San Francisco International Airport (SFO) on 16 June quietly activated U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Enhanced Passenger Processing (EPP) platform, becoming the 25th U.S. airport—and the first on the West Coast—to clear arriving U.S. citizens through facial recognition alone. CBP and SFO formally announced the launch today, 7 July, after two weeks of live testing showed an average 25 percent reduction in wait times for holders of U.S. passports. Under the system, travellers no longer hand documents to an officer. Instead, an auto-capture camera photographs each passenger, instantly matches the image to the State Department photo on file, runs law-enforcement checks and records the entry—all before the traveller reaches the inspection desk. A CBP officer remains present to supervise and ask questions but rarely handles a passport unless the match fails. Unlike Global Entry, EPP requires no membership fee, background check or kiosk interaction, making it attractive for infrequent flyers and families.
![CBP Expands Facial-Recognition ‘Enhanced Passenger Processing’ to SFO, Cutting Citizen Wait Times by 25 Percent]()
Travellers who still need to secure visas for their outbound journeys can streamline that paperwork in advance: VisaHQ’s online platform walks U.S. passport holders and foreign nationals alike through each destination’s entry requirements, offers concierge document review, and provides real-time status updates—visit to see how the service dovetails with the new, faster arrival process.
CBP stresses that photos of U.S. citizens are encrypted and automatically deleted within 12 hours. The agency has published a growing list of 25 airports and eight seaports—plus six overseas pre-clearance sites—where EPP is live; Miami and Seattle are slated to come online before Labour Day. For corporate mobility managers, the roll-out means faster re-entry for assignees returning from overseas projects and less exposure to missed connections on tight itineraries. It also signals CBP’s intention to rely on face biometrics, rather than document scans, for all returning citizens by 2028, so companies should start updating travel policies and educating employees on the new process. Privacy advocates remain sceptical, noting that previous CBP pilots stored photos for up to 75 years for non-citizens and 14 days for citizens. CBP counters that the 12-hour deletion policy is now the default for U.S. passport holders and that external auditors review compliance annually.
Travellers who still need to secure visas for their outbound journeys can streamline that paperwork in advance: VisaHQ’s online platform walks U.S. passport holders and foreign nationals alike through each destination’s entry requirements, offers concierge document review, and provides real-time status updates—visit to see how the service dovetails with the new, faster arrival process.
CBP stresses that photos of U.S. citizens are encrypted and automatically deleted within 12 hours. The agency has published a growing list of 25 airports and eight seaports—plus six overseas pre-clearance sites—where EPP is live; Miami and Seattle are slated to come online before Labour Day. For corporate mobility managers, the roll-out means faster re-entry for assignees returning from overseas projects and less exposure to missed connections on tight itineraries. It also signals CBP’s intention to rely on face biometrics, rather than document scans, for all returning citizens by 2028, so companies should start updating travel policies and educating employees on the new process. Privacy advocates remain sceptical, noting that previous CBP pilots stored photos for up to 75 years for non-citizens and 14 days for citizens. CBP counters that the 12-hour deletion policy is now the default for U.S. passport holders and that external auditors review compliance annually.
