Verifiable Credentials Set to Transform Digital Immigration Documents in the U.S.
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The EU is not alone in seeking to transform how we verify information. Across the pond, several U.S. agencies have recognised the potential value of using Verifiable Credentials for issuing immigration documents and are taking action to make this a reality.
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The EU is not alone in seeking to transform how we verify information. Across the pond, several U.S. agencies have recognised the potential value of using Verifiable Credentials for issuing immigration documents and are taking action to make this a reality.
The Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Service, which handle the issuance of immigration documents such as green cards, are seeking to digitise these documents and make them easy to verify, in order to enhance security, convenience, and privacy. This digital shift could eliminate the need for individuals to wait in long lines for approvals, streamlining the process and saving time.
Their search for an appropriate technological solution that combines security, privacy-enhancing features, and convenience, quickly brought them to the W3C Verifiable Credential (VC) format paired with Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs) — the same format championed by EBSI.
Jared Goodwin, Chief of the Document Management Division within the Office of Intake and Document Production, says that ‘Going forward, the government wants to ensure individuals have agency and control over their digital interactions’, emphasising that ‘the user should be able to own their identity and decide when to share it, and we don’t want a system that has to reach back to an agency for verification’.
The benefits of Verifiable Credentials
EBSI also supports Verifiable Credentials for the exact same reasons. VCs are a digital document format which can represent information found in physical credentials, such as a passport or license, as well as intangible concepts, such ownership of a bank account. VCs offer enhanced privacy and increased security compared to physical credentials, while also being tamper-proof and allowing for an easy remote or in-person verification.
As VCs are cryptographically secured, they are nearly impossible to forge or alter. This ensures the authenticity and integrity of the credentials, while their decentralised nature reduces the risk of single points of failure and potential data breaches.
Alongside Verifiable Credentials, EBSI uses Decentralised Identifiers (DIDs) to enable a secure and privacy-preserving decentralised public key infrastructure. DIDs are URL-based identifiers that uniquely identify an entity without revealing any sensitive information about them. This makes DIDs a crucial foundation for issuing, presenting, and verifying VCs. DIDs can be linked to entities by using a VC that attests information about those same entities. Furthermore, DIDs allow to easily transfer VCs from one repository to another without needing to be reissued.
The US joins a growing list of countries keen on reinventing personal documents to stay up to date with technological advancements and meet citizens' demands for easy, trustworthy, and seamless public services. This growing global interest in decentralised, verifiable and secure documents – which is shared with EU Member States – indicates a rising international focus on adopting VC standards.
There are many EBSI projects and Conformant wallets using these same standards in a wide variety of interesting use cases. Discover the many exciting things being done with W3C Verifiable Credentials and DIDs in the European Union.
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