Fingerprints

My path to Australian citizenship was very quick and smooth compared to many others’ – I fully recognize my privilege in that I could afford a good immigration attorney to help smooth it. But there was a significant hurdle early on that derailed the process for nearly a year while I was still in the US.

To request the visa that would allow me to enter Australia, I needed certificates from California and the US federal government stating that I had no criminal record. Because I was applying for a partner/spouse visa, Brendan had to do the same. These reports are usually acquired by submitting fingerprints to the state’s department of justice and the FBI, which are checked against their databases of fingerprints.

As we quickly discovered, my fingerprints are nearly non-existent. Brendan’s were fine and his certificates arrived quickly. My requests were repeatedly rejected due to “fingerprint quality too low to be used”. We tried multiple times at various fingerprinting services. I followed all the tips from the FBI on improving fingerprint quality, even buying a substance called Ridge Lifter that they recommended. On one attempt, myself and the technician spent an hour trying to get a marginally-acceptable reading, using all the techniques recommended on the FBI website. Nothing worked. To add to the stress, the second round of attempts took place while California was under strict lockdown (fingerprinting businesses were allowed to be open, as essential services), when nobody wanted to be around anybody else, even masked.

My lack of fingerprints wasn’t a total surprise. I had had problems years before using the Clear system in airports. A Clear technician had told me that using hand lotion could cause it – and I do use a lot of lotion in winter when my fingertips crack and split from dryness. Clear at least had an alternative, the retinal scan.

I did some research, and learned that the condition of having illegible fingerprints is called adermatoglyphia, and it is common:

“Adermatoglyphia, especially due to acquired causes, is more common than anticipated and is not an uncommon finding in the geriatric population and manual laborers. …the relentless invasion of biometric I&A [identification and authentication] into modern life via fingerprint verification creates enormous hurdles for patients with irreversible adermatoglyphia. While advancements in biometric technology have rendered the process more rigorous and quicker, these systems are frequently deployed in various institutions and departments without a substitute or default alternative option that could function as a solution for patients with absent fingerprints.” (paper)

The US authorities were aware of the problem and that it disproportionately affects women and the elderly. It also shows up in people who work a lot with their hands (I garden), and/or sanitize or wash their hands a lot, such as medical personnel or anyone who washes dishes.

The state of California, after two unsuccessful fingerprinting attempts, ran a name search instead (as required by state law) and sent a certificate saying that I had no criminal record in California. The FBI had no such policy. I wrote twice to their customer service email address, and each time received the same reply directing me to web pages with instructions on how to improve fingerprint quality. We tried them all.

Valerie da Gama Pereira, my Australian immigration attorney, sent a formal letter to the Australian immigration authorities requesting that they accept my application without the FBI report. This was denied, with the case officer insisting that I had to get an FBI report, no matter what.

A friend put me in touch with her friend who worked for the FBI in San Francisco, but they weren’t able to tell me much.

I contacted the office of my Congresswoman, Anna Eshoo. Government was running slowly under lockdown, but eventually a member of Eshoo’s staff reported that they had contacted the FBI. In July 2020 I got a letter from the FBI saying “While we would like to be of further assistance, only state, federal, and regulatory agencies that have legal authority under federal or state law to submit fingerprints for noncriminal justice purposes may request name checks for individuals whose fingerprints have been rejected twice for a technical-related issue or where applicants are permanently physically unable to provide fingerprints.”

I found myself in a Catch-22 situation: the Australian government required me to have this criminal history check. The FBI would only supply it based on fingerprints, or could make an exemption if requested by a US entity. The Australian government does not qualify as a requesting entity.

For a while it seemed that I might never get a visa to Australia simply because my fingerprints could not be read. Fortunately, Valerie is excellent at her job. In September 2020 she was finally able to get the immigration people to accept a “statutory declaration” – a sworn personal statement that I’m not a criminal. I had to sign this in front of a Justice of the Peace, which involved yet more close-up exposure to human beings during lockdown. We sent off the declaration to add to the pile of papers being processed for my Australian visa – in Brazil. Yes, Brazil. For some reason the processing of spouse/partner visas (but no other type of visa) had been offshored to Brazil. And Brazil was having a very hard time with COVID. That added to the anxiety and delays, but my resident visa finally came through on Sept 15, 2020.