Computer-Vision Passport & Travel Document Verification Tool for a Visa Assistance Service

Overview

Built a computer-vision document verification tool for a visa assistance service that processes passport and supporting document uploads from clients applying for travel visas. The tool automatically checks that scanned passports and photos meet common formatting requirements — visible expiration dates, correct photo dimensions, unobstructed machine-readable zones — and flags issues before a caseworker spends time on a submission likely to be rejected. This replaced a fully manual review process where caseworkers frequently caught formatting issues only after already starting to process an application. All final judgment on document acceptability stays with the caseworker; the tool only pre-screens for common, objectively identifiable issues. Caseworkers at a visa assistance service frequently caught passport and document formatting issues only after already starting to process an application, wasting time on submissions likely to be rejected. We built a computer-vision tool automatically checking scanned passports and photos against common formatting requirements — expiration dates, photo dimensions, machine-readable zones — flagging issues before a caseworker invests time, with final judgment always staying with the caseworker. We catalogued the most common formatting rejection reasons from the service's own past applications, then built pre-screening checks specifically targeting those failure modes. The tool ran alongside manual review for several weeks to confirm it caught the same issues caseworkers already knew to look for. The rate of visa applications rejected for preventable document formatting issues dropped by an estimated 35%, avoiding costly delays for clients and saving caseworker time on submissions likely to fail.