the CS-EES as specified in the technical specifications referred to in Article 37(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226.

2. (2)

   In cases where the face capture unit enrols static single images upon activation by an operator, a sufficient amount of recaptures shall be taken, so that the optimal image obtained is transmitted to the CS-EES. A lower-quality sample transmitted shall be flagged as such to the CS-EES as specified in the technical specifications referred to in Article 37(1) of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226.

A best practice guide to be followed for capturing facial images referred to in the previous two points of this paragraph shall be included in the practical handbook referred to in Article 71 of Regulation (EU) 2017/2226.