The State Border Guard Service under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania awards IDEMIA with the national Entry/Exit System contract

In December 2021, the State Border Guard Service (SBGS), under the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Lithuania, awarded IDEMIA with the contract to implement comprehensive border-crossing equipment for their Entry/Exit System (EES). The contract includes system support and maintenance for five years. Similarly, IDEMIA is already supporting several Member States such as Iceland, Denmark and Estonia in implementing European Entry/Exit Systems at their borders.

Lithuania’s EES will be deployed at 18 sites: airports, seaports, railway stations and land-crossing points. All sites are now equipped with new manual counter equipment and immigration kiosks. Six of these locations—one train station, two airports and three land borders—are also equipped with eGates.

Both eGates and kiosks will be used to enroll Third-Country Nationals as the first step of the border-clearance process with manual counters as the second and final step. The eGates will also be used to clear European citizens leaving or coming back into the Schengen Area.

IDEMIA has already provided all necessary equipment for manual counters including ten-fingerprint scanners (MTop Slim), face capture devices (TravelTotem) and passport readers to support border guards with their daily tasks. In addition, over 100 tablets and suitcases that include multi-biometric capture and passport scanning capabilities have been provided. The main objectives are to improve the traveler experience, throughput, and assist border forces. The tablets will be used to process people with mobility difficulties, etc. while the suitcases will be deployed when staff require help to manage long queues.

Operational supervision software will assist border guards with monitoring the border clearance process. It will also ensure that all travelers are processed correctly when using the automated systems. In addition, fleet management software will oversee general functioning of the equipment and will allow IDEMIA to remotely update/upgrade the systems.

In 2022 and 2023, the SBGS signed an addendum contract requesting additional equipment―ten-fingerprint scanners, passport readers, face capture devices, tablets and suitcases―bringing the total number to 700+.

The modern EES will ensure that Lithuania is in compliance with Europe’s new Entry/Exit regulations that should come into force in the second half of 2023.