Portuguese border authorities have managed to rapidly adapt their procedures to the COVID-19 age with help from document verification specialist Regula.

The company worked with Portugal-based Present Technologies to develop a mobile app solution for the Portuguese Immigration and Borders Service (“SEF”). With the integration of the Regula Document Reader SDK, the SEF mobile app is now able to authenticate identity documents without the need for a border agent to physically touch them.

The solution has now been in use for a month, and has already facilitated more than 75,000 inspections, Regula says.

“SEF Mobile has become an essential tool to increase the efficiency and safety of SEF inspectors on the various land border posts,” attested SEF official Erica Santos in a statement announcing the deployment. “Simply and instantly, it allows the gathering and validation of a set of data from several identifying documents, without the need for physical contact between said documents and the inspectors.”

For Regula’s part, Deputy Director Nikita Kolesnev said the company “is proud to be involved in projects of national significance,” adding that Regula’s technologies are being used in border control deployments in over 100 countries.

While the latest deployment is timely in facilitating contactless activities at a time of social distancing, it also reflects a broader trend that has seen handheld devices increasingly used in border control applications.